"Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures from the Yale University Art Gallery"
2001-04-28 until 2001-07-31
Addison Gallery of American Art
Andover, MA, USA

This major exhibition from the Yale University Art Gallery, organized by Robin Jaffee Frank, examines the intimate and rich role of miniatures in America through 100 exceptional works of art, including several on loan from the Gibbes permanent collection. The artists included read like a Who’s Who of American miniature painting from around 1760 to 1830. The exhibition is unusual in that it includes artists’ tools, microscopes and magnifying glasses that illuminate the complex processes used to create them.

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the miniature stands apart from any other art form because of its highly personal content. Revealing people’s private selves and secrets, these treasures portray loved ones and were commissioned on the occasions of births, engagements, marriages, deaths, and other personal events. These tiny objects are weighted with meaning, illustrating how art represented joy or bereavement in the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Massachusetts

Other Important Exhibitions in Massachusetts