Source link : https://las-vegas.news/uncommon-portraits-of-enslaved-mississippians-displayed-collectively-at-mississippi-museum-of-artwork/
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — With powerfully haunting eyes and an enigmatic expression, “Portrait of Frederick,” an enslaved man painted circa 1840, stares out at guests of the Mississippi Museum of Artwork.
Somewhat additional into the museum is Delia, a Black girl wearing purple and carrying a headband who bears a equally unknowable expression. The pair of portraits are the one recognized preemancipation work of enslaved individuals in Mississippi.
Now, for the primary time, they dangle collectively for the general public to see.
“I was mesmerized by the painting,” museum visitor Staci Williams said. “The colors, the expression. His humanity seemed to jump off of the page.”
The portraits evoke questions on who Frederick and Delia had been, why they had been painted and what went by their minds as their faces had been captured stroke by stroke for generations to see.
“We don’t know, for example, if either of these people had the choice to sit for the portrait. We don’t know if they had the choice of what they were wearing when they were painted,” said Betsy Bradley, the Laurie Hearin McRee director of the museum. “They certainly weren’t allowed to own their own portrait.”
The museum purchased “Portrait of Frederick” in partnership with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Artwork in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museums will go the portrait forwards and backwards, every displaying it for a number of years at a time.
Bradley mentioned…
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Author : LasVegasNews
Publish date : 2025-09-13 21:36:00
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