Beauty’s Legacy: Gilded Age Portraits in America examines the remarkable critical and popular resurgence of portraiture in the United States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The exhibition —presenting over sixty works of art as well as period photographs and graphic materials, all from the New-York Historical Society—will investigate the strong cultural and social legacy of the American portrait tradition, with particular emphasis upon the New York sitters so well represented in New-York Historical's rich collection. With the amassing of great fortunes founded on industrial expansion, came the impetus to document the appearance of those who propelled and benefited from burgeoning wealth, thus echoing a cultural pattern reaching back to the colonial era.

Second Rotation: March 13, 2012 - July 8, 2012
Third Rotation: July 10, 2012–September 9, 2012
Between 1889 and 1903, New York socialite Peter Marié (1825–1903) commissioned portrait miniatures of women whom he believed epitomized female beauty. His collection of nearly 300 watercolor-on-ivory miniatures stands today as a vivid document of New York’s Gilded Age aristocracy. Beauties of the Gilded Age presents likenesses of many prominent women of the era, including legendary socialite Edith Minturn, athlete Edith Hope Goddard, and social activist Emeline Winthrop. The fragile and rarely exhibited portraits will be displayed in four-month rotations in a special new gallery designed for intimate viewing.