Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Displays Works by Titus Kaphar and Junius Brutus Stearns

" The show is part of Virginia's state commemoration of the nation's 250th anniversary. Junius Brutus Stearns created a series of paintings in the 1840s and 1850s showing George Washington at his Mount Vernon plantation. The works depict Washington managing fields and include images of enslaved workers.

Titus Kaphar produced six works for the exhibition that also show Washington as a slaveholder. Kaphar is married to a descendant of Washington and uses oil on linen, torn fabric, and sculpted tar in his pieces.

The exhibition places the two artists' works side by side.

Stearns's paintings circulated widely in the 19th century and remain in circulation today. Kaphar's paintings feature luminous backgrounds in gold, lapis, and candy pink. His oil paintings are described as colorful and technically accomplished.

Stearns completed his Washington series around the time the Fugitive Slave Act became law. Art historian Maurie D. McInnis wrote that the paintings contributed to the idea that slavery was a benevolent institution. Historian Lydia Brandt has noted connections between Stearns's images and later Confederate monuments in Richmond.

Those monuments were erected decades after the Civil War. Kaphar combines varied artistic techniques while maintaining traditional portraiture skills.