Ocean State Libraries

"When her seventeenth summer solstice arrives, Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron. Growing up in the southern kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions - art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge - Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna's...

The Easter presents that Russia's last two czars gave to their czarinas have become synonymous with privilege, beauty, and an almost provocative uselessness. They are perhaps the most redolent symbols of the old empire's phenomenal craftsmanship, of the decadence of its court, and of the upheavals that brought about its inevitable downfall. Faberge's Eggs is the first book to recount the remarkable story of these masterpieces, taking us from the circumstances...

From literary polymath Suzanne Loebl (the author of ten books, most recently the acclaimed America's Art Museums) comes the captivating, first-of-its kind exploration into the philanthropic and cultural legacy of one of America's wealthiest and most influential families: The Rockefellers. Fueled by John D. Rockefeller's vast petroleum fortune, the entire family's terrific passion for the arts transformed the artistic infrastructure of twentieth century...

In the 1960's and 1970's, American professor Norton Dodge forayed on his own in the Soviet Union, bought the work of underground "unofficial" artists, and brought it out himself or arranged to have it shipped illegally to the United States. John McPhee investigates Dodge's clandestine activities in the service of dissident Soviet art, his motives for his work, and the fates of several of the artists whose lives he touched. The Ransom of Russian Art...