Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman

Creator Name

Ellen Day Hale, 11 Feb 1855 - 10 Feb 1940;
Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, 3 Jul 1860 - 17 Aug 1935

Cultural Context

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Date

before 1880

About the work

National Portrait Gallery Object Description

Born Hartford, Connecticut

During an age when social conventions limited women’s opportunities, author Charlotte Perkins Gilman exposed the psychological distress behind the sentimental facade of domesticity. In 1892, she published “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a short story about a woman confined to a single attic room to recuperate from “temporary nervous depression” and “a slight hysterical tendency.” Those labels were often applied to women whose limited scope of activity led to extreme frustration and boredom. Gilman herself, while suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth in 1885, had been forced into a mind-numbing “rest cure,” which only worsened her condition.

Following her divorce in 1894, Gilman gained international recognition for her book Women and Economics (1898), which argues that women’s liberty is dependent ...

Work details

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Title

Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman

Creator

Ellen Day Hale, 11 Feb 1855 - 10 Feb 1940, Artist;
Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, 3 Jul 1860 - 17 Aug 1935, Sitter

Worktype

Painting; Paintings

Cultural Context

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Material

Oil on panel

Dimensions

Panel: 40.6 x 30.2 x 0.6cm (16 x 11 7/8 x 1/4");
Frame: 51.4 x 40.6 x 5.4cm (20 1/4 x 16 x 2 1/8")

Technique

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Language

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Date

before 1880

Provenance

The sitter; her daughter Katherine Stetson Chamberlin; her estate; purchased by (Bowater Gallery, Los Angeles); purchased 1983 NPG; Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Style Period

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Rights

Curationist Logo
CC0
CC0

Inscription

--

Location

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Subjects

Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman: Female; Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Lecturer; Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman: Literature\Writer\Novelist; Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Feminist; Portrait; Women; Literature; Writers; Feminist; Society and social change; Portraits; Education and Scholarship; Lecturer; Educators; Novelists; Reformers

Topic

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All Works in Curationist’s archives can be reproduced and used freely. How to attribute this Work:

Ellen Day Hale, 11 Feb 1855 - 10 Feb 1940, Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, before 1880, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.

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