The Fenimore Art Museum has opened a new exhibition titled Picturing Women: American Art from the Permanent Collections. These images of women, assembled from the Museum’s extensive collection of American art, are distinct from the mainstream European portraiture of the upper class and aristocracy that we have become accustomed to. The rise of the United States’ middle class created a demand for all manner of paintings of the people who were settling the countryside and forming the social, commercial and religious communities that are still with us to this day.

Picturing Women: American Art from the Permanent Collections offers a selection of works that illustrates not only the appearances of these women, but also symbolizes the lives and contributions of these women to American culture. The exhibition is on view through December 31.

Other exhibitions currently on view at Fenimore Art Museum include John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women (through December 31, 2010), Empire Waists, Bustles and Lace: A Century of New York Fashion (through December 31, 2010), Watermark: Michele Harvey & Glimmerglass (through December 31, 2010), Virtual Folk: A Blog Readers’ Choice (through December 31, 2010). Ongoing Exhibitions include Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, The Coopers of Cooperstown, Genre Paintings from the Permanent Collection, and American Memory: Recalling the Past in Folk Art.

Museum hours: through October 11 (10 am – 5 pm), October 12 – December 31 (10 am &#8211 4 pm) Adult admission (13-64) is $12.00 and senior admission (65 and up) is $10.50. Children 12 and under are free as well as NYSHA members, active military, and retired career military. Visit their website for more information at www.fenimoreartmuseum.org.

Illustration: Mrs. George Hyde Clarke (Ann Low Cary, widow of Richard Fenimore Cooper), 1835, by Charles Cromwell Ingham (1796-1863). Oil on canvas.