An “Effaced Itinerary”: Joanna de Silva by William Wood
Time: Nov. 29, 2023, 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Location: Peter Graham Scholarly Commons: 114 Bird Library
Adam Eaker (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
In this lecture, Dr. Eaker explores a major recent acquisition at The Met: William Wood’s 1792 portrait of Joanna de Silva, an Indo-Portuguese ayah, or nursemaid. Tracing the painting from the circumstances of its creation to its acquisition by The Met and subsequent archival discoveries, Dr. Eaker also situates the portrait within the context of the museum’s newly re-conceived galleries for European painting.
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About the speaker: Dr. Adam Eaker studied art history at Yale University and Columbia University, where he received his PhD in 2016. A specialist in Northern European and British painting of the sixteenth through the eighteenth century, he was previously a visiting scholar at the Rubenianum Research Institute for Flemish Art in Antwerp. Before joining the staff of The Met, he served as an Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow and subsequently guest curator at the Frick Collection, where he co-curated the exhibition Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture (2016) At The Met, He curated the exhibition In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met, as well as a future exhibition about art at the Tudor courts.
Additional supporters:
- Art and Music Histories
- Global Premodern Studies
- Renée Crown Honors Program
- Syracuse University Art Museum