On view at the Mint Museum’s uptown location in Charlotte, North Carolina, American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection features more than 100 works of art by renowned American artists. With major names like Thomas Cole, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Robert Henri, Charles Alston and more, the exhibition offers collectors a robust and wide-ranging survey of American art over the past two centuries.
John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872), Singing Beach & Eagle Rock, Magnolia, Massachusetts, 1864. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
Although many objects from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection have been on view at other museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Saint Louis Art Museum, this is the first exhibition to round up the highlights all in a single location.
Edward Redfield (1869-1965), Birches and Harbor, Maine, ca. 1920. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
Robert Henri (1865-1929), Chow Choy, 1913. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
“Over the course of more than two decades, the DeMell Jacobsen Foundation has assembled one of the finest privately-held collections of American art in the country. Paintings and sculpture from the Foundation’s collection can typically be found on loan to major museums from coast to coast,” explains Jonathan Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at the Mint Museum. “From elegant 18th- century portraiture to innovative 20th-century abstractions, each work is a fascinating glimpse into various aspects of American history.”
Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007), Play at Dark, 1935. Oil on canvas board. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
Ferdinand (Joachim) Richardt (1819-95), A View of Niagara Falls, 1873. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation
Stuhlman discusses 20th-century artwork in the exhibition, which “range from engaging representational images of the American rural and urban landscape and its inhabitants, to bold explorations of various pathways to abstraction. In the former category, some of my favorites include Paul Kelpe’s fascinating scene exposing the inner workings of a factory, Allen Rohan Crite’s composition depicting children and families enjoying afternoon leisure time in a Boston neighborhood park, and Luigi Lucioni’s image of the Vermont landscape, where what seems at first be a traditional red barn in the foreground turns out to be a granite processing factory. In the latter, I particularly like Raymond Jonson’s dynamic abstraction of a rainstorm passing over the New Mexican desert and Charles Alston’s powerful black and white abstraction.”
William J. McCloskey (1859-1941), Basket of Apples, 1896. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
Charles Ethan Porter (1847-1923), Sunflowers, ca. 1880s. Oil on linen canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.
The opening day celebration included a panel discussion with Diane Jacobsen, scholar, art collector and chair of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, alongside Stuhlman and Todd Herman, president and CEO of the Mint Museum. After its run at the Mint Museum, American Made will travel to the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Huntsville Museum of Art. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated 400-page catalog with essays on each object in the collection.
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