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.
