For as long as I have lived in Maryland, I have surprisingly never been to the Baltimore Museum of Art until my senior year of college. I was impressed by the great amount of exhibits this museum had to offer and was particularly struck by two pieces of art while I was here.
I first walked around the “American” exhibit that was filled with traditional portraits of women posing in elegant dresses and men solemnly wielding their swords. It was here that a painting by Charles Wilson Peale captivated my attention. The portrait was of a beautiful young woman named Mary Sterett, who had long, dark brunette hair that was partly pinned up in a voluminous updo on the top of her head, and was partly let down so that her curls cascaded past her shoulders. She wore a delicate pink and blue pastel colored gown over her porcelain skin that was adorned with ribbons and pearls.
As I continued to look at the painting, I noticed that Mary’s hands were placed on a birdcage and that she appeared to be letting the bird go. When I read the description about the painting, it revealed that the bird was standing on a book that read: “I can’t get out.” Instantly, this reminded me of a scene from the Disney movie Aladdinin which princess Jasmine freed her pet birds from their cages, which was symbolic of her longing to be free of the palace in which she lived.
I thought that perhaps Mary also felt “trapped” like the bird in the painting and wanted freedom as well. Indeed, when I continued to read the description about this portrait, I learned that during the year of 1788, when the portrait was painted, Mary was married to a man named Richard Gittings. Presumably, this was an arranged marriage that Mary had to fulfill out of obligation opposed to love.
I thought that the message of women feeling trapped was very profound for the painter to include in this portrait because it speaks to how I assume many women in this time period felt. Like Mary, many other women were forced into marriage to fulfill societal expectations and to uphold their status and that of their families. I believe that Peale acknowledging this fact of life for these women in this painting is remarkable because this was certainly not something that could be discussed or analyzed until centuries later when women had more freedom and rights.
Personally, viewing this picture brought up a lot of feelings inside of me. On one hand, it made me feel lucky and appreciative of all of the freedoms and opportunities that I have as a woman. Unlike Mary, I do not have to worry about my status in society or getting married at this point in my life, which I am grateful for.
On the other hand, as I continued to look at the portrait, it also made me sad. Despite all of the wonderful things I have going on in my life, I know that even now, centuries after this portrait was painted, that I can identify with Mary on some level as a woman. While our situations are not completely relatable, I feel that I can still relate to her on a personal level because I have seen and experienced circumstances in which women today are seen or treated as inferior. Although this is a sad reality, I would like to possess an optimistic outlook on the situation and be grateful for all of the freedoms that I do have compared to the woman in the portrait.
Aside from this painting, I found myself enraptured by a piece of artwork in the “African” exhibit, which was completely different from the American portraits I had previously looked at. Encased in glass was an arrangement of three small, dark brown figures that had detailed facial structures and smooth looking bodies. Interestingly, these three figures were all holding their stomachs. Upon reading more about this, I found that the figures represented women who were trying to conceive a child but could not because they believed that the “jealous” spirits of previous spouses caused them to be infertile.
As a result, these African women would seek artists to sculpt these figures for them as a way to rid themselves of these bad spirits. Ultimately, the women would put these figures somewhere inside their houses and the spirits would reside within the figures and would not bother the women anymore. With the spirits gone, the women would finally be able to give birth to a child and become a mother.
Although I do not like thinking about “bad spirits” and the supernatural, I find the strong spirituality shared amongst these African cultures to be fascinating. In almost all aspects of their lives, there is a strong spiritual component that is engrained into everything that they do. Upon further research, I found that these figures belonged to the “Baule” people who created many other sculptures and masks to appease supernatural spirits (“Tribal African Art”). This is interesting because I also saw masks within this exhibit that had large gaping eyes that were used in many rituals and were intended to be worn so that spirits could see things that humans ordinarily could not.
This part of the museum really stuck with me because I also view myself as a spiritual person. While I cannot picture myself having a sculpture specially made so that I can conceive a child, I can appreciate this culture’s emphasis on being open to things that they cannot see. I particularly felt a connection with these African women when viewing this artwork because it reminded me to be more open to things in my own life.
When I sat down and reflected on these two very different exhibits, I noticed that although the American portrait of Mary and the African masks and figures were painted and sculpted at two completely different points in time and would appear to have nothing in common, I had the sense that they were, in fact, connected in the grand scheme of things.
Regardless of their differences, both pieces of artwork were similar in that they showed that regardless of the culture that one comes from, women were held to high expectations. For instance, in Mary’s case, she was required to marry against her wishes in order to fulfill the societal expectation to marry and have children. As a result, she felt trapped like a bird in a cage, but still married this man because it was her obligation as a woman to do so.
Similarly, the African women were also expected to give birth, and if they could not, they would seek out a sculptor to make them a sacred figure that would ward off bad spirits so that they could conceive. Both of these pieces of artwork not only portray the role of women as wives and mothers, but also show that they were empowered and resilient.
Despite all of the hardships that they faced as women, when I examined these pieces of art, I felt a strong positive energy within myself. While I am lucky to have more freedom as a woman living in the twenty-first century, I feel that I am still connected to these women through the artwork I have seen, which makes me feel empowered as well.
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