The first monographic exhibition of the artist in over two decades, Cecilia Beaux: Gilded Angst highlights the artist’s unique approach to portraiture

Fort Worth, TX, July 22, 2026 — In June 2027, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) will premiere Cecilia Beaux: Gilded Angst, a major exhibition dedicated to the life and practice of painter Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942). Featuring over 50 paintings and preparatory studies spanning from the 1870s through the 1920s, the monographic presentation explores the psychological depth and frank examination of Gilded Age society that distinguishes Beaux’s portraiture from that of her contemporaries such as John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt. A newly commissioned immersive installation by contemporary artist Darren Waterston highlighting the underlying tension in Beaux’s painted worlds will also debut in conjunction with the exhibition. Co-organized with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (the Gardner), Cecilia Beaux: Gilded Angst will open at the Carter on June 11, 2027, and will be on view through September 26, 2027.

Gilded Angst underscores the realism of Beaux’s portraits, which offer a candid view of an elite class at its zenith yet facing accelerating decline in the early 20th century. Through her use of free brushwork and sensitive attention to the relationships between figures, Beaux’s portraits capture the precariousness of Gilded Age society and the anxieties and dark complexities that accompanied its eventual downfall. A highlight of the exhibition is a recent acquisition to the Carter’s collection, Beaux’s Mrs. John Frederick Lewis and Her Son, John Frederick Lewis, Jr. (1908), which exemplifies Beaux’s multilayered portraiture, with a superficial lightness that gives way to an emotional and psychological realism marked by disconnection, aloofness, angst, and boredom.

"This new exhibition provides a fresh look at the Gilded Age, exploring its hidden complexities through the unique and masterful portraits of Cecilia Beaux," said Scott Wilcox, Interim Director of the Carter. "We are thrilled to introduce her work to contemporary audiences, finally highlighting an artist whose important contributions have often been overlooked."

The obscurity of Beaux’s legacy that followed boundary-breaking popularity during her lifetime stems, in part, from the artist’s own personal contradictions, including the paradoxical identities of her upper-class, conservative heritage, and her more bohemian relationships. A member of “Dabsville,” a group of artists and intellectuals who lived on Eastern Point in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Beaux eschewed the social norms and gender roles of the time. As evidenced by the psychological realism that pervaded her work, Beaux prioritized freedom of self-expression and personal agency.

“Gilded Angst highlights the ways in which Beaux’s interwoven identity as a modern woman and skilled artist directly emboldened her approach to portraiture and her frank depiction of the paradoxes and complexities of the Gilded Age,” said Michaela Haffner, Assistant Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper at the Carter. “With this exhibition, we present her career through a critical lens that demonstrates both the exceptionality of her work during her time and its continued relevance today and seeks to restore her to her rightful place in art history.”

Gilded Angst examines Beaux's portraiture from early family portraits to later commissions that established her as the portraitist of choice for the Gilded Age elite. In addition to society portraits, the exhibition highlights Beaux’s depiction of pioneering professional women, including portraits of vanguard social reformers and educators. It also underscores the complex interiority unique to Beaux’s portraits through her sensitive depiction of the relationship between mothers and children during the Gilded Age, one often mediated by the labor of domestic workers in the upper classes. Adding further dimensionality to the exhibition is an immersive installation by contemporary artist Darren Waterston, commissioned by the Carter and the Gardner, which reimagines the domestic interiors of Beaux’s portraits. The installation highlights the psychological tension underlying Beaux’s portraits, allowing visitors to experience the simultaneous splendor and angst of the Gilded Age.

The Carter and the Gardner will co-publish an illustrated catalogue, to be distributed by Yale University Press, with full-color reproductions and previously unpublished archival materials. With scholarly essays by leading experts in the area, as well as the first technical study of Beaux’s work, the publication provides a landmark contribution to the study of American women artists and portraiture. It includes contributions by exhibition curators Michaela Haffner (the Carter) and Diana Seave Greenwald (the Gardner) as well as R. Tripp Evans, Professor of the History of Art, Wheaton College; Lea Stephenson, Curator of Historical American Art at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Kedra Kearis, Associate Curator of Art and Visual Culture, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library; Saffie Patel, Richard I. Shader Fellow in Painting Conservation, Harvard Art Museums; Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and artists Darren Waterston and Jessica Helfand.

Cecilia Beaux: Gilded Angst is co-organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

The exhibition will travel to the Gardner from October 21, 2027, through January 23, 2028, and to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia in 2028.

Images (left to right): Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), Mrs. John Frederick Lewis and Her Son, John Frederick Lewis, Jr., 1908, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, 2025.3; Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), Sita and Sarita, ca. 1921, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund), 2014.79.1; Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942), Dorothea and Francesca, 1898, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago. A. A. Munger Collection, 1921.109

About the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Located in the heart of Fort Worth’s Cultural District, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) is a dynamic cultural resource that provides unique access and insight into the history and future of American creativity through its expansive exhibitions and programming. The Carter’s preeminent collection includes masterworks by legendary American artists such as Ruth Asawa, Alexander Calder, Frederic Church, Stuart Davis, Robert Duncanson, Thomas Eakins, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and John Singer Sargent, as well as one of the country’s foremost repositories of American photography. In addition to its innovative exhibition program and engagement with artists working today, the Museum’s premier primary research collection and leading conservation program make it a must-see destination for art lovers and scholars of all ages nationwide. Admission is always free. To learn more about the Carter, visit cartermuseum.org.