# A Gentlewoman

- By: J. Alden Weir (born West Point, NY 1852-died New York City 1919)
- Date: 1906
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=27369)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/f239e2f6de7920c1b2540b95f47631f3.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In A Gentlewoman, J. Alden Weir depicted a well-dressed young woman in a moment of personal reflection. She rests lightly on a chair with her eyes cast downward, completely unaware of the viewer. A contemporary critic praised this woman for her "mixture of sturdiness and charm," qualities valued in turn-of-the-century gentlewomen. In the early twentieth century, modernization brought on by steam power and railroads caused feelings of anxiety among many Americans. To help alleviate such feelings, artists created images like these of quiet interior scenes, a visually soothing antidote to an unquiet age.