Exhibitions

Image: James Wells Champney, Young Woman in Red, ca. 1890, pastel (63.366).

Through an array of paintings, pastels, photographs, and material culture, In Pursuit of the Picturesque takes a fresh perspective on the New England artist, James Wells Champney (1843-1903) and how he shaped late 19th-century perceptions of nostalgia and beauty. This exhibition explores how Deerfield’s resident artist engaged with different facets of the American art world, including sentimental genre scenes, paintings of Colonial Revival motifs, and pastels of idealized women.

Vermont Furniture from the Alley Collection features an impressive array of 18th and 19th-century Vermont furniture recently donated to Historic Deerfield by collectors William and Patricia Passmore Alley. The exhibition highlights both published and unpublished material from the Alleys’ collection, showing how these objects reveal varied techniques and ornament as well as the characteristics of the environment in which they were made. Many examples in the exhibit retain their vibrant, original surfaces and are organized according to their decoration: solid and highly figured native wood, painted wood, ornamental painting on metal and glass, and veneer and inlay.

Featuring special acquisition highlights from the past five years in the areas of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, paintings, prints, textiles, and rare books, the exhibit includes four sections that explain why and how the museum’s staff added these items to the collection.