The third exhibition in a four-year collaboration between the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Louvre, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and The High Museum of Art, American Encounters: Anglo-American Portraiture in an Era of Revolution investigated the evolution of portraiture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Exploring artistic exchange between American and British painters, the exhibition featured three portraits of George Washington as well as paintings of British aristocrats and military leaders who may have fought against Washington in the Revolutionary War. The exhibition united works that had never before been exhibited together in order to highlight the shared artistic vocabulary that tied the nascent United States to Britain even during wartime. With works created during a time period that spans over fifty years, the exhibition also charts the changing methods of depicting identity and status through portraiture.
The exhibition was accompanied by a publication that features an overview essay as well as interpretive text and comparative images for each exhibition object.
Dates & Venues
January 31–April 28, 2014
Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
May 17–September 15, 2014
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, United States
September 28, 2014–January 18, 2015
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Works of Art from the Terra Foundation Collection
- Rembrandt Peale, George Washington, Porthole Portrait, after 1824
Publication
Murphy, Kevin M. American Encounters: Anglo-American Portraiture in an Era of Revolution. Bentonville, AK: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; distributed by University of Washington Press, 2014.
Related Content
Press release: “Louvre, High, Crystal Bridges, and Terra Foundation Announce Third Installment of Multi-year American Art Collaboration,” Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, IL, December 12, 2013
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
- Press release
- Blog post: “Traveling with George Washington,” January 4, 2014
- Blog post: Manuela Welloffman, “American Encounters: Anglo-American Portraiture in an Era of Revolution,” September 3, 2014
- Blog post: Linda Deberry, “American Encounters: Anglo-American Portraiture in an Era of Revolution, Part 2,” September 5, 2014
