Photo By Gail

Best known for his large-scale, realist nudes, Philip Pearlstein (b. 1924)  created this double portrait  of feminist, curator, critic and art historian Linda Nochlin and her second husband,   Richard Pommer in 1968 in honor of the couple’s wedding. Here, Pearlstein challenges the conventional image of marriage by placing Nochlin in the foreground, rather than next to her husband, whose groundbreaking scholarship reshaped the discipline.

Nochlin had a lifelong relationship with the Brooklyn Museum, beginning with childhood visits and later with exhibitions she spearheaded for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Following Nochlin’s death in 2017, her family gifted his painting to the collection.