House of Venus

Label

A graduate of Oberlin College, Rosemarie Beck played violin professionally into the 1960s, when she suffered a hand injury and turned to painting. The violin on the table reflects her past career, while other objects—a figurine, a vase of flowers, and a ceramic pot on a draped cloth—symbolize Beck’s love of painting. Adopting an impressionistic approach and replicating Antoine Watteau’s famous 1718 Pierrot at the upper left, Beck places herself within a long line of innovative artists. The open books in the foreground reveal her continuously searching, curious mind and knowledge of art historical styles and trends. Beck was artist-in-residence at Dartmouth in the spring of 1992.

From the 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

SART 31, SART 72, Painting II, III, Colleen Randall, Spring 2013

WRIT 5, Expository Writing, William Craig, Winter 2014

SART 31, 72, Painting II, III, Jennifer Caine, Winter 2019

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/Painting III, Colleen Randall, Fall 2019

SART 76, Senior Seminar, Jennifer Caine, Winter 2020

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/Painting III, Colleen Randall, Spring 2020

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Colleen Randall, Spring 2022

SART 31.01/SART 72.01, Painting II/III, Tom Ferrara, Fall 2022

Studio Art 31.01/72.01, Painting II/III, Jen Caine, Winter 2023

Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Jen Caine, Spring 2023

Studio Art 31.01/72.01, Painting II/III, Colleen Randall, Spring 2023

Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Jen Caine, Fall 2023

Studio Art 25.02, Painting I, Tom Ferrara, Winter 2024

Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Jen Caine, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 2024 - late 2025.

In Residence: Contemporary Art at Dartmouth, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 18-July 6, 2014.

Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 11-December 19, 2004.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.215, no.299.

Michael R. Taylor and Gerald Auten, In Residence: Contemporary Artists at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2013, ill. p. 85, no. 74

Provenance

The Rosemarie Beck Foundation, Waterville, Maine; sold to present collection, 2004.

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Subjects