Winterthur Museum & Country Estate is the exclusive venue of a significant new exhibition, “Faces of a New Nation: American Portraits of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The exhibit will remain on view through January 24.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases a variety of fine works at Winterthur that portray the men, women and children of early America as painted by some of the young nation’s finest portraitists, including John Smibert, John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Charles Willson Peale and Samuel F.B. Morse. “Faces of a New Nation” features 39 paintings.
The exhibition consists of masterpieces across a span of nearly 150 years. They range from those created by the first immigrant limners at work on these shores to those of highly professionalized artists who undertook commissions in the country’s major cities just before the Civil War.
Curated by Carrie Rebora Barratt of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, the exhibition allows visitors to study the faces of men and women who tell viewers not only about themselves, but about the American past.
The collaboration between the Met and Winterthur is a reflection of the longstanding relationship between the two museums. Morrison H. Heckscher, chairman of the Met’s American Wing, is a member of Winterthur’s Board of Trustees and a Winterthur Fellow, having completed his graduate degree in the Winterthur/ University of Delaware American material culture program.
“Sending a complete show to Winterthur is really a sign of our respect and friendship,” says Barratt.
“It is a tremendous honor for Winterthur to host this exceptional collection of portraits from the Met,” says J. Thomas Savage, director of museum affairs at Winterthur.
“We deeply appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and are so pleased to be able to share these wonderful paintings with visitors to Winterthur. The portraits in ‘Faces of a New Nation’ also provide a strong connection to the paintings in Winterthur’s collection, many of which will be highlighted in a special tour of the house that we will offer throughout the run of the exhibition,” he said.
An eponymously titled catalog related to the exhibition, written by Carrie Rebora Barratt, is available for sale in the Winterthur Museum Store and Bookstore for $14.95.
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate is on Route 52. For more information, 800-448-3883, 302-888-4600 or www.winterthur.org .
