Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
1957.3.707 |
Object Name |
Painting |
Description |
Portrait of a woman in a large brimmed brown hat and a white silk dress with bead trim. Branson is one of the most well known East Tennessee artists. Showing artistic promise from a young age, he attended the University of Tennessee before studying painting abroad in the 1870s. In 1876, he returned to Knoxville and set up a downtown studio with a photographer, where he worked and taught painting. While he created landscapes and historical paintings, Branson was best known for portraits, often produced from photos and featuring somber-looking sitters posed against dark backgrounds, gaze directed as though looking into a camera. This portrait of an aristocrat stands apart with its painterly brushwork, soft palette, and diaphanous light. By 1896, when this painting was completed, the South had achieved both a political and emotional reunion with its former foes in the North, a reunion that allowed for the rise of Jim Crow laws to segregate and reduce the political influence of African Americans. Once again, white supremacy ruled the former states of the Confederacy. |
Title |
A Southern Aristocrat |
Date |
1896 |
Role of Creator |
Artist |
Creator |
Branson, Lloyd |
Medium |
oil on panel |
Dimensions |
H-22.25 W-19.125 inches |
Credit line |
Bequest of Judge John Webb Green and Ellen McClung Green |
Place of Origin |
US/TN/Knox/Knoxville |
Culture |
American |
Subjects |
Women Wealth Portraits Hats Clothing & dress |
Relation |
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