A painter, etcher, and expert on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American art, Albert Rosenthal studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Munich, and in Paris with Jean-Léon Gérôme. Although his paintings consist mostly of portraits-many depicting historically important American political and military figures-he also rendered modern life images in the realist mode of the Ashcan School, such as Millinery. The subject in this painting tries on one of the large Duchess-style hats popular in the early 1910s, choosing it over the bonnet displayed on the table. Her considered decision-making reflects the importance women once placed on their hats, as statements of social status. (Degas, Manet, and Pissarro also painted this subject.) In 1919, Rosenthal's Millinery was illustrated in Vogue magazine with the caption: "A clever bit of work, spontaneous and vivid and handled with a light sure touch was 'Millinery.'" Rosenthal exhibited the work in the following year with the title In Seal and Sable and gifted it to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1924, after its inclusion in the museum's annual exhibition.
Albert Rosenthal was born in Philadelphia in 1863 and was known as a painter, etcher and lithographer. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art under his father Max Rosenthal; the Académie Julian, Paris in 1980; l'École des Beaux-Arts under Jean Leon Gérôme, and also in Munich. Rosenthal was a member of the Washington Art Club, Salmagundi Club, Charcoal Club in Baltimore, the Locust Club in Philadelphia and the American Federation of Art.
He received a bronze medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and a bronze medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, 1915. Rosenthal also exhibited at the Salon of Independent Artists in 1917 and the Salons of America. He is represented in the Brooklyn Museum, Butler Art Institute in Youngstown, Ohio, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kansas City Art Institute, Detroit Institute, St. Louis Museum, Dallas Art Association, Rhode Island School of Design and the Newport Art Association.