The iconic feminist activist Susan B. Anthony’s commitment to women’s rights was sparked in 1852, when she was denied the opportunity to speak at a temperance rally because of her gender. Best known as a staunch advocate for women’s suffrage, Anthony also participated in a wide spectrum of social reform movements, including abolition and labor. From 1868 to 1870, she published the Revolution, a weekly newspaper that reported on topics such as sex education, domestic violence, and divorce. Anthony was arrested and fined for attempting to vote in a presidential election in 1872, proclaiming in court that her arrest was a “highhanded outrage upon my citizen’s rights.”
When Carl Gutherz painted this profile of Anthony in 1895, she was serving as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, an organization dedicated to women’s voting rights. Having painted the portrait from a photograph, Gutherz traded it in exchange for lodging at a hotel.
Nacida en Adams, Massachusetts
La dedicación de la icónica activista Susan B. Anthony a los derechos femeninos nació en 1852, cuando le negaron la oportunidad de hablar en un mitin contra el alcoholismo por ser mujer. Aunque más conocida por su tenaz defensa del sufragio femenino, Anthony participó en una amplia gama de movimientos de reforma social, entre ellos el abolicionismo y los derechos laborales. Entre 1868 y 1870 publicó Revolution, periódico semanal que trataba temas como la educación sexual, la violencia doméstica y el divorcio. En 1872 fue arrestada y multada por tratar de votar en una elección presidencial y proclamó en los tribunales que su arresto era “una violación arbitraria de mis derechos ciudadanos”.
Cuando Carl Gutherz pintó este perfil en 1895, Anthony presidía la Asociación Nacional Pro Sufragio de la Mujer, dedicada a promover el derecho femenino al voto. Gutherz pintó el retrato basándose en una fotografía y lo dio como pago de su alojamiento en un hotel.
Provenance:
John B. Henderson, 1895; his wife, 1900; Gift to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1900; Gift to NPG, 2019.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of Mrs. John B. Henderson) The Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the country’s first private museums, was established in 1869 to promote art and American genius. In 2014 the Works from the Corcoran Collection were distributed to institutions in Washington, D.C.
