Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art

Images: 
Abbott Handerson Thayer, Angel, 1887, Oil on canvas; 36 1/4 x 28 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum; Gift of John Gellaty
Edward Lamson Henry, Kept In, 1889, Oil on canvas; 14 x 18 inches, Fenimore Art Museum

Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art
Opens September 2012 at the Newark Musem

Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art is a major traveling loan exhibition, which is the first to examine nineteenth-century depictions of girls in paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs. Featuring approximately 80 masterworks by John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Cecilia Beaux and William Merritt Chase, the exhibition analyzes the myriad ways that artists vigorously participated in the artistic and social construction of girlhood while also revealing the hopes and fears that adults had for their children. While the sentimental portrayal of girls as angelic, passive and domestic was the pervasive characterization, this project also identifies and investigates compelling and transgressive female images including tomboys, working children and adolescents.

Organized by Dr. Holly Pyne Connor, Curator of Nineteenth-Century American Art, Angels and Tomboys debuts at the Newark Museum from September 12, 2012 to January 7, 2013, and will then travel.

http://www.newarkmuseum.org/angelsandtomboys.html