Dr. Philemon Tracy c. 1790

Editor: Here we have a painting entitled "Dr. Philemon Tracy," created around 1790. It's an oil on canvas and depicts exactly what the title states, with what looks like Neoclassical art qualities to me. There's something strikingly...direct about the subject's gaze. What stands out to you most in this piece? Curator: Ah, Dr. Tracy! To me, he always feels like he’s just overheard the punchline to a joke he doesn't quite get. It's that slight tension around the mouth, isn’t it? You see a world striving for order and reason in the late 18th century, bubbling beneath the surface. Editor: Definitely. I notice the almost folk-art quality mixed with the classical aspirations. It seems at odds somehow. Curator: Precisely! Look at the setting, almost like a stage backdrop, the decorative wallpaper. It is both charming and slightly unnerving; this awkward grace is not an Italian fresco or European history painting of the period. It reminds me how cultures digest influences. Does that floral background tell you anything different? Editor: Well, thinking about that awkward grace, I see the wallpaper as contributing to it with the odd combination of sophisticated taste and the sort of homemade charm you’d find in the colonies. Curator: Exactly! I love that read. It’s not just a backdrop; it’s part of the story of a burgeoning nation trying on different identities, different airs. Editor: I never thought about wallpaper telling stories about new identities. This work will now mean something entirely new every time I view it!