Ellen Emmet Rand painted by Mary Foote in 1907A new exhibit, Leading the Field: Ellen Emmet Rand, opens at the National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) with a reception for members on October 4, 2019, and will hang through March 22, 2020. Rand was the first female student of American painter and sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, spent decades studying and painting in Paris, and for decades more was a successful portrait painter, commuting from her beloved Connecticut farm to her studio in New York City and across the country on commissions. Her subjects included sportsmen and women, captains of industry, judges, lawyers, socialites, children, and politicians—notably the first presidential portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
During a journey that fulfilled her dream of becoming a foxhunter, she crossed paths with some of the most influential sporting figures of the 1920s and 1930s, memorializing Masters of several prestigious hunts such as Fletcher Harper of Orange County (VA), Dr. Howard Collins of Millbrook (NY), and Evelyn Thayer Burr of Norfolk (MA). This important exhibition brings together several of these sporting commissions as well as paintings, studies, and sketches of the artist’s family and friends, and creates a personal picture of Rand as a fiercely talented painter, loving mother, countrywoman, and horsewoman.
Rand painted this first presidential portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt after he won his first term as President.
Born in 1875, Rand was among the first generation of women to gain recognition as professional artists. She was featured in over seventy exhibits throughout her career, and her last solo exhibition in 1936 was Sporting Portraits by Ellen Emmet Rand, N.A. at The Sporting Gallery & Bookshop in New York City. The show highlighted eighteen portraits of recognized sportsmen and women. The NSLM’s exhibition gathers together fifteen of these original paintings and brings to life the sitters who are portrayed.
Fletcher Harper, MFH, Orange County Hunt by Ellen Emmet Rand
Highlights of the exhibition are “Jake in Hunting Clothes,” c. 1935 (Rand’s youngest son); “The Hound Show at The Riding Club,” 1936, loaned by the artist’s granddaughter, Rosina Rand; and “Groom Holding Christopher in the Horse Stable,” c. 1913 (Rand’s oldest son), on loan from a Private Collection. Other standouts are “Charles Merrill Chapin, Esq,” 1932, a portrait of a man in wing shooting attire, loaned by the sitter’s son and wife; Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Chapin, III; “Miss Emily Davie, ex-Whipper-in to the Aiken Junior Drag,” 1933, loaned by Geoffrey N. Bradfield; and a portrait from The William Benton Museum of Art of Rand’s husband, “William Blanchard Rand, MFH” of the Old Chatham Hunt (NY).
Evelyn Thayer Burr, MFH, Norfolk Hunt by Ellen Emmet Rand
Most of the works in the exhibition have never been exhibited publicly or have not been shown in decades. Three years in the making, Leading the Field and the accompanying catalog by Claudia Pfeiffer (George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Head Curator at NSLM) present new research about this under-explored area of Rand’s career, marrying her sporting artworks with her private life through her diaries. Executive Director Elizabeth von Hassell said, “The concept for this ground-breaking show started in 2016 when Claudia attended a writer’s retreat at the University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center which holds an extensive archive on Rand.”
Alexis L. Boylan, Director of Academic Affairs of the UConn Humanities Institute and Associate Professor of the UConn Art and Art History Department and Africana Studies Institute, led the writer’s retreat. The project funded by a Henry Luce Foundation grant was the impetus for the soon-to-be-published book that Boylan edited, Ellen Emmet Rand: Gender, Art, and Business. It includes an essay contributed by Pfeiffer, “Artist and Amazon: Ellen Emmet Rand,” and is being published by Bloomsbury Academic. Boylan wrote an introduction for the catalog, noting that the NSLM’s exhibition is “a smart, innovative way to highlight the rich and unstudied oeuvre of sporting images that Rand produced.” Boylan continued, “An exhibition of this kind is long overdue and affords a fantastic opportunity to consider some of Rand’s most striking portraits, illustrations, and drawings.”
William Blanchard Rand, MFH, Old Chatham Hunt, the artist’s husband
The National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) is located in Middleburg, Virginia. Founded in 1954, the renowned research Library and fine art Museum highlight the rich heritage and tradition of country pursuits. Angling, horsemanship, shooting, steeplechasing, foxhunting, flat racing, polo, coaching, and wildlife are among the subjects one can explore in the organization’s general stacks, rare book holdings, archives, and art collection. The NSLM offers a wide variety of educational programs, exhibitions, and family activities throughout the year, and is open to researchers and the public. There is no admission fee to the Library. The Museum charges $10 for adults, $8 for youths (age 13-18), and $8 for seniors. NSLM members and children age twelve and under are admitted free of charge. Library & Museum hours are Wednesday-Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Posted October 4, 2019