Inhabiting Folk Portraits

This exhibition showcases twelve of the most impressive portraits from Fruitlands Museum’s remarkable collection of nineteenth century middle-class portraiture, alongside paintings and writings by the museum’s Guest Artist of 2018, Candice Smith Corby. Corby is an accomplished artist and educator who paints with traditional materials and draws inspiration from literature, familial and personal stories, dreams, memories, and “the pleasure of observing treasured objects.” 

Corby begins with the curator’s prompt: what were the subjects thinking or looking at while being painted—and takes it to inventive places from there. She will continue to paint in response to the site over the course of the year, and her paintings will pop up as “artist interventions in the historic homes, the trails, and other locations. Corby will also contribute creative writing, words that may take the form of letters and diary entries.

Just outside of the main gallery, a dramatic, floor-to-ceiling red velvet cloth leads to an interactive area where visitors of all ages, sizes, and genders may try on clothing or accessories like those seen in the portraits. The hats, shawls, lace collars, and other accessories provide the opportunity for visitors to try on and, as the title says, inhabit each portrait. The portraits present subjects from childhood through old age, and a full range of visitors will have the opportunity to don a hat, cape, or lacy garment, look in a mirror or through a frame, and imagine themselves as one of the sitters on view.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.