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The Promised Land - The Grayson Family

William S. Jewett

Date: 1850

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.79

Text Entries: William S. Jewett, the first artist established in California, depicted pioneer, artist, and naturalist Andrew Jackson Grayson with his family at the moment they first caught sight of the Sacramento valley. Posing the figures as a holy family, Jewett also likened the California landscape to the Promised Land, a metaphor for westward expansion.

Young Boy Holding a Bow and Arrow with a Drum on the Floor

William Matthew Prior

Date: by 1856

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.123

Text Entries: Brothers-in-law and portrait painters, William Matthew Prior and Sturtevant J. Hamblin lived together with their families in Boston by 1841. Many portraits have been attributed to both artists because they worked in a generally similar style and in close association in their shared workshop. Artists depicted toys to distinguish the gender of the child since boys and girls often wore the same style of clothes. Usually toys included in portraits of boys were associated with the world of adult males, for example, whips, wagons, or bow and arrows as shown in this portrait. Popularity of manufactured and handmade toys increased in the mid-nineteenth century reflecting the acceptance of child's play-previously considered idle activity.

Portrait of Peter J. De Smet

George P. A. Healy

Date: 1865

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Estabrook

Object number: C1983.5

Text Entries: Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Text p. 70; ill. p. 70 (color). Re: Chicago. (exh. cat. DePaul Art Museum). Chicago, Illinois: DePaul University, 2011. Text, p. 60, ill. fig. 21 (color).

Ready for a Walk

William Merritt Chase

Date: c. 1885

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.26

Text Entries: An accomplished portraitist, Chase depicts the young model woman posed for action: dressed for an outdoor excursion with one foot forward she stands on the brink of movement. Her fashionable attire bespeaks her social standing yet Chase opts not to include any additional "props." Set against a monochromatic background and barely casting a shadow, she stares out from the canvas with a self-assured directness and an expression of intelligence. A captured moment before posed inactivity turns to action, Chase's canvas can serve as a study of the changing social expectations of the nineteenth-century woman, and in this sense it achieves Chase's goal of expressing "a perfect type of American womanhood."

Self-Portrait

Lilla Cabot Perry

Date: c. 1889–96

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.107

Text Entries: Known first as a close friend of Monet and a champion of Impressionism in the face of her native Boston's early misgivings, Lilla Cabot Perry also built a successful career as an artist. Perry, who described herself in 1889 as no less than "[a]rtist and woman, daughter, mother, wife," displayed resourcefulness and determination in establishing herself as a painter of portraits and landscapes. She was a published poet and the mother of three when she enrolled for her first formal art course in 1884. As an art student in Paris, she grew frustrated with the crowded conditions and teachers' lack of interest at well-known ateliers such as the Academie Julian, and opted to attend Alfred Stevens' select and conservative studio for ladies. When an exhibit of Monet's work at a Paris gallery inspired her to abandon an academic style for the bold color experiments of Impressionism, she relocated her family to Giverny, where they spent ten summers between 1889 and 1909. While she and her husband, a literary scholar, circulated with eminent members of Boston society such as novelists Henry James and William Dean Howells, they were not wealthy; throughout her life the sale of Perry's art works provided a needed source of income for her family. In these two poised self-portraits Perry presents herself in her contrasting but coexistent roles as professional artist and society matron. In the earlier portrait, Perry depicts herself capably at work, standing upright before her canvas with squared shoulders and chin aloft, her gaze intently directed toward an object or person to the viewer's right. Depicted at a greater distance, the ornately dressed Perry of the second portrait stands elevated above the viewer, her face mostly veiled in shadow. Her clothing in each work communicates differently; the loose work smock and bow tie of the first portrait are not gender-specific, unlike her elaborate fur-trimmed gown and hat in the later work. While both figures exude confidence, the later work resembles many fashionable turn-of-the-century portraits of women by American artists such as John Singer Sargent and Frederick MacMonnies in its mood of lush solemnity. It offers no indication that the elegant woman pictured is also the creator of the image, and appeals to the viewer through the figure's mysterious rather than commanding presence.

