Jane Peterson’s introduction to the Spanish Impressionist Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida in 1908 was the pivotal event of her career. Peterson had achieved measured success and received a number of invitations to publicly exhibit her work, but a chance meeting with F. Hopkinson Smith along the canals of Venice and his enthusiastic recommendation to Sorolla to meet the young artist and even take her under his wing would prove auspicious. Sorolla examined the work and agreed with Smith’s assessment. The Spaniard worked with Peterson over the coming years, with a consistent message: that Peterson take a more daring approach to both palette and brushwork, the very attributes that make her work desirable today. (http://www.msfineart.com/artists/jane-peterson/)