'A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony' opens at Museum of Women in the Arts

The Nordic light crashes through the window like a diva in a china shop -- pushing everything aside, demanding its presence be known. It is the first thing a viewer notices when looking at Anna Ancher's painting, "Sunlight in the Blue Room." You barely see the golden-haired girl sitting in a pinafore on the edge of her chair: She tends to blend in with the furniture, which seems to be arranged to face the light streaming through a window, casting a block of lighter blue on an ocean-blue wall.