VMFA Circle Lecture | Dr. Jennifer Van Horn

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Thursday, October 9, 2025
6–7 pm
Leslie Cheek Theater

Naming Black Presence: Reckoning with the Gaps of History
with Dr. Jennifer Van Horn, Professor of Art History and History at the University of Delaware

Dr. Jennifer Van Horn's talk will focus on amazing survivals: portraits of enslaved persons of African descent from the 19th-century United States. But made by whom, of whom, and for what purposes? Placing these images within early Black Americans’ personal and familial identities and acts of resistance, Van Horn will explore why these sitters’ names were often forgotten and how recovering their stories offers a means of telling fuller histories of American art.

The VMFA Circle Lecture Series is open to all members beginning at the Friends Circle level. This program will be offered in person and virtually, via Zoom. Click here to register for the livestream.

Portrait of Leana and the Lambeth Children (detail), ca. 1848, Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (French, 1801-1888), oil on canvas, 76 ΒΌ x 57 β…› in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art and Revolving Art Purchase Fund, 2024.312.
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