Gilded Age Opens in Sarasota

The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens today and runs through February 19, 2001 at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Florida.

Woman with Red Hair by Albert Herter is one of the treats that awaits you in this splendid exhibition.

This figure exemplifies the luxury and elegance of the Gilded Age. Herter framed the unidentified model's swanlike neck, taut profile, and abundant mass of hair against a lavishly ornamented background that echoes the rich embroidery of her dress; the gossamer filaments attaching the sleeve to the bodice exhibit a refined sensitivity to the exquisitely handcrafted garments of privilege. The painting's format recalls portraiture of the Italian Renaissance, a common aim of turn-of-the century American artists, revealing their lofty aspirations.

Source: Elizabeth Prelinger. The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).

Pictured: Albert Herter, 1871–1950, Woman with Red Hair, 1894, oil, 32 x 21 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney.