Your clues this week are:

• The artist was American, active in the 19th-century, and did not initially train to be a painter.
• Although best known today for pictures of water -- ocean shorelines, rivers, waterfalls, and lakes -- it was a monumental landscape that cemented the artist's reputation.
• The artist was a founding member and trustee of a museum whose original ground floor is now a Tommy Hilfiger store.

And


• The view here is part of what we call the Appalachian Trail, although neither the cows, the sheep, the dog, nor the boy are hiking its 2,184 miles. Why? The Appalachian Trail didn't exist yet. Not even as a euphemism for visiting one's mistress in Buenos Aires.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

One part of last week's clues seemed to throw readers off. Specifically, "The artist was an American, but wasn't born in the United States of America." Now, the artist was Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) and the sitter was Henry Clay (1777-1852). The artist was born in Maryland, but you may note that his year of birth was 1741 ... when the Province of Maryland was still a British colony. Excellent detective work, Susan! You sent the first correct answer.

Your clues this week are:

• The artist was an American, but wasn't born in the United States of America.
• A prolific painter and contributor to the gene pool, the artist created over 1,000 portraits and 16 offspring -- 11 of whom survived to adulthood.
• Besides art, our artist was also proficient in the areas of militia captain, saddler, taxidermist, political radical, watch maker, carpenter, legislative representative, silversmith, abolitionist, optometrist, upholsterer, museum founder, naturalist, sign painter, dentist, and spouse (by virtue of having married three times).

And


• The sitter in this portrait was elected to both houses of Congress, served as the Secretary of State, was the first person to lie in state in the United States Capitol, and, perhaps most importantly, introduced the mint julep to Washington, D.C.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

I was happy that Alain was the first to respond correctly to the clues last week. He knew that the artist was Melchor Perez de Holguin (Bolivian, ca. 1665-after 1732) and this painting, Saint Michael Archangel (1708), is supposed to show the War in Heaven. (I still think it would have been helpful if Holguin had painted ... oh, I don't know ... adult-sized legs on the sword-wielding Michael, since he is battting Satan, who is super powerful and probably fights dirty, but that's just me.) Bravo to you and your persistence, Alain!

Your clues this week are:

• The Hispano-American Baroque artist was born in colonial Alto Perú, in a town named "lake-open plain" if one uses the regional variant of Quechua. However, most of the artist's life was spent in a fabulously wealthy town at the foot of Cerro Rico -- also in Alto Perú. Incidentally, "Alto Perú" went the way of the Dodo in 1824.
• Some claim that the artist's teacher was Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), but there is no evidence that the artist traveled to either Seville or Madrid. It is more likely that the artist saw engravings of Murillo's work.
• The artist was held in high regard for the ability to emphasize facial features. This was fortunate, I think, because you may have noticed that something went horribly, horribly wrong between this figure's torso and ankles.

And


• Speaking of the anatomically challenged figure, he looks a bit blasé. Considering that he is trying to kick a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns off of his turf, he might want to at least act interested.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

The clues last week led many readers astray to the corner of O'Keeffe and Hartley -- two artists we all adore, even though they were incorrect guesses (this time). Llyn, however, was right on the money with Raymond Jonson (1891-1982) and his Cliff Dwellings, No. 3 (1927). Jonson co-founded the Transcendental Painting Group in 1938, "Transcendental" being the Kant reference. No one mentioned the Yellowstone Caldera for bonus points but, considering its eruption would be the stuff of nightmares, perhaps no one wants to think about it. Anyhow, a big standing ovation for Llyn, and hang in there Alain!