{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/24298"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/24298","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Circulation, exchange and race in Ralph Clarkson's 'Nouvart Dzeron, a daughter of Armenia'","abstract":"Ralph Clarkson, a prominent Chicago portrait painter, created his best known work, the painting 'Nouvart Dzeron,' in 1912. The painting depicts a full-length portrait of a young woman dressed in traditional Armenian dress. Between 1912 and the 1920s, the title of the painting would change from 'Nouvart Dzeron' to 'A Daughter of Armenia' to eventually a combination of the two titles: 'Nouvart Dzeron, A Daughter of Armenia.' This changing title reveals how socio-political conceptions altered how people read the seemingly simple composition of a model posed against a blank background. This painting acts as a site of exploration for the changing conceptions of whiteness and commodification of ethnicity during a fifteen years span in the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1915, Clarkson used this painting to depict a generic idea of the Orient in order to bolster his own status as a fine artist. With the Armenian genocide of 1915, the painting’s subject moved into the realm of symbolism and ceased to be just a commodity of Clarkson’s to further his career. Instead, the more valuable commodity became Dzeron’s specific ethnicity: Armenian. And finally, in the mid-1920s, the two titles were combined as public opinion turned against the Armenian cause and the painting’s memorializing effect lessened.","abstract_html":"Ralph Clarkson, a prominent Chicago portrait painter, created his best known work, the painting 'Nouvart Dzeron,' in 1912. The painting depicts a full-length portrait of a young woman dressed in traditional Armenian dress. Between 1912 and the 1920s, the title of the painting would change from 'Nouvart Dzeron' to 'A Daughter of Armenia' to eventually a combination of the two titles: 'Nouvart Dzeron, A Daughter of Armenia.' This changing title reveals how socio-political conceptions altered how people read the seemingly simple composition of a model posed against a blank background. This painting acts as a site of exploration for the changing conceptions of whiteness and commodification of ethnicity during a fifteen years span in the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1915, Clarkson used this painting to depict a generic idea of the Orient in order to bolster his own status as a fine artist. With the Armenian genocide of 1915, the painting’s subject moved into the realm of symbolism and ceased to be just a commodity of Clarkson’s to further his career. Instead, the more valuable commodity became Dzeron’s specific ethnicity: Armenian. And finally, in the mid-1920s, the two titles were combined as public opinion turned against the Armenian cause and the painting’s memorializing effect lessened.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Weber, Amy L."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Art History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Greenhill, Jennifer A."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-25T14:50:11Z","date_published":"2011-05-25T14:50:11Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:23Z","subjects":["American Art History","Ralph Elmer Clarkson","Armenian-Americans","Chicago"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2011 Amy L. 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This painting acts as a site of exploration for the changing conceptions of whiteness and commodification of ethnicity during a fifteen years span in the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1915, Clarkson used this painting to depict a generic idea of the Orient in order to bolster his own status as a fine artist. With the Armenian genocide of 1915, the painting’s subject moved into the realm of symbolism and ceased to be just a commodity of Clarkson’s to further his career. Instead, the more valuable commodity became Dzeron’s specific ethnicity: Armenian. And finally, in the mid-1920s, the two titles were combined as public opinion turned against the Armenian cause and the painting’s memorializing effect lessened.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2011-04-29T14:37:26Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 1 Weber_Amy.pdf: 2125758 bytes, checksum: f064c2734a19fd8b06ce06c43a0afaa6 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-25T14:50:11Z (GMT). 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This changing title reveals how socio-political conceptions altered how people read the seemingly simple composition of a model posed against a blank background. This painting acts as a site of exploration for the changing conceptions of whiteness and commodification of ethnicity during a fifteen years span in the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1915, Clarkson used this painting to depict a generic idea of the Orient in order to bolster his own status as a fine artist. With the Armenian genocide of 1915, the painting’s subject moved into the realm of symbolism and ceased to be just a commodity of Clarkson’s to further his career. Instead, the more valuable commodity became Dzeron’s specific ethnicity: Armenian. And finally, in the mid-1920s, the two titles were combined as public opinion turned against the Armenian cause and the painting’s memorializing effect lessened.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2011-04-29T14:37:26Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 1 Weber_Amy.pdf: 2125758 bytes, checksum: f064c2734a19fd8b06ce06c43a0afaa6 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-25T14:50:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Weber_Amy.pdf: 2125758 bytes, checksum: f064c2734a19fd8b06ce06c43a0afaa6 (MD5) license.txt: 4058 bytes, checksum: faec9a617e3d0c2362052bd1587a523c (MD5)"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/24298"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2011 Amy L. 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