Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring

This biography follows Laura Wheeler Waring from childhood, when she saw neither artists nor painted subjects who looked like her, to her work as a portrait artist. While studying art in Paris, she drew inspiration from Matisse and Gauguin and began painting people she knew. Later, the Harmon Foundation commissioned portraits of accomplished African Americans. Her work includes a portrait of Marian Anderson, and her portraits remain in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.