Madelaine

Thomas Wilmer Dewing

Date: c. 1890

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.45

Text Entries: Exceptional in Thomas Wilmer Dewing's oeuvre in that its title identifies the hired model, the painting of Madelaine is a perfect example of late-nineteenth-century work whose female subject appealed to many artists and art collectors. Typical of the style for which Dewing is lauded, the painting's meaning is rooted in its female subject; it is a meditation on beauty associated exclusively with the feminine sphere. The figure inhabits a private world far from the hustle and bustle of the era's burgeoning urban areas. Dewing eschews an academic or scientific approach, and the canvas, with its softened forms and hazy colors, becomes a study of mood, evocative of otherworldly delights and fancies. In contrast, John Graham uses the subject of woman as a springboard for formalist concerns such as color and composition. Graham began painting at the late age of thirty-six and his abstracted forms reflect his belief that "Art is always a discovery, revelation, penetrating emotional precisions, space and color organizations." Similar to Madelaine, Graham's female subject offers her profile for contemplation; yet angular and stylized, it reflects Graham's interest not in European classicism but rather in African art-a source of inspiration for many artists of the era. Depicted in a sardonic pose of modesty and coyness, the nude female figure becomes the modernist's coquette. An additional touch of irony appears in the work's title-The Green Chair-which attempts to draw the viewer's attention away from the nude female, undermining her importance as a subject.

Rose et Vert, l'Iris: Portrait of Miss Kinsella

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Date: begun 1894

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1987.32

Text Entries: Hamel, Maurice. "Les Salons de 1904, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts." Les Arts 29 (May 1904): 12–23. Text p. 16; ill. p. 19. Athenaeum (May 7, 1904): 598. Text p. 598. An Illustrated Catalog of the Whistler Memorial Exhibition. (exh. cat., New Gallery). London, England: New Gallery, 1905. Ill. p. 99. Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Joseph Pennell. The Life of James McNeill Whistler. 2 vols. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1908. Vol. 2: text pp. 157–58, 187, 279. Sickert, Bernhard. Whistler. London, England: Duckworth & Company, 1908. Text pp. 34-35, 39–40, no. 127, p. 168. Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Joseph Pennell. The Life of James McNeill Whistler. 2 vols. Rev. ed. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911. Vol. 1: text pp. 321–22. Vol. 2: ill. p. 19. Cary, Elisabeth Luther. The Works of James McNeill Whistler. New York: Moffat Yard & Company, 1913. Text p. 215. Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel. James McNeill Whistler. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1924. Ill. n.p. Rothenstein, William. Men and Memories: Recollections of William Rothenstein. 3 Vol. London, England: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1931–1939. Text pp. 79–80. Sutton, Denys. Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler. London, England: Country Life, Ltd., 1963. Text p. 128. The Aesthetic Movement and Cult of Japan. (exh. cat., The Fine Art Society). London, England: The Fine Art Society, 1972. Ill. no. 67, p. 19. Dunstan, Bernard. "Whistler Portrait of Miss Louise Kinsella." The Artist 84 (January 1973): 158. American Painting. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company, Inc.). New York: Davis & Long Company, Inc., 1974. Ill. no. 34 (color). Gathorne-Hardy, Robert, ed. Ottoline at Garsington: Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell 1915–1918. London, England: Faber, 1974. Text p. 264. Wattenmaker, Richard J. Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition. (exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario). Toronto, Canada: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1975. Ill. pp. 151–52. Bulletin of Chrysler Museum at Norfolk 4:6 (June 1975): n.p. Ill. n.p. Dunstan, Bernard. Painting Techniques of the Impressionists. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976. Ill. p. 99. Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, and Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles. The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1980. No. 420, p. 187; pl. 258 (black & white). New York Times (October 23, 1983). Ill. (black & white). Nochlin, Linda. Woman. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Evanston, Illinois: Terra Museum of American Art, 1984. Text p. 7; ill. no. 19, p. 21 (color). Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-41, p. 150 (color). Spencer, Robin, ed. Whistler: A Retrospective. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989. Text p. 344; pl. 101, p. 312 (color). Reymond, Nathalie. Un regard américain sur Paris (An American Glance at Paris). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 99; ill. p. 96 (color). Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 17, 34 (checklist); ill. p. 55 (color). Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 17, 34 (checklist); ill. p. 55 (color). Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Text pp. 24–25, 78; ill. p. 79 (color). Lecomte, Vanessa, editor. Portrait of a Lady : peinture et photographies américains (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text (checklist) p. 95.

Portrait of Theodore Earl Butler

William Howard Hart

Date: 1897

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund and Gift of Harlan J. Berk

Object number: 2003.2

Text Entries: Love, Richard H. Theodore Earl Butler: Emergence from Monet's Shadow. Chicago, Illinois: Haase-Mumm Publishing Company, Inc., 1985. Text p. 174; pl. 25 (color). Gerdts, William H. Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1993. Fig. 178, p. 215 (color). Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 15, 32 (checklist); ill. p. 57 (color). Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 15, 32 (checklist); ill. p. 57 (color). Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. p. 84 (color). Bourguignon, Katherine M. et al. Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915. (exh. cat. Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text p. 207 (checklist); cat. p. 148 (color). Bourguignon, Katherine M., Shunsuke Kijima and Sanjiro Minamikawa. Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism. (exh. cat. Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, and The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art). Fukuoka, Japan: The Nishinippon Shimbun, 2010. Text cat. no. 64, pp.15, 127 (in Japanese), 18, 188 (in English); ill. fig 9, p.11 (black & white), 127 (color). <br.

Mabel Conkling

Frederick MacMonnies

Date: 1904

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.88

Text Entries: Regally arrayed in white lace with a feathered chapeau, Mabel Conkling (1871-1966) stands in front of the extraordinary blue-green tapestries found in MacMonnies' Giverny studio. Conkling and her husband David Paul Conkling (1871-1926) were students of the sculptor-turned-artist and were frequent guests at Le Moutier. Presumably commissioned by the couple, since it remained in the Conkling family, the painting required fourteen sittings for completion-an implication of MacMonnies' desire for perfection in his art. Despite family legend that the portrait was painted in MacMonnies' New York studio in Macdougal Alley, Greenwich Village, records show that the portrait was painted in July and August of 1904 in Giverny.

Portrait of Thomas J. Eagan

Thomas Eakins

Date: 1907

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund

Object number: 1998.1

Text Entries: A man stands in a three-quarter pose in front of a dark background. His eyes are turned toward the source of light which illuminates his face, and he seems indifferent to the viewer. His dark suit, tightly knotted tie and glasses give the impression that he is an intellectual. His blue eyes attract our attention without revealing his thoughts. Considered one of the most important artists of the second half of the 19th century, Thomas Eakins helped create a truly American pictorial realism. Following his academic training, first in Pennsylvania, then in Paris, in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme, between 1866 and 1869, Eakins dedicated himself to the representation of the human figure and to portraiture in particular. The painter was largely influenced by his European predecessors and was also an ardent photographer. However, he quickly distinguished himself by accepting very few commissions and by only choosing his models from among his friends, colleagues or students. Such is the case with Thomas Eagan, a close friend pictured here twenty-five years after their first meeting. This portrait is typical of the artist's work towards the end of his career, when he moved away from tradition by portraying members of the American middle class with objectivity and sincerity.

