Gilded Chicago: Portraits of a Proud Era

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Using a cultural lens, curator of Gilded Chicago: Portraits of an Era, Jeannine Falino will discuss the ascent of the City’s emerging industrialists and the solidification of their new wealth through the status-conscious purchase of homes, furnishings, and portraits. She will also explore aspects of these images in terms of their historical antecedents, and the renewed value of portraiture during the Gilded Age to signal social standing and personal accomplishment.

Jeannine Falino is an independent curator, formerly curator of American Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, whose work explores the intersection of design, craft, art, and society. Her exhibitions include Artistic Luxury: Fabergé – Tiffany – Lalique (2008), and Gilded New York: Design, Fashion, and Society (2013), and New York Silver, Then & Now (2017). Falino curated L’Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, a celebration of this innovative and colorful commercial medium.

Image: William Merritt Chase, (American, 1849 - 1916), Myra Reynolds, late 19th century, Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 × 33 1/2 in. The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago; University Transfer [Friends and former residents of Foster Hall]. Photograph © 2018 courtesy of The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago.