Last week, I was showing the artist, Sam Robinson around MedChi's collection of portraits, and when we stopped to more closely examine one, he realized it was by an artist named Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941).
A month or so ago, Sam had shown me a catalogue from the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia. It was about an exhibition of Ellen Emmet Rand's work painting fox hunters and the sporting life in the early 1900's. The exhibition, Leading the Field: Ellen Emmet Rand, will be open until March of 2020.
Rand studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston and the Art Students League in New York, and established a studio in New York in 1900. She was mainly known as a painter of portraits of socialites, industrialists and children.
In the mid-1930's, Rand painted the official portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and in 1936, a solo exhibition of her sporting art was held at the Sporting Gallery & Bookshop in New York City.
In addition to sportsmen, she also painted at least one physician, the Faculty's Dr. Louis McLane Tiffany.
He was ambidextrous and a most graceful operator. His lectures were always delivered informally, sitting on the rail of the amphitheater in a conversational manner, and without a logical sequence of subjects but interesting and impressive because of his experience and personality.
In 1878, Tiffany became the VP of the Faculty and then was President in 1878-79 and again in 1880-81. He died in October of 1916.
As always, I continue to find new pieces and great stories every time I explore our offices!
Hi Meg, The coincidences that crop up in collecting and research defy belief, but part of what makes them happen is the continual interplay between those who possess or display things, and those who have the stored-up knowledge--this is the combination that keeps sparks flying.
ReplyDelete--Jim