Portland Museum of Art
Portland, Maine
1-207-775-6148 or 1-800-639-4067
http://www.portlandmuseum.org
Recollected Images: Chansonetta Stanley
Emmons
March 18, 2000-May 21, 2000
"Recollected Images: Chansonetta Stanley Emmons" is on view
at the Portland Museum of Art March 18 through May 21, 2000. Celebrating
the remarkable artistic achievements of early 20th-century photographer
and Maine native Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937), this exhibition
of works from the Museum's collection will coincide with Women's History
Month. One of the few women of this time to establish a career in photography,
Emmons is known for her touching scenes of rural Maine life, evocative landscapes,
and incisive travel photographs. Selections from all of these subjects in
black-and-white prints and original hand-colored glass slides, as well as
a 1900 scrapbook, will be on view in Recollected Images, focusing
on the reflective nature of the artist's photographs and her interest in
memory and the passage of time. (left: Portrait of Herself, By
Herself (self-portrait with camera), 1904, gelatin silver print)
Born
in Kingfield, Maine, the young Chansonetta became interested in photography
after her enterprising older brothers F. E. and F. O. Stanley invented a
new method for dry-plate printing in 1883 (they also collaborated on the
early automobile the Stanley Steamer). After her husband's death in 1898
she increasingly relied upon 
photography as a means of emotional and financial
support. Being both a woman and a photographer at a time when being either
placed one somewhat outside the accepted parameters of the art world, Emmons
was obliged to be resourceful when it came to fashioning a career. Although
her brothers by this time millionaires thanks to their inventions would
provide assistance throughout her life, Emmons's independent spirit drove
her to participate in numerous competitions and camera club exhibitions
throughout the Northeast, and in the 1920s to initiate a series of successful
lectures which featured her best photographs reproduced in hand-colored
glass lantern slides. (left: Apple Blossoms, 1904, gelatin
silver print, 4 5/8 x 6 9/16 inches, Museum purchase with support from the
Photography Fund with the Benefit of the Collection, 1996.24.3, photo by
Melville McLean; right: Harvest Time, 1920s, gelatin silver print,
6 1/2 x 4 9/16 inches, Museum purchase with support from the Photography
Fund with the Benefit of the Collection, 1996.24.33, photo by Melville McLean)
Shelling
Corn is one of those images, probably first printed
as part of the 1900 photo album and later reworked as both a slide and an
oil painting (one of her few known to exist), all of which are on view in
this exhibition. Typical of the rustic genre scenes for which Emmons would
become best known, Shelling Corn is a poignant look back at rural
America as the 19th century gave way to the 20th. By carefully selecting
and posing her sitter as well as his environment, Emmons fashioned an image
that alludes to an 
earlier
time, thus inspiring nostalgia for a way of life in eclipse. Emmons's concern
for elegantly and painstakingly composed images allies her with the avant-garde
ideas of "pictorialist" photography, which sought to apply the
aesthetic characteristics of painting to the new art form, thus maximizing
its emotional and visual effects. This is particularly true of her rarely-seen,
intimate, and elegant studies of nature, such as Spider Web (n.d.).
Highlighting the spider's handiwork as well as the photographer's, this
image may be read as an evocative metaphor for the feminine creative impulse.
(left: Shelling Corn from the album Glimpses of the Summer for
Christmas 1900, gelatin silver print, Museum purchase with support from
the Photography Fund with the Benefit of the Collection, photo by Melville
McLean; right: Spider Web, n.d., gelatin silver print, 6 15/16 x
4 7/8 inches, Museum purchase with support from the Photography Fund with
the Benefit of the Collection, 1996.24.2, photo by Melville McLean)
A gallery guide detailing the wide scope of Emmons's photographic
output will be available in the exhibition. The publication will also include
complete documentation of all the artist's works in the permanent collection
of the Portland Museum of Art. Be sure to take advantage of this rare opportunity
to learn more about this engaging artist, about photography at the turn
of the century, and about the museum's collection.
Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy:
rev. 2/3/07
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"Recollected Images: Chansonetta Stanley Emmons" is on view
at the Portland Museum of Art March 18 through May 21, 2000. Celebrating
the remarkable artistic achievements of early 20th-century photographer
and Maine native Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937), this exhibition
of works from the Museum's collection will coincide with Women's History
Month. One of the few women of this time to establish a career in photography,
Emmons is known for her touching scenes of rural Maine life, evocative landscapes,
and incisive travel photographs. Selections from all of these subjects in
black-and-white prints and original hand-colored glass slides, as well as
a 1900 scrapbook, will be on view in Recollected Images, focusing
on the reflective nature of the artist's photographs and her interest in
memory and the passage of time. (left: Portrait of Herself, By
Herself (self-portrait with camera), 1904, gelatin silver print)
