Art Eyewitness Review: Whistler's Mother at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

The Artist's Mother: Whistler and Philadelphia

Philadelphia Museum of Art

June 10 - October 29, 2023

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

It's been a long interlude between visits. The last time Anna Matilda McNeil Whistler - or rather her famous portrait - came to Philadelphia was 142 years ago. The occasion was an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts of the painting by her son, now universally called Whistler's Mother. 

A.K.A. Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother, the celebrated painting by James McNeil Whistler is back in the City of Brotherly Love. A true icon of American art, Whistler's Mother highlights a special exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, organized by Jennifer Thompson, the museum's curator of European Art. The exhibit will be on view until October 29, 2023. 

It is important to note that the official designation of Whistler's Mother, noted above, is actually the anglicized translation of its French title, Arrangement en gris et noir n° 1. That is an important distinction since the French government bought the painting in 1891, ten years after its first sojourn in Philadelphia. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

James Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black:

 Portrait of the Artist's Mother (1871)

Arrangement en gris et noir was the first acquisition of a painting by an American painter for the Louvre's collection. Initially, it was put on display in the Luxembourg Museum, until Whistler died twelve years later. The galleries of the Louvre were reserved for deceased artists, who were deemed worthy to share the museum walls with Leonardo, Watteau and Gericault.

Thanks to a far-sighted French art critic, Gustave Geffroy (one of the first to appreciate Cezanne, as well), James Abbott McNeil Whistler (1834-1903) joined the company of the "immortals" of art in the Louvre. And, as we will see, the help of Anna Whistler was of crucial importance for securing the fame and fortune of her son!

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

Gallery view of Whistler's Mother at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Whistler's Mother is now the center of attraction at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But it shares the stage with eight other works of art focusing on the theme of motherhood. Each of the eclectic cast of major artists, Cecilia Beaux, Henry Ossawa Tanner, John Sloan, Dox Thrash, Alice Neel and Sidney Goodman, follows Whistler's lead, but in their own unique way. 

All the artists have Philadelphia backgrounds, with the exception of a Venetian engraver, Francesco Novelli (1764-1836) who skillfully copied an etching by Rembrandt of his mother. Novelli's etching is believed to have influenced Whistler when he painted his mother's portrait in 1871.

 

Francesco Novelli (1792), after Rembrandt's 

The Artist's Mother Seated, in an Oriental Headress, 1631

Arrangement in Grey and Black received indifferent reviews during its exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art (PAFA) in 1881. The museum directors refused to purchase the painting, which, surprisingly, was for sale. Whistler was deeply in debt, following his disastrous libel suit against John Ruskin. Another effort to find a buyer likewise failed, this time in New York.

It is ironical for a painting which has come to symbolize Motherhood, that Whistler was "shopping" his mother's portrait around the U.S., looking for a sale. 

Anna Whistler had died on January 3, 1881, only a short time before Whistler returned to the U.S. from England. One would have suspected that Whistler would try and keep this painting, of all his oeuvre, as a testimonial to his beloved mother. Not so! Whistler exhibited a baffling, mercurial mix of emotions, making it difficult to probe his true feelings. 

In fact, Whistler had posed his mother only when the young woman he was scheduled to paint that day failed to appear.  Rather than discard a prepared canvas, Whistler decided to use it for a portrait of his mother.

Anne Lloyd, Photo(2023)

James Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black (detail)

It's a sobering thought that Whistler's Mother began its storied career as an "also ran."

Anna Whistler was accustomed to her son's mood swings and changing priorities. She had supported her dear "Jemmie" with long-suffering patience, including his dismissal from the United States Military Academy. But even her forbearance had limits. 

After several days of standing for her portrait, the exhausted Anna insisted on sitting down. Whistler changed the orientation of the painting, with results which, thanks to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we can now study close at hand.

Anne Lloyd, Photo(2023)

 Jennifer Thompson discussing the kimono wall hanging depicted in James Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black

As the artistic skill devoted to his portrait of his mother began to stir popular interest, Whistler professed himself bemused:

Take the picture of my mother, exhibited at the Royal Academy as "an Arrangement in Grey and Black." Now that is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?

