Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art is a major traveling loan exhibition, which is the first to examine nineteenth-century depictions of girls in paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs.  Featuring approximately 80 masterworks by John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Cecilia Beaux and William Merritt Chase, the exhibition analyzes the myriad ways that artists vigorously participated in the artistic and social construction of girlhood while also revealing the hopes and fears that adults had for their children. While the sentimental portrayal of girls as angelic, passive and domestic was the pervasive characterization, this project also identifies and investigates compelling and transgressive female images including tomboys, working children and adolescents.




Organized by Dr. Holly Pyne Connor, Curator of Nineteenth-Century American Art, Angels and Tomboys debuts at the Newark Museum from September 12, 2012 to January 20, 2013, and will then travel (view schedule).

The exhibition will be accompanied by a 192-page, full-color catalogue, published by Pomegranate Communications, Inc.






Major support for the exhibition and catalogue is provided by:

Robert Lehman Foundation

Newark Museum Volunteer Organization

Friends of American Art at the Newark Museum

Wyeth Foundation for American Art

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.  Supported in part by a grant from New Jersey Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism.

Media Partners:

Images (banner and top to bottom):

Abbott Handerson Thayer, Angel, 1887, Oil on canvas; 36 1/4 x 28 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum;
Gift of John Gellaty

Edward Lamson Henry, Kept In, 1889, Oil on canvas; 14 x 18 inches, Fenimore Art Museum