By: Zara Abubakar | Staff Writer
As November rolls by, now is your last chance to visit a student co-curated exhibition titled “Self and Sensibility: Women and the Decorative Arts in the Age of Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson”. As a student in the curatorial class taught by Professor Ernest Jolicoeur and Dr. Anthony Mangieri, it was incredibly fulfilling to watch the exhibition evolve from our group proposals to the final thing. The exhibition is a combination of all student’s ideas and meticulously organized and put together by Professor Jolicoeur and Professor Mangieri. The efforts of all involved cannot be overstated.
As you enter the glass doors of the Dorrance Hamilton Gallery in the Antone building, the soft pink walls immediately set the feminine atmosphere, complimenting the objects in the gallery – all decorative objects women would have owned and used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The hand-drawn and painted text on the walls only emphasize the delicate handiwork put into this exhibition.
I have several favorites from this exhibition. The first is the only painting in the exhibition – a large portrait of a lady from the collection of Nicholas & Shelley Schorsch. The juxtaposition of the lady’s fine clothes and pastoral scene behind her reminds one of a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds – such as The Age of Innocence (1778, Tate Britain, London). Albeit a painting of the American School, she looks as if she could easily be a heroine from a Jane Austen novel, roaming the English countryside.
The needlework pieces in this exhibition are also something to observe. I enjoy practicing embroidery; I wish my level were the same as the pieces on display. The only sampler in this exhibition, catalogue number 21, was worked on by a girl of only eleven years old. It was commonplace during this particular time period (the sampler dates back to 1764) for girls to have had several years of sewing practice already – nonetheless, the sampler is impressive. Look for the fine details – leaping woodland animals, ladies peering out a window, and a lovely inscription: “The pinks will fade and the tulip weather, but a virtuous mind will bloom forever”.
Finally, another notable aspect of this exhibition are the ceramics. Coming in every size, shape, and color, the vases on display would have surely brightened up any woman’s home. My personal favorites are the pair of pink lidded vases you see upon entering the gallery, and the pair of silver ewers from Tiffany and Co. towards the back of the gallery, both also from the Nicholas & Shelley Schorsch collection. The silver ewers date from the late nineteenth century, however one of the scenes – a knight kneeling before a lady – is pleasantly medieval.
The exhibition closes very soon, on the 22nd of November – I urge all members of the Salve Regina community to visit the Dorrance Hamilton gallery to see the objects in person. I would like to take the time to once again congratulate everyone involved in this small yet enlightening and one of a kind exhibition.
Photographs by George Corrigan, Class of ‘22. https://www.gcorrphotos.com/
