Exhibiting America

Todays post comes from Delphine Douglas, class of 2018 and Art Center Multimedia Student Assistant.

On Friday, February 12th, Dr. Anna Marley ’96 came to Taylor Hall to give the opening lecture for the American Stories exhibition.  Mr. Mundy introduced his former student Dr. Marley, who graduated from Vassar and is the curator of historical American art at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art. In her lecture called Exhibiting America: Art Institutions and National Identity, 1805-1913, Dr. Marley pointed to the many similarities between the works on view at PAFA and those in the American Stories exhibition. These connections emphasized the relevance of the works in the exhibition as examples of important movements in American art. Her lecture also served as a good introduction to many of the individual paintings in the “People,” “Places,” and “Moments” galleries. Below are three of Dr. Marley’s comparisons, including one work from each gallery of the exhibition.

Moments: Both collections feature a work by George Inness that exemplify his interest in infusing his landscapes with spirituality, as well as a change in American painting away from the stylistic tradition of the Hudson River School.

Places: Dr. Marley described the importance of the Hudson River School in American art history and told the audience how she acquired an Albert Bierstadt painting for the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, which she compared to the Bierstadt in the American Stories exhibition.

People: Both the American Stories exhibition and the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art feature the work of Rembrandt Peale, a very successful portrait artist, and the son of Charles Wilson Peale, who founded the PAFA.