Come join us for a Meet and Greet on Saturday morning, November 15, 2025 from 11:00 am to 11:30 am inside the Chrysler Museum's Huber Court, followed by an optional tour of the newest special exhibit led by Episcodad at 11:30. This optional tour will be about an hour in duration.
Centered on the career of Susan Watkins this exhibition ("Susan Watkins and Women of the Progressive Era") examines how women at the turn of the 20th century overcame barriers to forge professional art careers. Step back in time for a look at these stunning works by Susan Watkins and her contemporaries, including Lilla Cabot Perry, Meta Vaux Warwick Fuller, and Elizabeth Nourse, among others. There are more than 70 works in the exhibit drawn largely from the Chrysler's own holdings.
Susan Watkins (1875-1913) built a successful international career, exhibited regularly at prestigious venues (including the Paris Salon), and earned critical acclaim both at home and abroad. After living abroad in France for many years, she returned to the USA in 1910 and settled in Norfolk. After her death (at the age of 38), her husband preserved her paintings and papers and donated them to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, which later became the Chrysler Museum. Because the bulk of her art remained in a single collection, her name and contributions never entered the broader canon of American art history. This exhibit seeks to change that.
By showcasing the work of multiple women artists, the exhibition highlights how women of this period contributed meaningfully to developments in portraiture, landscape and genre painting....an active, vibrant artistic community that has too often been relegated to the margins.
The Chrysler Museum is located at One Memorial Place in Norfolk. Admission is free.