Ralph Wormeley Curtis

Ralph Wormeley Curtis, born in Boston, spent most of his life in Europe, working as a painter in the Impressionist style. He studied law at Harvard, and co-founded The Harvard Lampoon in 1876. Upon graduating, he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under Boulanger and Lefebvre, and after completing his studies he took a position at the studios of Carolus-Duran. The Curtis family moved to Venice in 1878, and the Palazzo Barbaro would become a cultural meeting place frequented by guests including Sargent, Whistler, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Sarah Bernhardt. Curtis, his wife, and his daughter eventually moved to Beaulieu-sur-Mer, where the artist died in 1922.