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Draft:Woman in an Ermine Collar

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  • Comment: While the sources are scholarly publications which are reliable, independent, and secondary, not all of them actually do what they are supposed to. I accessed the sources by Maloni (2009), Freedman (1974), and Gordon (1987), and none of them mentions Woman in an Ermine Collar or the artist. Instead, they provide further reading on the topics of the flapper, the Gibson girl, and norms of behaviour in the 1920s. In a Wikipedia article, sources have one main purpose, which is to verify the claims in the articles. This is different from how we sometimes make use of sources in academic/scientific articles, and it can be a bit difficult to understand at first. But as a rule of thumb, don't include a source that doesn't directly support the information at the point in the article where the reference is added. bonadea contributions talk 16:32, 5 December 2024 (UTC)


Woman in an Ermine Collar
ArtistKathleen McEnery Cunningham
Year1909
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions (76 7/8 in × 38 3/8 in)
LocationMemorial Art Gallery, Rochester
Accession1983.13

Woman in an Ermine Collar is an oil-on-canvas painting by the American Urban Realist and modernist artist Kathleen McEnery Cunningham, in 1909.[1] It depicts the profile painting of a younger woman in an ermine collared jacket, turtleneck shirtwaist, ostrich feathered hat, skirt bottom, and buckled shoes. It was acquired by the Rochester-based Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in the mid to late 20th century, and it has been an integral part of the MAG's collection of 20th-century art.[1][2]

The Inspiration

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Woman in an Ermine Collar was made at a time of great change within the United States of America, particularly regarding the early women's suffrage movement, a movement that was an integral piece in McEnery's inspiration for her art.[3][4] Her piece rebelled against the societal norms of the time, specifically the social pressures and expectations as to what it meant to be a woman in the United States.[5][6] In this piece, she hoped to exemplify the New Woman, a predecessor to the famous Flapper Girl of the 1920s.[7][6] Both were cultural movements that hoped to get rid of the rigid wardrobe expectations of yesteryear, just as The Gibson Girl had done for McEnery during her childhood.[8][6]

One of the biggest inspirations for this piece, which is reflected in the name of the piece, is the ermine collar. Ermine—colloquially known as a stoat— is a small, carnivorous mammal that resides within large spaces of Eurasia and North America.[9] The term ermine especially refers to the bright white and black coats of fur that these creatures develop in the winter months for camouflage.[9] The importance of this specific fur within this piece is modest to the modern viewer, yet ermine furs and pelts have been used by royalty and the wealthy in Western Europe for centuries.[9] McEnery, in turn, wanted the viewer to interpret this female figure within the painting as a symbol of royalty, brimming with confidence and power.[4][7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "MAG Collection - Woman in an Ermine Collar". magart.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  2. ^ Cunningham, Kathleen McEnery, University of Rochester. Memorial Art Gallery., and University of Rochester. Memorial Art Gallery. Memorial Exhibition: Kathleen McEnery Cunningham, January 10-30, 1972, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, N.Y, 1972.
  3. ^ Roesch Wagner, Sally (2019). The Women's Suffrage Movement. Gloria Steinem. Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-14-313243-1.
  4. ^ a b Wolff, Janet. Anglomodern: Painting and modernity in Britain and the United States. Google Scholar. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018.
  5. ^ Maloni, Ruby (2009). "Dissonance Between Norms and Behaviour: Early 20 Th Century America's 'New Woman'". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 70: 880–886. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44147735.
  6. ^ a b c Wardle, Marian, and Sarah Burns. American Women modernists: The legacy of Robert Henri, 1910-1945. Google Scholar. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Association with Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J, 2005.
  7. ^ a b Freedman, Estelle B. (September 1974) [September 1974]. "The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920s". The Journal of American History. 61 (2): 372–393. doi:10.2307/1903954. JSTOR 1903954.
  8. ^ Gordon, Lynn D. (1987). "The Gibson Girl Goes to College: Popular Culture and Women's Higher Education in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920". American Quarterly. 39 (2): 211–230. doi:10.2307/2712910. ISSN 0003-0678. JSTOR 2712910.
  9. ^ a b c Cobb, Morgan B. (2010). Sex, Chastity, and Political Power in Medieval and Early Renaissance Representations of the Ermine (Thesis). University of Cincinnati.
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