Gertrude Fiske: American Master is an exploration of an artistic virtuoso considered to be one of the most talented and bold painters of her time. Trained and influenced by the premier Boston Impressionists Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank W. Benson, Philip Leslie Hale, and Charles Woodbury, Fiske surpassed conventional expectations through her personal élan to create a singular body of work both daring and riveting. Fiske, a Boston native, spent her summers in Ogunquit, Maine, and often painted in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the greater Seacoast. Published to accompany a loan exhibition at the Portsmouth Historical Society, this catalogue delves into the breadth of her work. Containing more than sixty works of art drawn from many private and public collections, this exhibition--the first devoted to Fiske in more than thirty years--features several paintings that have never been published and others that have been recently conserved.To help put Fiske in context, a companion exhibition, "Sisters of the Brush and Palette," includes works of art by several of Gertrude Fiske's contemporaries-- Susan Ricker Knox, Margaret J. Patterson, and Anne W. Carleton--to lend a deeper understanding of women artists at the dawn of their independence in this country. This component examines the social and political energy around women's rights at the turn of the twentieth century that encouraged a new autonomy and personal ambition, attitudes translated to bolder ideas and execution on canvas. Seacoast Masters Today features four contemporary local artists who are making their name with the same initiative and vitality as Fiske and her peers: Amy Brnger, Donna Harkins, Sydney Bella Sparrow, and Pamela duLong Williams.