Kicking household duties to the curb

“Off The Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase and Sargent”

Various artists… “Off The Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase and Sargent”

Various artists

Through Jan. 14, 2007

The Frick Art Museum

7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze

(412) 371-0600

“Here she comes,” wrote Charlotte Perkins Gilman at the dawn of the 20th century, “running out of prison and off the pedestal: Chains off, crown off, halo off, just a live woman.”

Incidentally, Jane E. Bartlett’s painting, “Sarah Cowell La Moyne” — an 1897 portrait of a woman leaning forward on a stool with a commanding gaze — is a perfect visual summary of Gilman’s message.

A “New Woman,” eager for independence, had emerged.

Bartlett’s work, along with nearly 100 other works of art, is featured in “Off The Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase and Sargent,” a current exhibit at The Frick Art Museum. “Off the Pedestal” explores women in the context of societal change, through the perspective of artists living near the turn of the 20th century.

In the post-Civil War era, with the nation’s torn society reshaping itself, women of the time experienced new sense of sovereignty. Having taken on new roles while their husbands and families were off fighting, many women felt more accomplished and, in turn, more confident, keen and adventurous.

Organized by The Newark Museum, “Off the Pedestal” has collected an array of art that traces the role of women during these times by examining female representation in paintings, photographs and illustrations. The exhibit highlights the works of Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase and John Singer Sargent.

Perhaps Edward Lamson Henry’s 1892 painting, “The New Woman,” illustrates it best. In it, a lone, female cyclist stops outside a country house to ask for a drink of water. From their porch stoop a baffled old man sits after handing her a glass, while his wife looks on in disgust. Behind them their grown daughter is smiling with pride and praise.

The exhibit opens, though, with traditional paintings of women during the 19th century. Often sitting upright with babies in their arms or shown tending to their children, most artwork from this century reflects the “ideal,” Victorian notion that a woman’s place was in the home tending to her children.

But as that sentiment began to change and be challenged, so did the gaze of the truly perceptive artists of the time.

Winslow Homer painted and engraved dozens of scenes of women outdoors, playing croquet and other activities. His wood engraving of two women, carrying their own gear and leading the way with the male “guide” falling behind, is a clear statement that not only have women learned to do their own work, but they are eager to lead the way.

It wasn’t only the outdoors that women were taking a stake in — they were progressing in the areas of education and professions, too. Following the Civil War, more women went to school and held jobs outside the home.

Many of the paintings depict female school teachers and artists. At the close of the 19th century, women outnumbered men as the leading “painting” academies in the country.

Sargent created many portraits of women at work painting — whether solo or bustling about inside an academy — and these paintings have a vibrancy that captures the fervor of women’s newfound enthusiasm in expressing themselves.

Along with Sargent, Eakins often portrayed working women in his paintings. Though he is best known for teaching art classes comprised of both genders, “The Concert Singer,” which depicts professional singer Weda Cook, is one of his most famous works in the exhibit.

Along with paintings, the showcase also features a witty collection of political cartoons of the time, satirizing the social changes occurring at the time.

Many of these feature the reversal of standard social norms, such as a woman wearing a suit or a workman’s clothes, while a timid male sits on a chair nursing a child with a bottle. Another has a bunch of women smoking and drinking in a bar, where a man is dancing onstage in a tiny skirt.

What makes the exhibition so effective is that it brings together a vast amount of original works from famous period artists and serves as a reflection on the changing times, while still remaining connected with the present.

Also on display at The Frick Art Museum is “Minerva Chapman: Miniature Portraits,” a collection of intimate and delicately detailed small paintings by Chapman, who lived from 1858 to 1947.