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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
The Dowery
Catherine McCarthy (American, born in 1955)
1994
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
72 x 48 inches (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Irwin E. and Cherie Thompson
Accession Number2011.105
CollectionsContemporary Art, Americas
ClassificationsPaintings
One of seven Irish Catholic sisters from Lowell, Massachusetts, Catherine McCarthy has long investigated women’s roles and female archetypes in society and art. She does this through the lens of Grimm’s fairy tales, fashion magazines, handicraft, and other subjects traditionally seen as feminine and thus socially marginalized.
In this work, two vertically conjoined canvases meet in the middle, each exploring an unrealistic standard by which women are measured: a pious Virgin Mary dominates the upper canvas, while at her feet, tiny figures of fashion models fill the lower one. The work’s title refers to the property or money traditionally brought to a bride’s husband upon their wedding, referencing another method of stripping social and political power from women and reducing them to material and physical values.
In this work, two vertically conjoined canvases meet in the middle, each exploring an unrealistic standard by which women are measured: a pious Virgin Mary dominates the upper canvas, while at her feet, tiny figures of fashion models fill the lower one. The work’s title refers to the property or money traditionally brought to a bride’s husband upon their wedding, referencing another method of stripping social and political power from women and reducing them to material and physical values.
DescriptionDiptych
Provenance1994, Nelsen Gallery, Boston; 1994, sold by Nelsen Gallery to Dr. and Mrs. Irwin E. and Cherie Thompson, Newton, MA; 2011, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Thompson to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 23, 2011)