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The Art and Life
of
James E. Freeman
1808-1884
an
American Painter in Italy
September 12, 2009 through January 17, 2010
James E. Freeman (1808-84), Costume Picture, 1857.
Oil on canvas, 59 x 45 in. Private collection.
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The exhibition, The Art and Life of James E. Freeman, 1808-1884: an American Painter in Italy, will open at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art September 12, 2009. This first-ever retrospective on the fancy pictures and portraiture of James E. Freeman, organized by the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, will remain on view through January 17, 2010, and then travel to at least two other American museums during 2010.
James E. Freeman (1808-84), Italine Beggars, 1844.
Oil on canvas, 50 x 43 in. Private collection.
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Independent art historians John F. McGuigan Jr. and Mary K. McGuigan are the exhibition’s guest curators and authors of the accompanying catalog. The extensive primary research incorporated into the catalog will make it a welcome addition to the literature on the 19th-century American grand tour, as well as the history of figural art in America.
James E. Freeman (1808-84), The Bad Shoe (The Frozen Foot), 1846.
Oil on canvas, 26 x 21 in. Private collection.
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Freeman’s origins are in central New York State where he began as an academically trained painter of bespoke portraits and the occasional fancy picture. He first traveled to Italy in 1836 and remained a fixture of the vibrant art scene there until his death at Rome in 1884. In that time he forged a unique career centered on painting engaging fancy pictures of humble Italian peasants for an international clientele. These sentimental character studies of impish street urchins, beatific mothers with children, and blind beggars were appealing for their artless beauty, an ideal closely allied to the 18th-century cult of sensibility. Freeman’s dedication to the communicative potential of the fancy picture resulted in a remarkably cohesive oeuvre that constitutes his lasting legacy to American art.
James E. Freeman (1808-84), Italian Beggar Girl, 1860.
Oil on canvas, 22 x 28 in. Private collection.
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An important subtext of the exhibition and its accompanying catalog is the fascinating story of Freeman’s consulship to the Papal States during the tumultuous years of the Risorgimento, Italy’s protracted struggle for independence and national unification. Freeman’s passionately held political beliefs and his active participation in the historic events of the Roman Republic of 1849 also influenced his choice of subjects for his paintings and his allegiance to the fancy picture format.
James E. Freeman (1808-84), The Princess Prattles to her Parrot, 1871.
Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in. Private collection.
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In addition to introducing the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art’s local audience to an artist who began his career in central New York State, this project represents the first modern appraisal of a figure painter who was lauded by Henry T. Tuckerman in his seminal Book of the Artists (1867) but subsequently lost to history.
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The Art and Life
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James E. Freeman
1808-1884
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Saturday, September 12-Sunday, January 17, 2010
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