Beauty's Legacy: Gilded Age Portraits in America

Named after a series of charity shows held by the New York social elite during the 1890s, Beauty's Legacy examines the remarkable resurgence of portraiture in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. It features over fifty paintings, including works by John Singer Sargent, William Bouguereau, and James Montgomery Flagg, and twenty-five miniature portraits of reigning social celebrities from Peter Marié's famous collection Gallery of Beauty. A chapter by leading fashion historian Valerie Steele reveals how important beauty and fashion were in Gilded Age America, and how artists helped sitters achieve what nature had not always provided.