Of Home and Family: Art in Nineteenth Century Mississippi

Mississippi Museum of Art

Jackson, MS

601-960-1515

Of Home and Family: Art in Nineteenth Century Mississippi

The Mississippi Museum of Art is proud to present Of Home and Family: Art in Nineteenth Century Mississippi. The exhibition remains on view in the Museum's main galleries through October 31, 1999. The exhibition is sponsored by the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation.

Images from left to right: James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889), Child Cutting Paper Dolls, c. 1830s, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert James Young; Joseph Rusling Meeker (1827-1889), Day on the Yazoo, 1885, oil on canvas, Collection of Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Purchase; Edwin Lyon (1806-1853), George Winchester, 1851, wax, Collection of Trinity Episcopal Church, Natchez, Mississippi.

Organized for the MMA by Patti Carr Black, this exhibition is the first to assemble fine art works -- including paintings, graphics and photographs -- made in or about nineteenth century Mississippi and is arranged in three sections: portraiture, landscape and popular art. Among the numerous artists whose works are included are Thomas Healey, George Caleb Bingham, William Aiken Walker, Kate Freeman Clark, Joseph Meeker, William Woodward and Thomas Sully. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.

"Of Home and Family: Art in Nineteenth Century Mississippi is a perfect example of the Mississippi Museum of Art fulfilling its mission of documenting and presenting the art and artists of Mississippi," says Museum Director R. Andrew Maass. "Guest Curator Patti Carr Black has drawn together an exquisite exhibition presenting the beauty, spirit, vitality and depth of artistic creativity in the urban and rural environments of nineteenth century Mississippi. From painting and photography to popular arts, this exhibition illustrates the state's visual richness so often taken for granted."

Images from left to right: Joseph Henry Bush, Andrew Marschalk's Son, n.d., oil on canvas, Collection of Sim C. Callon, Natchez, Mississippi; Marshall J. Smith, Jr. (1854-1923), Beauvoir, Biloxi, 1891, oil on canvas, Private Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana.

In the catalog Ms. Black says, "Of Home and Family presents a cross-section of the work done in the state during the nineteenth century. Through the art of this century we can se the aesthetic attitudes and styles of expression that were prevalent and perhaps discern the significance of place and cultural traditions on the style and content of Mississippi art. In painting, sculpture, photography, and other popular art forms, we can, perhaps, see a crystallization of the thoughts and aspirations of the world in which the artists lived."

A companion exhibition, True and Faithful Representations: Nineteenth Century Mississippi Photographers, is on view at the Old Capitol Museum through November 7, 1999.

Read more about the Mississippi Museum of Art in Resource Library Magazine

For further biographical information on selected artists cited in this article please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

rev. 10/26/10

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