The Portrait: The Original Facebook

*See credit below post

Two centuries separate these portraits of two young women, but seeing them side by side today generates many questions around the idea of the portrait and what it says about changing notions of American girlhood.

What does each portrait tells us about the subjects’ world?

Their personalities?

The expectations each had for her life, or that society had if her?

What qualities do these women share?

What do their hair, dress, and setting suggest why their portrait was made?

Reynolda House has collected portraits from our staff and digital community to further draw out this interesting comparison. Please share your observations, comments, and own portraits on our Facebook  page or tweet us at @CurateReynolda #Affinities.  

Affinities II: Pairings from the Collection

Through August 4, Reynolda House Museum of American Art presents Affinities II: Pairings from the Collection in the Northeast Bedroom gallery. The crux of this small exhibition of six works from the Museum’s collection is the comparison of two works in order to deepen a viewer’s understanding of each individual piece. The exhibition asks: What do we learn by comparing one artwork to its companion?

CREDIT FOR TOP IMAGE: Left: Joseph Blackburn (c.1720– c.1778), Elizabeth Browne Rogers, 1761, oil on canvas, 49 1/2″ x 39 1/2″, Original Purchase Fund from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, ARCA, and Anne Cannon Forsyth, 1967.2.5 Right: Fairfield Porter (1907–1975),Keelin Before the Reflected View No. 2, 1972, oil on canvas, 60″ x 62.” Courtesy of Barbara B. Millhouse, IL2003.1.27.