“A Return to 19th Century France”: Louise Jordan Smith’s 152nd Birthday Celebration
Current and new Maier Members are invited to celebrate Louise Jordan Smith, founder of the College’s art department and renowned art collection housed at the Maier Museum of Art.
Inspired by Louise’s visits to Paris, members in attendance will enjoy a Parisian inspired cocktail reception with behind-the-scenes tour including an overview of the Museum’s secret history with the National Gallery of Art. The lecture, “Politics and Painting: French Art Movements of the 19th-Century” by Donald Schrader, Ph.D., adjunct professor of art history, University of Mary Washington, will following the cocktail reception.
BECOME A MEMBER & RSVP
Membership levels start at just $40/year and all members receive reciprocal membership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, as well as other great benefits! Explore member benefits >>
PLUS, new or re-joining members who attend will receive a complimentary $40 Individual level gift membership for a friend or family member! Gift Memberships will be provided at the event and may be upgraded with an additional contribution.
You may also mail your contribution with this form and RSVP by emailing museum@randolphcollege.edu or calling (434) 947-8136 by March 18.
If you are a current member, or are unsure of your membership status, and would like to RSVP, please contact Office Manager & Public Engagement Coordinator, Danni Schreffler, at dschreffler@randolphcollege.edu or (434) 947-8136, ext. 4.
“MISS LOUISE” & FRANCE
When Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (now Randolph College) first opened its doors on September 14, 1893, Louise Jordan Smith had just returned from Paris, where she studied at the Academie Julian. She became one of the first five resident professors to make up the faculty of the College. Professor Smith’s teaching of art history was based on her exposure to contemporary art and artistic trends during her numerous visits to Paris between 1893 and 1898. Learn more >>
ABOUT THE LECTURE
France was the most advanced and most prosperous country in the world during the 19th-century. It was also dynamic and politically unstable, undergoing four changes of constitution before 1900. The visual arts, and in particular painting, played an important role in the social turmoil of the French republic. Controversies about social class, gender, and economic equity played out in art as much as in the press. This lecture explores many of these topics and the painters who alternately championed or turned their backs on the great causes of their time — including David, Delacroix, Courbet and Manet.
Donald Schrader, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of art history at Mary Washington University, received his MA and Ph.D. from The University of Virginia, specializing in Italian Renaissance art.
FOR QUESTIONS OR TO CHECK YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS, CONTACT US AT MUSEUM@RANDOLPHCOLLEGE.EDU OR (434) 947-8136.
Images: Louise Jordan Smith, Self-portrait, 1897, pastel on canvas, 38 5/16 x 33 7/16 in. Bequest of the artist, 1929. Louise Jordan Smith, A Street in Concarneau, n.d., oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 19 ¼ in. Bequest of the artist, 1929.