The retreat was in preparation for the book and exhibition The Business of Bodies: Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941) and the Persuasion of Portraiture set to open October 2018-March 2019, at the William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
Ellen Emmet Rand was one of the most important and prolific portrait painters in the United States in the first decades of the twentieth century. Her works include portraits of author Henry James, artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and over eight hundred other artists, industrialists, socialites, philanthropists, scientists, and politicians. Moving between diverse patrons—from state governors to opera singers—Rand carefully balanced changing social mores and fashions with her clients’ need to project authority, intelligence, beauty, and whimsy through their portraits. She manipulated their bodies to their ends—but also to hers. While early twentieth century portraits of this country’s elites may seem staid and even backward looking, the ways in which Rand negotiated her own career, reputation, press, family, and finances suggest a far more modern, commercially-savvy, and feminist artist than has been recognized.
Interdisciplinary scholars—including Emily Burns, Auburn University; Betsy Fahlman, Arizona State University; Elizabeth Lee, Dickinson College; Emily Mazzola, University of Pittsburgh; Claudia P. Pfeiffer, National Sporting Library & Museum; Susan Spiggle, UConn- School of Business; Thayer Tolles, Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Christopher Vials, UConn-English—had the opportunity to investigate the Rand paintings in the Benton collection and consult the new Rand manuscript collection at UConn’s Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
As Professor Burns noted about the retreat; “Such events should be art history research staples to build community, exchange ideas and overlapping materials, and brainstorm together.” Professor Lee likewise echoed, “…the best part was the discussion that developed among us as scholars as we shared our discoveries about Rand and made connections about her life and work. It was an extremely productive meeting with the themes for our book emerging almost effortlessly thanks to the array of Rand materials available and the in-depth knowledge of Rand that Dr. Alexis Boylan [curator of exhibition and UConn Art History professor] brings to the project. I look forward to continuing to work with this interdisciplinary group of curators and scholars on what promises to be an engaging and overdue study of Ellen Emmet Rand.”
View Ellen Emmet Rand's work here.
