Philadelphia Antiques Show 2024

80 PMA COL L ECT S TH E P H I L AD E L P H I A S HOW 2 0 2 4 PMA Co l l ec t s b y a l e x a n d r a k i r t l e y T h e Mo n t g o m e r y - G a r v a n C u r a t o r o f Am e r i c a n D e c o r a t i v e Ar t s a t t h e P h i l a d e l p h i a Mu s e um o f Ar t As the Philadelphia Museum of Art approaches its 150th year in 2026, we celebrate the PMA’s collections that hail from around the world, delight visitors, and represent the work of artists and artisans throughout many centuries. The collections are built on the generosity of charitable donors and the discerning eyes of curators and conservators. Over our century and a half, the museum’s collections have been enhanced by the offerings of dealers, including those who exhibit at The Philadelphia Show (TPS), who bring a broad assortment of art to entice curators. Throughout the early American galleries, special labels will alert visitors to works of art acquired at TPS. These works were either acquired by the museum directly or were purchased by collectors who in turn have given or promised them to the museum, as trustees Joan Johnson, Leslie Miller, and Lyn Ross have. Below are highlights of works of art purchased from TPS, many of which are on view in the galleries. Paintings The charming pair of c. 1791 portraits of Matthew, Benjamin, and Julia McConnell (the Children of Matthew and Ruth McConnell) (Figure 1 and 2) were purchased by Philadelphia collectors Leslie Miller and Richard Worley from Olde Hope Antiques. They had admired the portraits in Olde Hope’s booth at The Winter Show in New York and then again here in Philadelphia. Most likely painted by William Clarke, an English-born artist who was active in Lancaster and Philadelphia from 1785 to 1806, the portraits depict the children in front of windows in their fashionably-furnished house: Matthew stands, while Julia is seated in a red-upholstered, yellow-painted Windsor armchair set on what is likely a painted canvas floor cloth as her brother Benjamin looks on, and the pendant portraits are united by similarly draped green curtains trimmed by yellow fringe. The children engage with each other, their animals, and the viewer. Curator Carol Soltis has persuasively posited that, through their gestures and young Matthew’s book, the compositions present McConnell family