The Image as Homage: Portrait of the Artist
November 21, 2006 – April 8, 2007
(Sir Francis) Seymour Haden, Hands Etching—O Laborum, 1865, Etching and drypoint on laid paper. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, University Transfer from Max Epstein Archive, Carrie B. Neely Bequest, 1940, 1967.116.16.
In the nineteenth century, the Romantic myth of creative genius endowed artists—painters, sculptors, writers, and musicians—with almost godlike status. Portraits of such artists often amounted to hymns of praise that stood, like the artist's own work, as permanent sites of remembrance and veneration, even after the artist's death.
At times affectionate, servile, or even satirical, the spirit of such portraits varied greatly. So too did the form. Some examples presented in this exhibition evoked the portrayed artist's own style, while others focused on the artist's hands and working tools, or even substituted the artist's home in lieu of direct portraiture.
Highlighting European and American works on paper and two sculptures from the Smart Museum's collection, Image as Homage considered the challenges that arise when one artist tries to commemorate another, and the many forms such portraits take.