New London Exhibit Features Early Women Artists In US

Information via Lyman Allyn Art Museum

NEW LONDON, CT – The Lyman Allyn Art Museum presents the first exhibition on the work of late 18th-century artists Mary Way and Elizabeth (Betsey) Way Champlain. (https://www.lymanallyn.org/the-way-sisters/) The sisters from New London, CT, created miniature paper portraits with fabric clothing that were unlike anything else produced in America at that time. The exhibition features new scholarship and many objects that have never been exhibited to the public. A gallery talk with curator Tanya Pohrt and advisor to the exhibition Brian Ehrlich, M.D., will be held at the museum on November 10, 2021 from 5:30 – 7 pm.

Before the advent of photography in the mid-19th century, painted or drawn portraits were the only means of capturing an individual’s likeness; families commissioned portrait miniatures of their loved ones to be worn as jewelry or tucked in their pockets. The Way sisters were the only miniaturists of note in New London and they were distinctive for dressing their subjects in exquisitely detailed fabric clothing.

“Not only are the dressed portraits unique in their style and production, the material bits and pieces of paper, fabric, and thread used in their creations tell a story of New London life in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries,” says Brian Ehrlich, M.D., who proposed the exhibition and contributed a number of its pieces.

The exhibition The Way Sisters explores the art of portrait miniatures, the identities of the people who posed for the sisters, and New London’s history in the decades following the American Revolutionary War. The sisters’ work helps “expand our understanding of early American art,” says curator Tanya Pohrt.

D. Samuel Quigley, director of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, adds: “By bringing together many known portrait miniatures by the Way sisters and identifying previously unknown examples, this exhibition aims to share their stories and sitters with a wider audience and shed new light on their work.”

GALLERY TALK

Join Lyman Allyn Curator Tanya Pohrt and advisor to the exhibition Brian Ehrlich, M.D., for a special conversation about The Way Sisters: Miniaturists of the Early Republic. This in-person program will discuss a selection of works on view in the exhibition, which celebrates the art of local southeastern Connecticut sisters, Mary Way (1769-1833) and Elizabeth Way Champlain (1771-1825).

Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Time: 6:00 PM (reception at 5:30 PM)

Location: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams Street, New London, CT

Tickets: Members $10, Non-members $15

Registration: Space is limited for this in-person event and reservations are required. Please RSVP to 860.443.2545 ext. 2129 or email info@lymanallyn.org.

Learn More: https://www.lymanallyn.org/gallery-talk-the-way-sisters/