Nude Girl, Miss Leslie Hall

George Bellows

Date: 1909

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund

Object number: 1999.5

Text Entries: A symphony of paint, this larger-than-life portrait displays George Bellows' predilection for capturing an individual's psychological state of being. Bellows makes no attempt to romanticize or sentimentalize his depiction of the (hired) model Miss Leslie Hall. His "fleshy" rendering, in fact, achieves quite the opposite effect-she appears more real than ideal. This is further emphasized by Bellows' inclusion of shoes, a ring and hair accessory on Miss Leslie Hall; she becomes "naked" and not "nude," in contrast to Robert Henri's symbolic female in Figure in Motion. Removing her body from the privileged status as a canonical work of art to the realm of the "real," Bellows created a psychological portrait of a woman whose direct gaze confronts the viewer.

Portrait of a Lady Holding a Rose

Thomas Wilmer Dewing

Date: 1912

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.46

Text Entries: "Americans at Montross.”American Art News 10 (April 13, 1912): 2. Text p. 2. Special Exhibition of Recent Pictures. (exh. cat., Montross Gallery), New York, New York: Montross Gallery, 1912. Text no. 4, checklist (as Lady Holding a Rose). Paintings in Hartford Collections. (exh. cat. Wadsworth Atheneum), Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Athenaeum, 1936. Text p. 19, cat. no. 41 (checklist, as Woman in Green). "Americana." Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (December 6, 1956): lot 172 (as Lady in Green). A Loan Exhibition: Thomas W. Dewing, 1851–1938. (exh. cat., Durlacher Brothers), New York, New York: Durlacher Brothers, 1963. Text cat. no. 18 (checklist) (as Lady in Green). American Art from Alumni Collections. (exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery, 1968. Ill. no. 130 (as Lady in Green). From Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and His World. (exh. cat., Wildenstein and Co., New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art). New York: Trustees of Columbia University, 1971. Text pp. 71–72, no. 65; pl. 58 (black & white, as Lady in Green). The Arts of the American Renaissance. (exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries). New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1985. Text p. 32; ill. p. 33 (color, as Lady in Green). Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Ill. p. 184, pl. T-75 (color, as Portrait of a Lady in Green). Portrait of a Lady Holding a Rose, Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 1990. Ill. (black & white). Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 39–40; ill. fig. 29 (black & white). Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 39–40; ill. fig. 29 (black & white). Hobbs, Susan A. The Art of Thomas Wilmer Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured. (exh. cat., The Brooklyn Museum). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. Text p. 183–84; ill. p. 183, cat. no. 47 (color). Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 132, 194; ill. pp. 12 (color), 132 (color), 133 (color), 194 (black & white). Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 132, 194; ill. pp. 12 (color), 132 (color), 133 (color), 194 (black & white). Merrill, Linda, ed. After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting. (exh. cat., High Museum of Art). New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003. Text p. 176; ill. p. 177, no. 34 (color). Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation. (exh. cat., National Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. (Chinese and English version; citing English version). Text p. 156; ill. p. 159, fig. 73 (color). Davidson, Susan, ed. Art in the USA: 300 años de innovación. (exh. cat., Guggenheim Museum Bilbao). New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chicago, IL: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Ill. p. 131 (color). Lecomte, Vanessa, editor. Portrait of a Lady: peinture et photographies américains (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text p. 94; ill. p. 38 (color). Weisberg, Gabriel P. et al. The Orient Expressed: Japan's Influence on Western Art, 1854–1918. (exh. cat., Mississippi Museum of Art). Jackson, Mississippi: Mississippi Museum of Art, 2011. Ill. p. 175, cat. no. 73. Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865-1945. (exh. cat. Shanghai Museum with Art Institute of Chicago and Terra Foundation for American Art). Shanghai: Shanghai Museum, 2018. Text p. 50; ill. p. 51 (color). Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text pp. 170, 171; ill. p. 171, detail pp. 172–173 (color). Mey-Yen Moriuchi. The Drop Sinister: Harry Watrous' Visualization of the One-Drop Rule. Art Inquiries, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, 2020. Text, p. 27; ill. p. 27, fig. 6 (black & white).