It’s Day 5 of the Antique of the Day takeover by @peabodyessex!
This portrait of Abigail Pickman Ropes was commissioned by her sister Sally Fiske Ropes Orne in 1839, the year of her death, and painted by local artist Charles Osgood. Abigail was carrying hot coals from one room to another when her dress caught on fire, causing severe burns. She suffered from these burns for about three weeks before she passed away. Based on the records in PEM’s collection, Orne paid Osgood $40 dollars for this portrait and an additional $7 for a death mask – a plaster cast of a deceased person’s face. The practice of painting a portrait from a death mask was common at the time. Before photography, it was a way of posthumously capturing someone’s likeness under the circumstance of a sudden death. Abigail’s portrait is one of several posthumous portraits in PEM’s collection. See this portrait in-person and visit Ropes Mansion when it opens for the season on Saturday, May 27! Visitors can purchase a ticket for timed, self-guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am–4 pm, now through mid-October at pem.org
Charles Osgood, Portrait of Abigail Pickman Ropes, 1839. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Trustees of the Ropes Memorial, 1989. R750. Peabody Essex Museum.
#AntiqueOfTheDay #Portraiture #CharlesOsgood #RopesMansion
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New Episode of Curious Objects is up! 👂
Ben speaks with Ellery Foutch, assistant professor of American studies at Middlebury College, about a “relic Windsor chair” assembled by Henry Sheldon (founder of the Middlebury museum named in his honor) in 1884. This unique piece of furniture was built with fragments of wood salvaged from structures with local or national significance—such as the warship Old Ironsides, the William Penn House in Philadelphia, and a colonial whipping post.
Click https://bit.ly/2YqyRxX to listen! ✨
Time was, many top interior designers sought to conjure a perfectly seamless décor—whether it be all Louis XV furniture, all early American, or all modern. The results could be beautiful—but also somewhat boring, and certainly impersonal. Interior decorator Thomas Jayne suggests another way to put together the spaces we live in: by using creative combinations of striking art and objects from across time to derive a style that’s endlessly evocative, livable, and fresh. In this episode, Ben Miller gets the goods from Jayne on the history of interiors (from the Greeks to the present day); what to budget first; and the spirit of “democratic decoration,” that, historically, has animated American interiors.
Click https://rb.gy/wan5ch to listen. 👂
A stately home in Scarsdale, New York, decorated in 1994 by Jayne Design Studio. Photograph by Pieter Estersohn.
#jaynedesignstudio https://www.facebook.com/JayneDesignStudio/
In mid-May, two paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe sold at auction, one in each of the world’s top sales rooms. Green Oak Leaves fetched $1.15 million at Sotheby’s, while Autumn Leaf with White Flower brought nearly $5 million at Christie’s. This month on our Curious Objects podcast, we bring you Reagan Upshaw—critic, dealer, appraiser, and all-around bon vivant—to expound on the lovely filaments, sepals, and stamens of O’Keeffe's oeuvre. For good measure, he tosses in a couple of choice anecdotes from his time in the trade (and just a wee bit of market talk). 🌸
Click https://rb.gy/net0ec to listen. 👂
At left: Green Oak Leaves by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), 1923. Photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s, New York.
At right: Autumn Leaf with White Flower by O’Keeffe, 1926. Photograph courtesy of Christie’s, London.
#CuriousObjects #GeorgiaOKeeffe
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded an interracial labor program in Wisconsin that employed over five thousand women to craft handmade goods: the Milwaukee Handicraft Project. Especially noteworthy among the rugs, quilts, costumes, and books that the women produced is a run of exquisitely crafted and clothed toddler-sized dolls. Host Benjamin Miller learns from scholar Allison Robinson about how these dolls—made to represent different ethnic groups both foreign and domestic—provide insight into New Deal–era debates over women’s labor, race, and cultural nationalism . . . and into the origins of Barbie and American Girl.
Click https://rb.gy/vakqm6 to listen! 👂
Polish girl doll and American girl doll made by the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, Wisconsin, c. 1939–1942. Collection of Charles Waisbren; photograph by Waisbren, courtesy of Allison Robinson.
