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American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection

September 10 - December 24, 2022

Mint Museum Uptown

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About

American Made: Paintings and Sculptures from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection features more than 100 paintings and sculptures from the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation. It is the first exhibition featuring a comprehensive selection of the finest works from the collection.

American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection surveys two centuries of American creativity. Though many of objects from the DeMell Jacobsen collection have been on view at other museums, ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, this is the first exhibition featuring a comprehensive collection of works from the collection.  

The exhibition begins with Colonial-era portraits by masters, such as Benjamin West, Thomas Sully, and Sarah Miriam Peale, and then moves on to highlight the development of mid-19th-century landscape painting. Viewers will discover works depicting the United States from coast to coast by artists, including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Jasper Francis Copsey, and even a monumental arctic scene by William Bradford.

In addition to landscape paintings, the exhibition includes still lives and genre scenes — two other types of paintings that became popular in the 19th century. Included in the exhibition are enticing images of fruits, flowers, and other delights by Severin Roesen, John Francis, Charles Ethan Porter, Elizabeth Williams, and Adelaide Coburn Palmer. Trompe l’oiel (“fool the eye”) still lives by masters, including William Michael Harnett, John Haberle, and John Peto, will also be on view.

Charming and moralizing genre scenes, often packed with fascinating narrative detail, include masterpieces by Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, Seymour Guy, and Daniel Huntington.

The American experience in Europe is also represented, as many artists from this country traveled abroad to seek training and patronage in the decades leading up to the 20th century. Striking canvases by Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and their fellow overseas travelers, will be included in the exhibition.

American Made was curated by Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum; Kevin Sharp, director of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens; and Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum.

Traveling Dates

See each institution’s website for more details.

About the DeMell Jacobsen Collection

The DeMell Jacobsen Collection is one of the finest privately held collections of American art in the United States. Although works from the collection can be found on loan to museums across the country, this exhibition marks the first time works from the collection have been brought together to be viewed together in one exhibition. The mission of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation is: “To carefully research and obtain American masterpieces, provide restoration (if necessary), and facilitate long-term loans to accredited museums and traveling exhibitions.”

The Mint’s relationship with the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation began with the arrival of the Mint’s President and CEO Todd Herman, PhD, who had previously worked with the foundation to host its exhibition The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design at not one, but two, of the museums where he worked prior to joining the Mint. Jonathan Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at the Mint, also worked with the foundation borrow its painting by John Leslie Breck for the Mint’s recent exhibition John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist. Over the past few years, Herman and Stuhlman have been working closely with Diane Jacobsen, PhD, and her foundation’s staff to develop the first-ever exhibition of highlights from the deep holdings of both the foundation’s and Jacobsen’s own personal collections of American paintings and sculpture.

The Mint is honored to be the first venue for this exhibition, which will go on to four other museums. Accompanying the show will be a beautiful catalogue of the foundation’s entire collection of fine art, published by D. Giles Ltd., available in The Mint Museum Store.

Thank You to our Sponsors

American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection is generously presented in Charlotte by PNC Bank. Additional generous support is provided by The Dowd Foundation, Windgate Foundation, and U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. The national tour of American Made is made possible by Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle, Schoelkopf Gallery, and Sotheby’s.

Media partners are SouthParkmagazine and WDAV 89.9.

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