Now here's someone you don't see every day: A female Surrealist. Kay Sage led an interesting life, what with being married to a prince, leaving him and taking up with those wild Surrealists in WWII Paris. (I hadn't known that both she and Yves Tanguy were still married to other people when they got together.) Surrealism isn't exactly my favorite thing - having more to do with the usual drab colors than the subject matter - but I really admire Kay for elbowing her way into what was essentially a "Boys Only" club. She was good, too - and it couldn't have been easy for her to constantly be overshadowed by Tanguy, no matter how much she loved him. Yep, the old man/woman thing gets even dicier when two artists are involved, as if the whole business needed any more dicing.

Kay is here profiled thanks to Nadine Granoff, a provenance researcher (with exquisite taste in art) based in Washington D.C. She works for independent curators, commercial galleries, auction houses, private collectors and lawyers, tracking down original records at the Smithsonian Archives, National Gallery Library, Library of Congress, and National Archives. (Sounds like a wonderful way to earn a living!) Here is Nadine's email address, in case you need top-notch help researching a piece's provenance. Thanks so much, Nadine, for your fabulous suggestions!

Today (August 18) in Art History:

Guido Reni (Italian Baroque painter), died in 1642