Finishing touches 

James Jebusa Shannon's painting shows us a lady putting the finishing touches to a painting. The image is awash with turn-of-the-century cultural references. We see here an intimate portrait of a woman artist in the late 19th century. At this time, women were entering artistic professions, usually portraiture, and the artist’s focus on a female artist may be a comment on the changing roles of women within institutions of art at the time. The painting offers an insight into the social and cultural history of art production as well as an intimate portrayal of a woman's creative pursuit. To understand the artwork more fully, we might consider looking at gallery catalogs, private correspondence and family records. After all, art is meaningful in the context of time, place, and the institutions that bring it into being.