Dinosaur bones may not exactly fall into the category of art, but you wouldn't be the first artist to be intrigued by dinosaur bones.

In 1801, a mastodon specimen was discovered near Newburgh, N.Y., and the portrait painter Charles Willson Peale was called in to assist. Peale, the polymathic "artist of the American Revolution," brought along his son, Rembrandt, to assist, and together they excavated an almost complete skeleton.

You won't find Peale's mastodon in Pittsburgh, but you will find a mastadon along with a mamoth and other prehistoric creatures. They all seem to be roaming around a new landscape.

I'm thinking of the book "Why Cats Paint" and wondering what the result would be if one of these creatures had tried their paw, claw or hoof at art. Anyway, I'd hate to clean that litter box.

The exhibit reopened this weekend at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. take your scetch pad. MORE PHOTOS

A Philadelphia auction is offering several original photographs by William Rau. Its not hard to find examples of Rau's work on stereoview cards or in books. Rau may be best known however as a photographer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rau captured the industrial encroachment of the natural landscape as well as the Scalp Level painters captured the absence of it.

Rau was hired in 1890 by the Pennsylvania Railroad and in 1899 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, for which he produced a series of views from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. He also recorded the Johnstown flood and the 1904 Baltimore fire. It reminds me of the commissioned work by George Innes in the National Gallery. Rau was no run of the mill company photographer, however. The artistic value of his work rivals many landscapes painted by well-known Pennsylvania painters.

Some of Rau's extrordinary landscape photography can be seen at LACMA in LA, the Cleveland Museum of Art, MOMA and a large collection is on view at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto (a short and scenic drive from Pittsburgh).

The earliest homes in Pittsburgh that still stand date to around 1830. Since demolished from this period was “Picnic House” built around 1835 by William Croghan and Mary Croghan Schenley, the granddaughter of James O’Hara. The ballroom from Picnic House is now in the Cathederal of Learning.

Several pieces of furniture exist from the house including a chair at the Heinz History Center and a recamier at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The Carnegie also has a matching recamier and nine other chairs. The pieces have not been identified as being produced in Pittsburgh, and while convention would suggest they came from New York, it was at least technically possible furniture of this quality could have been produced in Pittsburgh.

Our first evidence is a Pittsburgh Cabinetmakers Style guide from 1830 that shows furniture with charateristics of that being produced both in New York and Philadelphia. A copy of the guide is at the Winterthur Library.

It would of course take a skilled painter to create the designs on the furniture from Picnic. There is evidence there were a number of skilled painters skilled at ornamentation, portraits and signage in Pittsburgh at that time.

Most notable of the painters in Charles Lambdin who adverised in 1824 as having been trained by Thomas Sully. A painter named J. Cook advertised himself as a portrait painter as early as 1811. Also in 1811, J. T. Turner advertised all sorts of painting and even lessons. Most notably Turner reports that he was lately of New York. Joseph Jenkins advertised his services as a portrait painter in 1824 and R. B. Harris advertised himself as an ornamental painter in the 1830s. I have no evidence to show that portrait painters like Lambdin ventured into painting ornamentation on furniture, but technically they would likely have the necessary skill and we know other painters, such as Edward Hicks, painted decoration on carriages. Painting then was often seen more as a skilled craft, like cabinetmaking, than a fine art.

The other feature on the furniture from Picnic is gilt and “gilt bronze” as it is referred to in literature at the Carnegie. However, Wendy Cooper in her book "Classical Taste in America" referring to the chair refers to Egyptian ornaments as “cast brass.” I learned recently that what is called "gilt bronze" is usually brass, in chandeliers anyway, so that may be the case here. Inspection of the chaise lounge at Carnegie does appear to have gilt. There were a number of foundaries in Pittsburgh early on, as well as silversmiths and other craftsman who might have been able to produce these ornaments on demand. They could also have easily been imported from Boston or England.

The structure is maple, grain painted to look like Rosewood.

The Carnegie currently has a show "Popular Salon of the People: Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annuals at Carnegie Museum of Art, 1910–2006" which contains several works by Pittsburgh artist Johanna K. Hailman. Known for painting flowers, Hailman also apparently tried her hand at painting steel mills. Her work along these lines hangs in the show near the master of the Pittsburgh mill, Gorson.

I hadn't been aware of Hailman until recently when I came across her while researching Pittsburgh furniture. Her father, Joseph Ryan Woodwell was also an artist, and her grandfather was a cabinetmaker.

Woodwell operated a furniture workshop and wareroom in Pittsburgh until 1845 when he sold his interest in the business and went into the hardware trade. The hardware store continued to operate until 1954. A Pier table by Woodwell is on display at the Heinz History Center.

The show also includes the work of Lila Hetzel, the daughter of Scalp Level painter George Hetzel.

In conjunction with the 97th Associated Artists of Pittsburgh exhibition, "Popular Salon of the People" is a historical survey featuring the work of more than 75 notable artists who have participated in the annual survey shows. The show includes John Kane, Malcolm Parcell, Aaron Gorson, Samuel Rosenberg, Raymond Cimboli, Marie Kelly, Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, and Jonathan Borofsky.