To honor and celebrate Women’s History Month, the Cape Ann Museum welcomes historian Jane Kamensky from Harvard University and curator Erica Hirshler from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston on Friday, March 19 at 4:00 p.m., to discuss how—and why—the instrumental American portrait artist John Singleton Copley painted women.
Jane Kamensky, Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University, and Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, Art of the Americas, at the Museum of Fine Arts, will discuss a series of paintings that Copley made of women, young and old, in Boston and in London in the mid to late 18th century.
“We are excited for the opportunity to host a conversation about the ways in which women have historically been portrayed in the fine arts,” says museum director Oliver Barker.
“The lecture is being offered in conjunction with a special installation at the museum titled Our Souls Are by Nature Equal to Yours: The Legacy of Judith Sargent Murray, which features a famous portrait of Judith Sargent Murray by John Singleton Copley,” continues Barker. “Murray was an early advocate for women’s rights and an important figure in the history of women in Colonial America. We are grateful to have the portrait on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art.”
Register online at capeannmuseum.org/events/how-copley-painted-women, call 978-283-0455 x10, or email to info@capeannmuseum.org. This event is free for CAM members, and $10 for non-members.
The next scheduled lecture in this series will be on Wednesday, March 31 at 5:30 p.m.: Proving Her Metal: The Life and Sculpture of Katharine Lane Weems with Rebecca Reynolds, Manship Artists Executive Director; Jonathan Fairbanks, Katharine Lane Weems Curator Emeritus, MFA Boston; and Robert Shure, sculptor and proprietor of Skylight Studios.