The "public" in America responded to Whistler's portrait of his mother with ever -increasing regard. In part this was due to the fact that the French had anointed the painting as worthy of the Louvre. But nostalgia played a major role, too. The U.S. in the 1890's was undergoing massive social changes, many very unsettling. Frontier America was passing, the big industrial cities taking its place. A symbol of bedrock national values was needed. What better image, representing the moral absolutes of the U.S.A., could there be than a painting of an American mother?

Anna McNeil Whistler provided the human face, even if painted in profile, to the movement to create a national holiday in honor of American mothers. The first Mothers Day was celebrated in 1908 and, in 1934, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp, graced by a rather sanitized reworking of Whistler's Mother. 

Neither the artist or his mother were acknowledged by name on the stamp. To make matters worse, a vase of flowers was added to the image of the unidentified matriarch. Then, along with a sentimental inscription, appeared the incredibly crass notification: three cents.

Whatever value the U.S. Postal Service placed on motherhood, Philadelphia artists responded very quickly and favorably to Whistler's Mother, following its display at PAFA in 1881. The current exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art brilliantly underscores the influence of Whistler on succeeding generations of American artists. But the crucial point of this legacy is that none of these later works of art is a direct "quotation" of Arrangement in Grey and Black. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo(2023)

Henry Ossawa Tanner's Portrait of the Artist's Mother (detail)

The work which most closely follows Whistler, is Henry Ossawa Tanner's Portrait of the Artist's Mother, but there are major differences.

Tanner saw Arrangement in Grey and Black in 1881. He was a student at PAFA at the time. Tanner then went to France for further study, eventually settling there. He would have seen Whistler's increasingly famous painting at the Luxemborg, as well.

In 1897, during a trip home to Philadelphia, Tanner posed his own mother for a portrait. The warm tones of brown, amber and the golden fabric of the shawl evoke feelings of life and well-being, in contrast to the somber, almost funereal, hues of Whistler's painting. Likewise, the relaxed, meditative gaze of Tanner's mother creates a mood vastly different from the frozen profile of Anna Whistler.

Anne Lloyd, Photo(2023)

 Jennifer Thompson discussing Cecilia Beaux's early masterpiece,

The Last Days of Childhood, 1883-1885

Sharing the gallery wall with Tanner's Portrait of the Artist's Mother is Cecilia Beaux's The Last Days of Childhood. Painted over the course of two years, 1883-85, this deeply moving work of art established Beaux's reputation as one of America's premier artists.

The Last Days of Childhood shares enough elements of setting and composition with Arrangement in Grey and Black that we can be fairly certain that Beaux saw and studied the Whistler painting during its display at PAFA, where she was taking classes. Beaux, a strong-willed and immensely talented young woman, later asserted that she had not been influenced by Whistler. But the evidence points to the contrary.

At the press preview, Jennifer Thompson discussed the "backstory" of The Last Days of Childhood. The protagonists of Beaux's painting were her elder sister, Etta, and Etta's son, Henry. That would seem to technically disqualify Beaux's painting from inclusion in an exhibition dedicated to artists and their mothers, but Thompson detects a strong affinity with Whistler's masterpiece.

Indirectly, Beaux's mother is very much present in the The Last Days of Childhood. The French title of the painting uses the word "enfance" and the translation might more appropriately be The Last Days of Infancy. That is certainly in keeping with Henry's age and Beaux's own life story.

Beaux's mother had died when her infant daughter, Cecilia, was only twelve days old. Beaux directed her sister to wear a black dress for the painting sessions. According to social conventions in America at the time, such attire was a sign of mourning. However, Etta, unlike Anna Whistler, was not a widow. The black dress may therefore be interpreted as a memorial of their long-dead mother.

Anne Lloyd, Photo(2023)

Cecilia Beaux's The Last Days of Childhood (detail)

What really impressed me about The Last Days of Childhood is Beaux's ability to reprise the narrative of the entire work in "a painting within the painting." This is her astonishing treatment of the hands of the child, resting on those of his mother, which are folded over his body in an embrace of enduring love. Childhood may be passing but the bond of mother and son will never break. 

Following the progression of magisterial paintings from Whistler to Beaux and Tanner, the exhibition shifts gears to three smaller works, Sunday Morning by Dox Thrash (c. 1939), Aritist's Mother I by Sidney Goodman (1994) and Mother by John Sloan (1906). The works by Thrash and Sloan are etchings, Goodman's is a charcoal and pastel drawing on cream paper.

