Description: Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941) was one of the most important and prolific portraitists in the United States in the first decades of the twentieth century. She negotiated her career, reputation, family, and finances in modern and commercially savvy ways-revealing the complex negotiations needed to balance these competing pressures. Engaging with newly available archival documents and featuring scholars with radically different approaches to visual culture, this edited collection not only seeks to interrogate the meaning of Rand's portraits and her career, but indeed to rethink gender, art, race, business, and modernism in the twentieth century.
Brief description: Alexis L. Boylan is Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Program at the University of Connecticut, USA.
Review Quotes:
"Boasting a stellar interdisciplinary lineup of scholars covering everything from body politics to market analysis, this collection brilliantly accomplishes its aim of 'rewilding' Rand into the art-historical landscape and doing full justice to the complexities of her art and life." --Sarah Burns, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
"In this invaluable exploration of Rand's art and career, Boylan and her co-contributors critically mine an array of archival material, while attending closely to her portraits. Situating her personal aesthetic and patronage in a broader socio-economic context, they reveal why Rand matters then and now." --Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator In Charge of the American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA