A single mother with no formal training in art, Sandra Lepore was determined to challenge the industry's norms. She bought her first painting, a William Merritt Post, in 1977 for $45, and for the past twenty years has owned a gallery in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where she specializes in New England art and late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European art.
Lepore has always found pleasure in seeking out "great things." This has led to her discovery of some extraordinary individual pieces, among them a lost Gretchen Rogers painting, Girl Reading, and Mending the Ruffle by Rosamond Smith Bouve. She has also been responsible for reviving interest in artists and paintings overlooked or forgotten through the years. She hosted the first retrospective on Carl William Peters (1897-1980) long before he was a la mode. In 1996, she curated the first Laura Coombs Hills (1859-1952) retrospective and spearheaded the publication of a catalogue, which won a prize for design from the New England Museum Association.
Lepore loves the process--through careful research and detective work--of defining artists within the historic context of their times. "My work," she observes, "is about history and the intrinsic beauty of a work, and not just about dollars and cents."
Beauty does indeed reside within her gallery. On one recent day, a luminous 1861 William Bradford hung resplendently across from an early Edmund Tarbell, two paintings from her varied inventory that will be appearing at the upcoming Newburyport Antique Show on August 23 and 24.
Despite running her own gallery, Lepore has managed to explore the farthest reaches of the world, traveling to East Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, collecting tribal artifacts and wisdom along the way.
Lepore Fine Arts, Hortons Yard, 58 Merrimac St., Newburyport, Mass. Tel. 978.462.1663. Fax. 978.462.8847. Hours: Wed.-Sat. 10 to 5, or by appointment.
|
