Programs in Conjunction with John Singer Sargent’s Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children Feature Scholar Tessa Murdoch, Artist Kathleen Gilje, and More

New York, NY – In conjunction with its new exhibition, John Singer Sargent’s Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children, the Jewish Museum will present a series of public programs, including a lecture by scholar Tessa Murdoch, great-granddaughter of Adèle Meyer, subject of Sargent’s bravura painting, on January 26; and a conversation with exhibition co-curator Norman Kleeblatt and artist Kathleen Gilje on October 27.  Other highlights include daytime lectures by Norman Kleeblatt on November 29 and Lucy H. Partman on January 31, and a three-part painting workshop for adults on October 13, 20, and 27.

All programs take place at the Jewish Museum. Further program and ticket information is available by calling 212.423.3337 or online at TheJewishMuseum.org/calendar.  The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, Manhattan.

Few paintings by John Singer Sargent better exemplify his artistic prowess as a portraitist than Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children. Seductive and revealing, this bravura painting captures the world of a privileged English family of Jewish origin during the late Victorian era, depicting Adèle Meyer, a wealthy British philanthropist, well-known society hostess, and political activist, with her children, Elsie Charlotte and Frank Cecil. John Singer Sargent's Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children, on view at the Jewish Museum through February 5, 2017, is highlighting this remarkable portrait - contextualizing it with other family portraits, ephemera, documents, personal correspondence, and caricatures. On loan from the Tate Britain, it has been over ten years since the painting was on view in the United States.

JOHN SINGER SARGENT’S MRS. CARL MEYER  AND HER CHILDREN
PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Fluid Observations and Figure Painting
Thursdays, October 13, 20 & 27, 5:30pm – 8pm
Led by artist Tryn Collins, this oil painting workshop invites participants to compose lush images on canvas inspired by observations drawn from life, the figure, and the exhibition John Singer Sargent's Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children. Beginning with an in-depth study of Sargent’s artistic process, the workshop will offer life drawing with a live figure model and painting instruction in the studio that will build toward finished paintings on canvas.

No prior experience necessary; all skill levels are welcome.

Tryn Collins lives and works in Brooklyn and received an MFA from Hunter College and a BA from Brown University. She is a member of the Brooklyn-based artists collective Underdonk and has served as artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center, Woodstock-Byrdcliffe Guild, and the Shandaken Project. In 2015, Collins had a solo show at Tyler Wood Gallery in San Francisco and was featured in The East Bay Monthly.

Registration Fee: $140; $115 Jewish Museum members (all materials included)
Registration includes all three sessions.


Writers and Artists Respond: Kathleen Gilje and Norman L. Kleeblatt
Thursday, October 27, 6:30 pm
Artist Kathleen Gilje and Norman L. Kleeblatt, Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator, the Jewish Museum and exhibition curator, discuss John Singer Sargent and portraiture of the past and present.

Kathleen Gilje is an American art restorer and artist, best known for her appropriations of Old Master paintings which combine their historical provenance with contemporary ideas and perspective. Her 48 Portraits, Sargent’s Women examines female identity by stripping Sargent’s women of their elegant gowns and extravagant settings. Gilje’s work has been shown in various exhibitions throughout the United States and in Europe, and is in the collection of several museums, including the Weatherspoon Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Over the past twenty-five years, Norman Kleeblatt has played a key role in shaping the holdings of the Jewish Museum, acquiring unique, culturally relevant works in various media for the collection of modern and contemporary art. Kleeblatt is known for his broad ranging exhibitions including the 2008 award-winning Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940 – 1976 (2008). Among other exhibitions organized by Mr. Kleeblatt are The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth and Justice (1987) and Too Jewish? Challenging Traditional Identities (1996). He was also co-curator for An Expressionist in Paris: The Paintings of Chaim Soutine (1998) and Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York, 1900 – 1945 (1991). He currently serves on the boards of both the Vera List Center for Art and Politics of the New School and as Vice President of the U.S. section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

Free with Pay-What-You-Wish Admission; RSVP Recommended


Lecture: Norman L. Kleeblatt
From Ingres to Warhol: Jewish Patrons and the Paradox of Portraiture
Tuesday, November 29, 11:30 am
Norman L. Kleeblatt, Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator speaks about the legacy of Jewish patronage in portraits by Renoir and Klimt to Picasso and Warhol, in conjunction with the exhibition.

Tickets: $15 General; $12 Students and Seniors; $10 Jewish Museum Members


Lecture: Tessa Murdoch
Mrs. Carl Meyer at Home
James L. Weinberg Distinguished Lecture
Thursday, January 26, 6:30pm
Tessa Murdoch grew up with Sargent’s 1896 portrait of her the great-grandmother Adèle Meyer and her two children Elsie and Frank. In this lecture Murdoch, Deputy Keeper at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass, will present an illustrated account of Adèle’s life as the wife of a leading financier and mother, as well as her role as philanthropist and society hostess, drawing on the family archive of letters, sketches, and photograph albums. These sources provide remarkable insight into Edwardian family life of these well-established first generation immigrants to Britain, with their homes in Mayfair and at Shortgrove, Newport, Essex.

Tessa Murdoch joined the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1990, working in Furniture and Woodwork for eleven years before taking up the post of Deputy Keeper in the newly combined department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass in 2002. She was lead curator for the V&A’s 2005 Sacred Silver and Stained Glass Galleries and the 2009 Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Galleries. She has published widely and enjoys using primary sources. She was lead curator for the 2012/2013 exchange of exhibitions between the V&A and the Moscow Kremlin Museums.

The James L. Weinberg Distinguished Lecture is made possible by the Marshall M. Weinberg Fund, with additional support from Marshall M. Weinberg.

Tickets: $15 General; $12 Students and Seniors; $10 Members


Lecture: Lucy H. Partman
Portraiture as Performance: John Singer Sargent's Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children
Tuesday, January 31, 11:30 am
Lucy H. Partman, Curatorial Assistant, the Jewish Museum and Princeton PhD student, considers John Singer Sargent’s masterwork through the lens of performance and situates the portrait in the context of Sargent’s and the Meyer family’s shared passion for music and theater.

Tickets: Free with Museum Admission, RSVP Recommended


Gallery Talks
Fridays, October 14 and 28, November 11, December 2, January 13, and 27, 2 pm
45-minute gallery discussions on specific themes and topics related to John Singer Sargent’s Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children, led by Jewish Museum educators.

Free with Museum Admission – RSVP Recommended

Support
John Singer Sargent: Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children is made possible by the PNF Fund and the Maurice I. Parisier Foundation. Additional support is provided by Susan and Elihu Rose and by Ealan and Melinda Wingate.

Public programs are made possible by endowment support from the William Petschek Family, the Trustees of the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, Barbara and Benjamin Zucker, the late William W. Hallo, the late Susanne Hallo Kalem, the late Ruth Hallo Landman, the Marshall M. Weinberg Fund, with additional support from Marshall M. Weinberg, the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Foundation, the Saul and Harriet M. Rothkopf Family Foundation, and Ellen Liman. Additional support is provided by Lorraine and Martin Beitler and through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.