Exhibit features portrait painter

When Ellen Emmet Rand painted Jean Sargent in 1938, Sargent was apparently so irritable that she only sat for one day. The painting was finished with a body double. (Courtesy William Benton Museum of Art)

STORRS — Depicting portrait representations of late 19th- and early 20th-century elites, the work of painter Ellen Emmet Rand reflects a commonality in today’s pop culture: how we all prefer to view ourselves.

The opening reception for a visual arts exhibit titled “The Business of Bodies: Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941) and the Persuasion of Portraiture” was recently held at the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut.

While relatively unknown to many historians today, Rand is considered one of the most prolific portrait painters in America during the first decades of the 20th century, having completed more than 800 portraits.

Lining the walls of the exhibit are Rand’s oil paintings, drawings and photographs from the museum’s permanent collection as well as from private collections and other museums throughout the country.

One example was the state’s 70th governor, John H. Trumbull, a conservative Republican who served from 1925-31 and focused on balancing the state budget and assisting Connecticut businesses.

“To me, this is the paradigm of what a university museum should do,” said Anne D’Alleva, dean of the School of Fine Arts. “It is interdisciplinary, collaborative and drawing attention to the work of an artist who has been overlooked, and it’s drawing on all of the university’s resources to make that happen.”

Rand’s significance lies in her place in time, as she was one of few women artists to paint three U.S. secretaries of state and she was the second woman artist in history to paint a sitting president: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“Ellen Emmet Rand was a portrait painter and portrait painting, by its very nature, is conservative,” said associate professor of Art Alexis Boylan, who served as guest curator for the exhibit.

“It is for the elite, it is for people who have money, and it is for — in some ways — the maintenance of party-established power structures. It’s why I think portraiture can sometimes be so radical, because when you take those very same power structures and subvert them, something really interesting can come of it.”

Boylan mentioned Rand’s reputation fell through the story of history, largely due to the fact portrait painting was traditional and non-abstract art became less popular as the 20th century progressed.

“We were overwhelmed with how amazing her work was, how beautiful, how radiant,” Boylan said. “I’m an art historian and in my own arrogance, I thought ‘Why have I never heard of this woman?’ It raises the question of what other stories are we missing.”

The decades of portraits speak to modern-day facets of everyday lives: the so-called “selfie culture,” social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, and the current focus on editing digital self portraits to one’s desire.

“What I thought was interesting about having a portrait show now is how invested we are in this contemporary moment in images of ourselves,” Boylan said. “Technology has made this so easy.”

Boylan’s interest was piqued by the idea of how individuals in the “pre-phone and pre-Instagram era” crafted images of themselves.

“It’s a kind of persuasion,” Boylan said. “An artist is trying to persuade a viewer to keep looking. A patron is trying to persuade an artist to paint them in a light that they think of themselves as.”

Another component, Boylan added, is the sense of immortality.

“Everybody here is frozen in their moment at their age and at a version of their best,” Boylan said.

The exhibit will remain open at the museum through March 10, 2019.

A dialogue on Rand between Boylan and William Harris, deputy director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in New York, will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 27, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Admission to the William Benton Museum of the Art at UConn is free. For more information on the museum, visit https://benton.uconn.edu.

Originally published in The Chronicle on November 16, 2018.