Dox Thrash, Sunday Morning, c. 1939

 Sidney Goodman, Aritist's Mother I, 1994

John Sloan, Mother, 1906

This trio may appear to be quite a "comedown" from the preceding oil paintings, but careful study validates their inclusion in the exhibition. All three are "arrangements in gray and black" worthy of Whistler's color scheme. Yet, the emotion-based sentiments underpinning each of these works of art is what merits them a place in the exhibition.

Dox Thrash created this loving image of his mother, Ophelia, on her way to church, shortly after she died in 1936. Thrash's mother, like Whistler's, is shown in profile, but there is an incredible degree of mobility in this etching, a sense of serene progress through life which the many obstacles placed across his mother's path could never impede.

The works by Sloan and Goodman present the two faces of motherhood which  linger in the memories of their children. Sloan shows lively, animated interest in the expression of his mother, no doubt listening to the latest news about his life and career. Goodman's drawing, showing his mother arise from her sick bed, depicts the heroic efforts of ill, elderly mothers to keep living, keep striving on behalf of their loved ones.

Goodman's Artist's Mother I sets the stage for the final work of art in the exhibition, Alice Neel's Last Sickness (1953). The painting is a loving, yet unsparing examination of the effect of age and illness on an "alert, tart woman" as Neel described her mother, who died the following year.

Those fortunate to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's sensational 2021 exhibition of Alice Neel's paintings will recall numerous examples of Neel's clear-eyed empathy for people of all ages and races, but especially those sick in body and in spirit. For those who were unable to visit the Met's Alice Neel: People Come First, the magnificent portrait on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art provides the opportunity to see a life of artistic genius distilled into one superlative work of art.

 Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

 Alice Neel's Last Sickness, 1953 

The look of recognition of life's short span which we see on the face of Alice Neel's mother brings The Artist's Mother exhibition full circle. Anna Whistler's face, seen in profile, betrayed no such emotion. But no one knows what she was thinking, as her son fumed and muttered about the difficulties he faced to get the look he wanted on the canvas.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

 Gallery view of The Artist's Mother: Whistler and Philadelphia

Some commentators say that Anna Whistler was praying during the painting sessions that "Jemmie" would succeed with his portrait. If so, her prayers were answered.

So too, are the prayers of those - like me - who never had an opportunity to view Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother in person. Seeing this magnificent painting is like being accorded an audience with a queen or a beloved author or actress.

My wife, Annie, said it best, during a pause in her picture-taking.

"When you enter the gallery where Whistler's Mother is displayed, you just don't go to see it," Anne said. "You are admitted into her presence."

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves. Original Photos: Copyright of Anne Lloyd.

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) James Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother (detail), 1871.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) James Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother. Oil on canvas: 144.3 x 162.5 cm (56 3/4 x 64"). Musée d'Orsay, Paris, RF 699.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Gallery view of The Artist's Mother: Whistler and Philadelphia exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Francesco Novelli (Italian, 1764-1836) After Rembrandt van Rijn's The Artist's Mother Seated, in an Oriental Headdress: Half Length, 1792. Etching: 5 1/4 x 5 1/16 inches ( 13.4 x 12.9 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-42-4413

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Jennifer Thompson of the Philadelphia Museum of Art discussing the kimono wall hanging depicted Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Henry Ossawa Tanner's Portrait of the Artist's Mother (detail), 1897. Oil on canvas: 29 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches ( 74.3 x 100.3 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art  EW1993-61-1

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Jennifer Thompson of the Philadelphia Museum of Art discussing Cecilia Beaux's early masterpiece, The Last Days of Childhood, 1993-85.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Cecilia Beaux's The Last Days of Childhood, 1883-85. Oil on canvas: 116.2 x 137.16 cm (45 3/4 x 54 inches). Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 1989.21

Dox Thrash (American, 1893–1965) Sunday Morning, around 1939. Etching: 8 7/8 x 8 inches (22.5 x 20.3 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1941-53-378

Sidney Goodman (American, 1936-2013) Artist's Mother I, 1994. Charcoal and pastel on cream wove paper: 52 3/4 x 41 3/16 inches (134 x 104.6 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009-216-1

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) John Sloan's Mother, 1906. Etching:  9 x 7 1/2 inches (22.9 x 19.1 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1956-35-73f

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Alice Neel's Last Sickness, 1953. Oil on canvas: 30 x 22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003-148-1

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Gallery view of The Artist's Mother: Whistler and Philadelphia exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art..

Art Eyewitness Book Review: How Art Can Change Your Life by Susie Hodge

How Art Can Change Your Life 

by Susie Hodge

Thames & Hudson/$19.95/191 pages

Reviewed by Ed Voves

While reading Susie Hodge's new book, How Art Can Change Your Life, the lyrics of one of the songs from the 1980's musical, Barnum, came to mind.

Bigger isn't better                                                                                        Taller isn't braver                                                                                        Stronger isn't always wise

Smaller isn't necessarily the lesser                                                                Guts can come in any size

The song lyrics were entirely appropriate given the book's surprisingly small size -  191 pages - and the audacious scope of its subject. 

How Art Can Change Your Life deals with human emotions and the many challenges to our identity and well-being. Susie Hodge sets herself the daunting task of showing how appreciating great works of art can help address the problematic situations which plant themselves in the path of our journey through life. That took a lot of courage on Hodge's part, a lot of "guts."

How Art Can Change Your Life, it should be noted, is not a lightweight "pocket book." However, I was a bit surprised at the comparative brevity of Hodge's new book, given her recent Thames and Hudson publications. Art in Detail (2016) tipped the scales at 432 pages. Modern Art in Detail, published the following year, covered the century since Vincent van Gogh in 336 pages. Both  were large format volumes, lavishly illustrated, with a unique design allowing for key aspects of major paintings to be analyzed and understood by the general public.

"Bigger isn't better," Tom Thumb proclaims in Barnum and Hodge proves him right.

How Art Can Change Your Life presents 72 masterpieces of art, mostly paintings, beginning with Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes and extending to contemporary artists like Yinka Shonibare. These are examined thematically in twelve sections dealing with vital issues such as confronting anxiety, relieving stress, overcoming sorrow, inspiring self-reflection and embracing happiness.

Each of the 72 entries in How Art Can Change Your Life consists of a full-color illustration of the masterpiece and one-page commentary. 

       Page display from How Art Can Change Your Life, showing          Aelbrecht Bouts' The Mater Dolorosa, mid-1490's

The basic format of each text entry begins with an illuminating quote, followed by a succinct artist biography and an analysis of the work. The commentary concludes with a reflection on how understanding the respective masterpiece might help deal with one of the many psychological or spiritual problems we face in the disturbing world of the twenty-first century.

All of these tasks are accomplished on a single page. Like the Wanderer above a Sea of Clouds by Caspar David Friedrich, we need to travel light in the quest of How Art Can Change Your Life.

Hodge begins the book with a short, three page introduction. As readers familiar with the "In Detail" books will know, Hodge is a master of concise, informative prose and an able stylist. In this brief intro, she incorporates moving quotes from some of the artists whose works are later analyzed. She follows with findings from scientific studies on the cognitive and emotional effects of looking at art and then sets the stage for the bold venture into art appreciation in the succeeding pages.

Yet, at the starting gate, Hodge almost stumbles. The first topic she deals with is the most difficult: dissipating anger. Hodge deserves credit for her sincere attempt to provide constructive channels for anger management. But to try and get a "grip" on explosive human emotions in six brief art critiques is to risk falling back on formulaic responses or suggestions, such as the following: 

Feelings of anger can be reduced or neutralized by making a list of things to be grateful for, or focusing on what is good in life.

This is quite sensible advice and, from the standpoint of anger prevention, it is wise counsel indeed. But once the flashpoint of anger is reached, I doubt that Hodge's good intentions will be of much help.

Moreover, two of Hodge's choices of art works to be examined in conjunction with anger are very problematical. Pipilotti Rist's car-window smashing video, Ever is Over All, seems an act of fomenting violence or enjoying it vicariously. Whatever Rist's motives in making her protest in defiance of modern mechanized society, its inclusion in How Art Can Change Your Life strikes me as inappropriate to the goals of the book.

The other unsettling work of art is so famous and controversial - especially in the last few decades - that an entire book might not be enough to it justice. This is Artemesia Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofernes, painted around 1620.

Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1620

If ever an artist had a right to be angry or to try and vent her rage with a powerful work of art such as this, it was Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-c.1656). Yet, her life's meaning is not to be comprehended by concentrating on this painting at the expense of the rest of her oeuvre. 

