Opening reception: Wednesday, September 9, from 4 to 6 pm

Drawing on the holdings of the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Winterthur Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this exhibitions features paintings, sculptures, and watercolor drawings of both notable figures, such as Benjamin Franklin, alongside depictions of daily life in Philadelphia by Gilbert Stuart, John Lewis Krimmel, members of the Peale family, and other artists active in the era of the Revolution.

Curated by Dr. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Inaugural Faculty Director of the Arthur Ross Gallery and the James and Nan Farquhar Professor of the History of Art.

Image credit: Attributed to John Lewis Krimmel, Nightlife in Philadelphia—an Oyster Barrow in front of the Chestnut Street Theater, 1811–ca. 1813. Watercolor and graphite on white laid paper. Rogers Fund, 1942. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.