New episode out now! Click https://rb.gy/taaokl to listen. 👂
The technique of reverse-painting was introduced to China in the late 1600s by its European trading partners, who manufactured and shipped the plate glass necessary for its production. By the middle of the following century artists specializing in producing images for foreign markets were well-established at China’s primary international port, Guangzhou, or Canton, as well as the capital of Beijing.
In this episode, Corning Museum of Glass curator Christopher Maxwell introduces a superlative example of this transnational art. The circa 1784–1785 painting depicts a bullish scene on the Zhujiang River, with junks and sampans crowding the wharf in front of the famous “hongs” (warehouses) flying the flags of Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
@corningmuseum @objectiveinterest #CuriousObjects #CuriousObjectsPodcast #InSparklingCompany #CorningMuseumOfGlass
🚨 Our latest Curious Objects episode is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Soundcloud. 🚨
Our host, Ben Miller, speaks with executive producer Sam Pollard and director Jeffrey Wolf about "Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts," distributed by Kino Lorber and available in virtual theaters via Kino Marquee. This new documentary tells self-taught artist Bill Traylor’s story on film for the first time. 🎥
Click https://rb.gy/pdsxzr to listen! 👂
Image: Untitled (Dog Fight with Writing) by Bill Traylor. Smithsonian American Art Museum, © 1994 Bill Traylor Family Trust.
@kinolorberinc @billtraylorchasingghosts #BillTraylor #BillTraylorChasingGhosts #CuriousObjects
Curious Objects listeners - are you excited for the episode tomorrow? 👂
Get your ears ready as our host, Ben Miller, speaks with executive producer Sam Pollard and director Jeffrey Wolf about "Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts," distributed by Kino Lorber and available in virtual theaters via Kino Marquee. This new documentary tells self-taught artist Bill Traylor’s story on film for the first time.
Tickets are available now for digital and in-theater releases. 🎥
While you wait for the episode to drop, click the link https://rb.gy/xd2kni to read an article from our archives and find a link for a reduced price ticket! ✨
Image: Untitled (Legs Construction with Blue Man) by Bill Traylor, c. 1940-1942. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum, © 1994, Bill Traylor Family Trust.
@kinolorber @billtraylorchasingghosts @objectiveinterest #BillTraylor #BillTraylorChasingGhosts #CuriousObjects
Curious Objects listeners are in for a treat this Wednesday, 4/5 - watch this space for more information. 👀
Hint: It's about Bill Traylor (pictured above). ⬆️
A sharecropper born into slavery, Traylor was in his 80s when he moved to the city of Montgomery, Alabama and began drawing scenes from life and memory on paper and scraps of cardboard. He became America’s most admired and beloved self-taught artist. 🎨
Fans of Traylor's work – and anyone else interested in learning more about his story - will be glad to hear of the new documentary film about the artist: "Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts." Tickets are available from art cinema distributor Kino Lorber for digital and in-theater releases. 🎥
Click https://rb.gy/xd2kni to read an article from our archives and find a link for a reduced price ticket! ✨
Image: Photograph of Bill Traylor by Albert Kraus. Collection of Tommy Giles.
@kinolorberinc @billtraylorchasingghosts #BillTraylor #BillTraylorChasingGhosts
The Association of Art Museum Directors killed something of a sacred cow last year when it ruled that museums will be permitted to use funds from deaccessioned artworks—previously strictly controlled—to pay for a wider array of institutional costs. On the occasion of this year’s virtual Philadelphia Show art and antiques fair, Ben Miller speaks with the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s director and CEO Timothy Rub about the AAMD’s ruling and the ripple effects it might have throughout the museum world. In a wide-ranging conversation, which gets into the nitty gritty of collecting and deaccessioning habits and procedures, as well as fundraising niceties, Rub makes a strong case for continuing to keep the departments of museums—and their fundraising efforts—firmly separated.
Click https://rb.gy/sdepfj to learn more! ✨
#curiousobjectspodcast #curiousobjects #philamuseum #thephiladelphiashow
