"Recollected Images: Chansonetta Stanley Emmons" is on view at the Portland Museum of Art March 18 through May 21, 2000. Celebrating the remarkable artistic achievements of early 20th-century photographer and Maine native Chansonetta Stanley Emmons (1858-1937), this exhibition of works from the Museum's collection will coincide with Women's History Month. One of the few women of this time to establish a career in photography, Emmons is known for her touching scenes of rural Maine life, evocative landscapes, and incisive travel photographs. Selections from all of these subjects in black-and-white prints and original hand-colored glass slides, as well as a 1900 scrapbook, will be on view in Recollected Images, focusing on the reflective nature of the artist's photographs and her interest in memory and the passage of time.
(left: Portrait of Herself, By Herself (self-portrait with camera), 1904, gelatin silver print)
Born in Kingfield, Maine, the young Chansonetta became interested in photography after her enterprising older brothers F. E. and F. O. Stanley invented a new method for dry-plate printing in 1883 (they also collaborated on the early automobile the Stanley Steamer). After her husband's death in 1898 she increasingly relied upon photography as a means of emotional and financial support. Being both a woman and a photographer at a time when being either placed one somewhat outside the accepted parameters of the art world, Emmons was obliged to be resourceful when it came to fashioning a career. Although her brothers by this time millionaires thanks to their inventions would provide assistance throughout her life, Emmons's independent spirit drove her to participate in numerous competitions and camera club exhibitions throughout the Northeast, and in the 1920s to initiate a series of successful lectures which featured her best photographs reproduced in hand-colored glass lantern slides.
(left: Apple Blossoms, 1904, gelatin silver print, 4 5/8 x 6 9/16 inches, Museum purchase with support from the Photography Fund with the Benefit of the Collection, 1996.24.3, photo by Melville McLean; right: Harvest Time, 1920s, gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 x 4 9/16 inches, Museum purchase with support from the Photography Fund with the Benefit of the Collection, 1996.24.33, photo by Melville McLean)
Shelling Corn is one of those images, probably first printed as part of the 1900 photo album and later reworked as both a slide and an oil painting (one of her few known to exist), all of which are on view in this exhibition. Typical of the rustic genre scenes for which Emmons would become best known, Shelling Corn is a poignant look back at rural America as the 19th century gave way to the 20th.
By carefully selecting and posing her sitter as well as his environment, Emmons fashioned an image that alludes to an earlier time, thus inspiring nostalgia for a way of life in eclipse. Emmons's concern for elegantly and painstakingly composed images allies her with the avant-garde ideas of "pictorialist" photography, which sought to apply the aesthetic characteristics of painting to the new art form, thus maximizing its emotional and visual effects. This is particularly true of her rarely-seen, intimate, and elegant studies of nature, such as Spider Web (n.d.). Highlighting the spider's handiwork as well as the photographer's, this image may be read as an evocative metaphor for the feminine creative impulse. (left: Shelling Corn from the album Glimpses of the Summer for Christmas 1900, gelatin silver print, Museum purchase with support from the Photography Fund with the Benefit of the Collection, photo by Melville McLean; right: Spider Web, n.d., gelatin silver print, 6 15/16 x 4 7/8 inches, Museum purchase with support from the Photography Fund with the Benefit of the Collection,1996.24.2, photo by Melville McLean)
This color painting is taken from the original 1897 photograph depicting F.E. and F.O. Stanley in the first steam car in Newton/Watertown, Mass.
Chansonetta is best known by her photographs. This story is a rare opportunity to get to the mind behind her eye, to start understanding her particular sense of history, portrayed so beautifully in her photographs. It also gives very revealing information about the Stanley family as pioneers settling Maine wilderness and includes an updated genealogy of the family, starting with Solomon Stanley, father of Chansonetta and her six brothers. A nice piece, no matter what part of it appeals to you! Published by the Stanley Museum from its archive in 1993 as a present to residents and friends of Kingfield, this publication was made possible by local Kingfield businesses and California members Janette and Allen turn of the century rural art.
"From earliest childhood, I knew I was going to be an artist. I felt like an artist." By age nine Louise Nevelson knew that she wanted specifically to be a sculptor. She achieved her goal, eventually
becoming an international figure in contemporary art. She is best known for works such as Sky Cathedral, a wall piece made up of boxes filled with various wood fragments. This type of work began
in the 1940s, when Nevelson began collecting wood objects of all types and putting them together in unusual and innovative ways. In 1957, a box of liquor she received for Christmas, with its interior
partitions, gave her the idea to put her assemblages into boxes. When her studio became too crowded, and she ran out of room to work, she stacked the boxes on top of one another. She soon noticed
that this space-saving technique had created a new form of sculpture.
Sky Cathedral is made up of thirty-eight boxes, each filled with a different array of wood fragments. Not all of the wood fragments were found, however; once she achieved prominence as an
artist, she had a number of them made to order. Her creation process is primarily intuitive and rarely involves drawing plans in advance. Choosing from various stockpiles of wood fragments, she puts
them together with relative spontaneity, adjusting as she progresses.
The previous contexts of the wood fragments are hidden by the fact that everything is painted one color. This takes away their individuality and stresses their new function as part of a larger whole.
Nevelson chose black for several reasons. First, she feels that it does not bring up the kinds of associations or moods that other colors can evoke&emdash;except for mystery, a quality that she values in her
sculpture. Also, she believes it is the "most aristocratic color," lending the works a certain elegance. Black also refers to shadows, and Nevelson said "I really deal with shadow and space….I identify
with the shadow." To make shadow and mystery even stronger elements in her work, Sky Cathedral is placed against a black wall and lit with diffuse light from the side. This makes the shadows even
more dramatic, and creates a sense of sometimes cavernous depth within the boxes.
The composition is asymmetrical, yet balanced. Each of the boxes functions well as part of the whole, but could also exist as a complete work of art. There are many different moods within in the
various boxes, which adds to the mystery of Sky Cathedral: some are open, with their contents clearly visible; others are closed to view; still others offer only a partial glimpse of what is inside. These
varying amounts of access could find parallels in human behavior, in which some people are very open about themselves while others are more reticent about their lives and feelings.
Nevelson herself was outgoing, independent, and self-assured. Although admired by feminists, she said, "The creative concept has no sex or is perhaps feminine in nature." She feels that her works
are "feminine" and "delicate: it may look strong, but it is delicate. True strength is delicate. My whole life is in it, and my whole life is feminine."
Louise Nevelson American, born Russia, 1900-1988
Sky Cathedral, 1958
wood, painted black, 115 x 135 x 20"
George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 1970
"From earliest childhood, I knew I was going to be an artist. I fe
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