After being raped by her father's colleague and then outrageously abused by the legal tribunal investigating the crime, Gentileschi went on to paint other masterpieces, which are sadly less familiar than this one. Judith Beheading Holofernes appears over-and-over in art history books. 

Thus, Gentileschi's story illustrates Hodge's theme of utilizing art to overcome anguish or anger. But the inclusion of this celebrated depiction of violence detracts from grasping that point. It would have been far more in keeping with the spirit of How Art Can Change Your Life to have used one of Gentileschi's later works, notably her moving, visionary self-portrait now in the Royal Collection in Great Britain.

Once Hodge moves beyond the contested ground of anger-dissipation, How Art Can Change Your Life is on firmer ground. That does not mean that Hodge avoids dangerous or difficult situations to rack-up debating points in support of her thesis. Throughout this fine book, Hodge looks at great works of art in conjunction with many of history's most harrowing ordeals.

With keen insight, Hodge reminds us that Claude Monet could hear the barrages of World War I artillery as he worked to depict the effect of light and shadow on the lily pond and gardens of his private paradise of Giverny. 

Claude Monet, The Japanese Footbridge, 1899

Through all the turmoil of war, Monet waged his own private battles, as well, contending with family loss, cataracts and old age. In doing so, Monet "created a sense of peace around him...This enabled him to reset and overcome his anxiety." 

Like Monet, Paul Klee used his art as a shield against stress, in his case of the most direct and oppressive form. Driven from his teaching position at the Dusseldorf Academy by Nazi aggression, Klee created his own, interior Giverny. During the last years of his life, Klee painted over 1,000 works of art, each an affirmation of the creative spirit vs. the soulless mindset of totalitarianism.

Paul Klee, Red Balloon, 1922 

Klee's response to adversity is a process available to us too, as Hodge notes :

...Klee was a Transcendentalist, and one aspect of transcendentalist belief is that the material world is only one of several realities and that creativity comes from beyond consciousness. Klee used the process of making art as meditation, saying that it helped him live in an "intermediate world."

This is precisely the situation of millions of people today, shadowed by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the growing fear of global warfare. 

Hodge continues her reflections on Klee with a discussion of Post-Traumatic Growth through which "people who have suffered extreme stress use the experience to enhance and appreciate life and also learn to embrace new opportunities..."

This is a brilliant illustration of Hodge's skillful pairing of incisive art analysis with thoughtful suggestions for life-enhancing activities.

Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830-32

Many of the art works Hodge selected are "old friends" from museum visits or hours spent leafing through exhibition catalogs. Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa appears in the topical section on "creating energy." It is a curious placement, given that Hodge envisions this fabled work as a "vision of human fragility and defencelessness..."

Energy is the keynote of Under the Wave off Kanagawa - of nature and of humankind. When your boat is about to be swamped - literally or metaphorically - you row all the harder. And you create all the more. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) composed LeMer (1903-05) with the imagery of  Hokusai's masterpiece ever in his mind.

The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) is another work studied in How Art Can Change Your Life. It is one of the highlights of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I am fortunate to see this work frequently and I never cease to be amazed and inspired.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2021)

Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation 

on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Annunciation, in which the Virgin Mary is informed by the Angel Gabriel that she will be the mother of Jesus, is one of the most ancient subjects of Christian art. Here Tanner re-envisions the sacred scene in terms of startling, psychological drama. Gabriel appears as "pillar" of fire, pure energy rather than a humanized form. Mary, is surrounded by bands of deep, rich color, These represent a fabric screen, rugs and blankets but exert a similar effect to the ethereal color blocks of Mark Rothko.

All of this visual alchemy took place in 1898, years before the radical stages of Modern Art began. Yet the most revolutionary feature of Tanner's Annunciation - and the reason it appears in Hodge's section on empathy - is that Tanner depicted Mary as Jewish girl with dark Middle Eastern ethnic features at a time when Jews were facing racial and religious prejudice.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2021)

Detail of Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation

It was a bold step - but one based on personal experience. Tanner was an African-American artist who, as a student, had experienced discrimination himself.  Fortunately, Tanner became the protege of Thomas Eakins and received support from Rodman Wanamaker, of the famous department store fortune. None-the-less, Tanner was risking the esteem of his White patrons by painting the Virgin Mary as a young Jewish woman.  

