April 11 - June 21, 2009

In a rare, full-scale exhibition from its permanent collections, the Museum showcases some of its most celebrated and popular works. Featuring art by John Singer Sargent, Keith Haring, Ben Austrian, Andrew Wyeth, Dale Chihuly, Mary Cassatt and many others, the exhibition includes a variety of portraiture, still life and landscape genres.

A special section of the exhibition explores the mystery surrounding the authenticity of one of the Museum's most important paintings, Cotopaxi - until recent years attributed to America's great 19th century landscape artist, Frederic Edwin Church.

Despite Cotopaxi’s original attribution to artist Frederic Edwin Church, the painting’s authenticity was questioned in the 1990s when the Museum’s collection was assessed. It was because of the lack of documentation of the trail from artist to owners that the painting could not definitively be classified as a Church painting. This led to the reclassification of Cotopaxi as "American School." Concerned with the painting's demotion, the Museum asked Gerald Carr, a Church scholar, to assess Cotopaxi. Carr determined that Cotopaxi was not painted by Frederic Church, but rather by De Witt Clinton Boutelle, a painter from eastern Pennsylvania. He explained that many artists in the 19th century took copies of their paintings to London to have engravings of the paintings made to supplement their incomes; these copies were often re-created by commissioned painters. Carr believed that Church commissioned Boutelle to paint a copy of the Cotopaxi to be used in engravings. He cited correspondence between Boutelle and Church regarding this deal to support his idea.

The Museum accepts Carr's theory and considers the story about Church and the histories of 19th century art marketing and commerciality valuable.

Another painting that will be part of the exhibition is a portrait from the George Washington series by Gilbert Charles Stuart. There are 124 portraits in Stuart's series, all of them based upon the portraits Stuart began of Martha and George Washington. These first portraits were never finished because Martha Washington disliked aspects of Stuart's work and would not accept them. The full title of the Museum's painting from the series is Jonas Miller-Cake-Joseph Stewart Portrait of George Washington. Each name denotes the portrait's ownership trail, making its authenticity clear.

Opening Reception - Friday, April 17 - 5:30 - 8 p.m.

Open to the public. Regular Museum admission fees apply, with special “staff favorites” talks. Details soon

This exhibition is underwritten by the Marlin and Ginger Miller Exhibition Fund. The Reading Public Museum is supported in part by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Image: De Witt Clinton Boutelle, Cotopaxi, Ecuador, 1862, oil on canvas, Reading Public Museum

To download a PDF of the most recent press release, click here.

To watch a Comcast Local Edition interview about this exhibition, click here. (YouTube)