The Solace Project #19

Dear Friends,<br/><br/>Today, back to Philadelphia, instead of moving on, moving in. Back to the portrait of <a href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/306033">Anne Willing Bingham</a> because my good friend <a href="https://www.instagram.com/elle.shushan/?hl=en">Elle Shushan</a> pointed out a few things in response to last week&#8217;s post.&#160; First, I had no idea that Anne Bingham was the model for the draped bust image on the silver dollar. Second, she turned her Philadelphia drawing room into a salon for conversation and debate, attracting the likes of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, and George Washington.&#160; Third, and right under my nose: the portrait miniature of William Bingham.&#160;<br/><br/>A brief recap from last week, for those of you catching up. We looked at <a href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/306033">Anne Willing Bingham</a> and <a href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/39031">Juana Ines de la Cruz,</a> lives that were different and alike, both in portraits hanging in the beautifully and newly renovated galleries of the Philadelphia Museum of Art? Looking at Gilbert Stuart&#8217;s portrait of Anne Willing Bingham, known as Nancy, we&#160; considered her direct gaze, sharp features, dark eyebrows and long nose, her piled up hair and her stylish black velvet dress, her tiny precious jewelry, and a huge locket dangling across her exposed cleavage? We only see the back of the locket, the edge studded with diamonds, the center decoration hard to make out.&#160;&#160;<br/><br/>We then considered how Nancy Bingham strategically applied her charms and beauty to issues of the day, effectively a feminist before her time.&#160; She called what she was doing &#8220;the gentle Arts of persuasion&#8221; using her &#8220;superior Attractions and Address&#8221; to call attention to topics of importance in the immediate post-Revolutionary period in Philadelphia. Those phrases were written by her to Thomas Jefferson, then a statesman in Paris, and I hi