Choosing Henry Ossawa Tanner's Annunciation was a masterstroke on the part of Hodge. Just as The Annunciation is an example of empathy in action, so too is How Art Can Change Your Life.

One could - and should - treat Susie Hodge's How Art Can Change Your Life as a "tract for the times." But given the genuine worth of this inspiring, provocative volume, it will, I believe, prove a "ready-reference" book to be consulted and cherished for a long time to come.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved  Original Photos: Copyright of Anne Lloyd                                                                                          

Cover art and page display from How Art Can Change Your Life © Thames & Hudson 

Introductory Image: Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774-1840) Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, c. 1818. Oil on canvas: 94.8 cm × 74.8 cm (37.3 in × 29.4 in.) Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Artemesia Gentileschi (Italian, (1593-c.1656) Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1620. Oil on canvas: 146.5 cm × 108 cm (57 2/3 × 42 1/2 in.) Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) The Japanese Footbridge, 1899. Oil on canvas: 81.3 cm × 101.6 cm (32 × 40 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Paul Klee (Swiss-German, 1879-1940) Red Balloon,1922. Oil on gauze on board: 31.7 cm × 31 cm (12 1/2 × 12 1/4 in.) Guggenheim Museum, New York City.

Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760-1849)Under the Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830-32. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper: 25.7 cm × 37.9 cm (10 1/8 × 15 in.) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2021) Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation, 1898. Oil on canvas: 144.8 cm × 181 cm (57 × 711/4 in.) Philadelphia Museum of Art

"Awakened in You" African American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

"Awakened in You": the Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

February 21, 2020–July 12, 2020

Reviewed by Ed Voves
Original photography by Anne Lloyd

There are so many reasons to celebrate the latest exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) that it is hard to know where to start.

"Awakened in You" does not merely represent the opening of another landmark exhibition at the historic art school and museum. The 75 works on view are part of a major collection of paintings and sculptures by African American artists. The works of art selected for the exhibit will join the permanent collection of PAFA's museum once "Awakened in You" closes in July 2020.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)

Laura Wheeler Waring's The Study of a Student, ca. 1940s 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)

Gallery view of the "Awakened in You" exhibition at PAFA

Any time a museum receives a major bequest like this, it is a truly significant event. 

The magnitude of the "Awakened in You" collection is enhanced by the fact that it represents an African American success story demonstrating the importance of inspired community leadership in the arts. The exhibition also testifies links to PAFA's commendable role in aiding and encouraging African American artists.

The "Awakened in You" paintings and sculptures were collected by Dr. Constance Clayton, who was the Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia from 1982 to 1993. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Dr. Clayton was the first African American and the first woman to take on the challenge of directing the city’s schools. 

With the aid of her mother, Mrs. Williabell Clayton, Dr. Clayton set about building a collection which would document the great achievements of African Americans in the visual arts.  From the post-Civil War landscapes of Edward Bannister (1828-1901) to Romare Bearden's bold reworking of Classical mythology in the light of the African American experience, virtually every significant African American artist is represented in "Awakened in You."

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)

 Edward Bannister's Untitled (Landscape with Water and Sail Boat), 1885 

              Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Romare Bearden 's Odyssey Series, ca. 1970s            

As a measure indicative of just how important the donation of the "Awakened in You" collection is to PAFA, Dr. David Brigham, President and CEO of PAFA, and Brooke Davis Anderson, Director of the PAFA Museum, served as the curators of this exhibition.
Perhaps even more significantly, the exhibition team included Ms. Sarah Spencer, a charismatic and knowledgeable assistant curator.

  Dr. David Brigham & Ms. Brooke Davis Anderson introduce Ms. Sarah Spencer (center)  at the "Awakened in You" exhibition at PAFA

In their introductory remarks, Brigham and Anderson stressed the importance of “mentoring” in the past practice and contemporary mission of PAFA. Mentoring is more than just teaching or passing the secrets of the “trade” to apprentice workers. Rather it is a process by which future leaders are accorded the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skill. Judging from her dynamic participation in the press preview, Sarah Spencer has amply fulfilled her role in the “mentoring” process at PAFA and in the African American art community.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  
Ms. Sarah Spencer, Assistant Curator of the "Awakened in You" exhibition 

The display of magnificent paintings and sculptures collected by Dr. Clayton begins with a series of nature studies by a long time teacher at PAFA, Louis B. Sloan (1932-2008). These are displayed at the foot of the grand staircase of the PAFA Museum and at first glance appear to be conventional, “weekend” paintings. Indeed, some of them were painted on weekend art excursions when Sloan took student groups to the nearby Wissahickon Park, some of which is quite rugged terrain, and farther afield to more distant countryside around Philadelphia.

                                       Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)                               

Louis B. Sloan's Landscape with White and Yellow Wild Flowers

Sloan was a beloved teacher and a brilliant painter. His finished works ranged from highly accomplished realism in Backyards (1955) to the almost abstract landscape of Frost Valley in the Catskills (1995). Both of these works are part of PAFA's collection. I was astonished when I realized that this John Constable-like nature study had been painted by the artist who did the dazzling Frost Valley!

There a subtle message to the placement of Sloan’s small landscape series. Many of the artists included in the second floor exhibition galleries of “Awakened in You” were graduates of PAFA or had worked in the WPA art programs of the Depression-era Philadelphia. They had to establish their “creds” with works like these nature studies. No artist can claim a spot on the gallery walls of PAFA without climbing the “steps” of practice, experimentation, of inspiration-dripping with perspiration.

Upon entering the “Awakened in You” galleries, you quickly realize just how hard these African American artists worked and how brilliantly they integrated their life experience into the powerful works on view.

Among the first works on art on view in the exhibition galleries are portraits of family members and friends, testifying to bonds of love and relationship which enabled African Americans to endure privation and prejudice for so many years, indeed centuries.

Laura Wheeler Waring's engaging group portrait, Four Friends, painted around 1940, and Barkley Hendrick's Head of a Boy, which introduces this review, evoke childhood as close to an ideal state, yet tinged with a degree of melancholy.
                                                                                                                                        
                            

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Laura Wheeler Waring's Four Friends, ca. 1940s 

In the wall text which accompanies Four Friends, Sarah Spencer comments on the serious underlying message to what otherwise might be accounted an exercise in "mere" portrait painting. Spencer notes:

Four Friends celebrates Black youth and the innocence of childhood in a world that often sees Black children as a threat. Waring captures joy in its purest form, emphasizing its necessity for Black children’s survival and the ability to fully claim their humanity.

Beyond their evident charm, of these two works of art, assert the human dignity of the young people who posed for their portraits. These works - and many others collected by Dr. Clayton - challenge our preconceptions of the artists. 

Barkley Hendricks later created his "brand" of art, bold, full-length portraits of cool, savvy men and women. They posed, at ease with themselves and proud of their flamboyant "70's" clothing. Hendrick's later portraits strike such a chord that the sensitive drawing of the pensive, young boy takes us off-guard.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Barkley Hendricks' Head of a Boy (detail)

The skillful handling of a limited range of colors, highlighted by deft touches of light blue on the boy's forehead, the mastery of drawing - all these proclaim an "old master" status for the artist. If it comes as a surprise that Barkley Hendricks created this portrait, and not John Singer Sargent, it should not do so.

Hendricks graduated from PAFA - he studied with Sloan - and so did Waring. There is a strong, Philadelphia regional element to the "Awakened in You" collection. Philadelphia-based Dox Thrash, one of the greatest print makers of mid-century America, is well-represented in the exhibition, though in a unconventional way. The selection of his works on view includes a nude, a controversial African American genre given its connotations with slavery. Thrash was on more sure ground with his arresting portrait of a man wearing red suspenders.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  

Dox Thrash's Portrait of Male with Red Suspenders (detail)

Dr. Clayton, however, looked beyond Philadelphia in her collecting efforts.

There are two drawings in "Awakened in You" by the great Chicago artist, Charles White, on view and a strong showing showing of works by Harlem Renaissance artists. I was particularly impressed by the woodcuts of James Lesesne Wells (1902-1997). The ironically entitled, Primitive Girl, is actually an amazingly sophisticated work, skillfully incorporating American folk art themes with the dignity of the bronze portrait sculptures of Benin.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  

James Lesesne Wells's Primitive Girl, 1927

In terms of the artists of the Harlem Renaissance, Augusta Savage was surely the most influential, in terms of her leadership and teaching. Her own work as a sculptor was of the highest quality but Savage often lacked the funds to have her clay originals cast in bronze. 

   Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  

Augusta Savage's Gamin

The version of this iconic work, which Clayton was able to purchase for her collection, is one of three sculptures which anchor the "Awakened in You" exhibition. The other sculptures, both bronze casts, are Richmond Barthé's Head of a Dancer, created around 1940, and May Howard Jackson's Slave Boy, 1899. 

Another cause for celebration is the high quality of the wall texts which accompany many of the art works on display. Exhibition visitors, myself included, often skim through the comments from unseen, unheralded curators. That is perhaps unavoidable given the need to focus on the art works. But PAFA has gone the extra-mile to commission especially cogent mini-essays to help art lovers grasp the historical setting and aesthetic value of these works of art. 

Some of these wall texts were written by the PAFA curators, as we saw with Sarah Spencer's reflections on Four Friends. For the superlative etching  by Henry Ossawa Tanner, extremely perceptive brilliant insights were provided by Mr. Teddy R. Reeves,  Assistant Curator of Religion, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Henry O. Tanner's Mosque,Tangier, ca.1910 

Tanner's subject is a mosque in Tangier, Morocco. Reeves, however, affirms that it is the "Judeo-Christian influence on Tanner" that is on full display. Also implicit in this exceptional work is Tanner's awareness of his status in a racially-divided America. Reeves notes:

Within the biblical text, the positionality of one’s physical body inside or outside of a gate was essential in understanding an individual’s position and stature—from the prophets of the Old Testament calling for justice and transparency at the city gates to Jesus’ interaction with the blind beggar Bartimaeus at the city gate in the Gospel of Mark. Tanner’s capturing of the woman and horse outside of the city’s gates is indicative of the marginality African Americans, including Tanner himself, experienced at the gates of many American cities... Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in… (Psalm 24:7)

American art has come a long way since Henry Ossawa Tanner felt compelled to express himself in such coded messages. But it is precisely because Tanner "lifted-up" his head and created great and meaningful art that the gates have finally opened wide for African-American artists, writers, philosophers to express themselves fully and freely.

The same can be said of Augusta Savage, Dox Thrash, Charles White, James Lesesne Wells and the other African-American artists whose works Dr. Constance Clayton preserved in the collection which she has so generously shared with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved  
Images copyright of Anne Lloyd


Introductory Image:
Barkley L. Hendricks, (American, 1945-2017) [Head of a boy], n.d. Charcoal and pastel on paper: 17 x 13 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) # 2019.3.24. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Laura Wheeler Waring's The Study of a Student, ca. 1940s. 
Oil on canvas: 20 x 16 in. PAFA, # 2019.3.69  Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Gallery view of the "Awakened in You" exhibition at PAFA.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Edward Bannister's Untitled (landscape with water and sail boat), 1885. Oil on canvas: 14 3/4 x 23 in. PAFA, # 2019.3.2. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  Romare Bearden's Odyssey Series, ca. 1970s. 
Silkscreen: 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. PAFA, # 2019.3.4. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  Dr. David Brigham & Ms. Brooke Davis Anderson introduce Ms. Sarah Spencer (center)  at the "Awakened in You" exhibition at PAFA

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  Ms. Sarah Spencer, Assistant Curator of the "Awakened in You" exhibition

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Louis B. Sloan's  [Landscape with White and Yellow Wild Flowers], n.d. Oil on board: 15 x 21 in. PAFA # 2019.3.44 Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Laura Wheeler Waring's Four Friends, ca. 1940s. Oil on canvas: 25 x 30 in.  PAFA, # 2019.3.68. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Barkley L. Hendricks' [Head of a boy], n.d. (detail).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)  Dox Thrash's Portrait of Male with Red Suspenders (detail), date unknown. Watercolor on paper: 11 3/4 x 8 7/8 in. (29.845 x 22.5425 cm.) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  # 2019.3.57  Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) James Lesesne Wells' Primitive Girl, 1927. Woodcut, ed. 2/50: 7 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. PAFA, 2019.3.74.  Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Augusta Savage's Gamin, n.d. Plaster : 9 1/2 x 4 x 5 1/2 in.  PAFA, #  2019.3.38. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) Henry O. Tanner's Mosque, Tangier, ca. 1910. Etching on paper: 10 7/8 x 13 1/4 in.  PAFA, #  2019.3.54. Gift of Dr. Constance E. Clayton in loving memory of her mother Mrs. Williabell Clayton