A Mother's Pearls

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A Mother's Pearls: Children In American Paintings

January 27 - April 19, 2009
Free with Museum Admission

Whether presented as miniature adults, in eighteenth-century fashion, or as "barefoot boys with cheeks of tan," as a famous mid-nineteenth century poet characterized them, children have always been popular subjects for American painters. The Flagler Museum will exhibit nearly 50 paintings of children from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries by many of America's greatest artists. The artists represented in A Mother's Pearls include John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, James Abbot McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Mary Cassatt.

The images of children are on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, selected from an American paintings collection. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibit was curated by Carol Troyen, Kristin and Roger Servison Curator Emerita of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Download the special exhibition brochure written by the Curator, Carol Troyen.

Read reviews of the exhibit:

Palm Beach Daily News: A Mother's Pearls' art at Flagler Museum reflects changing attitudes toward children
-Jan Sjostrom

The Palm Beach Post: Flagler Museum offers pearls to art lovers
-Larry Aydlette

Children's Activity A Mother's Pearls

Children's Activity
February 7, 2008
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

$15 Child Member
$20 Adult Member
$20 non-member child
$35 non-member adult

Reservations required

The Flagler Museum will host a children's tour of the exhibit A Mother's Pearl's led by a member of the Museum's Education staff. Afterward, children will pose for their own Gilded Age-style childhood photographic portrait, followed by tea served in the Lake Room overlooking Lake Worth. Children must be accompanied by an adult for this activity.

Boys-in-a-Pasture

Boys in a Pasture by Winslow Homer 1874

Gallery Talk A Mother's Pearls

February 24, 2009
12:15 p.m.

Dr. Carol Troyen will discuss the changing depiction of children in art, and the artists in A Mother's Pearls. Dr. Troyen is Curator Emerita of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has organized many exhibitions, including "John Singleton Copley in America" (1995); "John Singer Sargent" (1998), and "American Folk" (2001). Her exhibition of the works of Edward Hopper was seen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., and the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007-2008. She earned her Ph.D. from Yale University.

Dismissal-of-School

Dismissal of School on an October Afternoon by Henry Inman, 1845