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Vero Beach Museum of Art Celebrates Our Nation’s 250th Year with American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection

Press Release

Masterpieces by many of our country’s most important artists on view
January 31–June 7, 2026

In anticipation of our nation’s semiquincentennial, the Vero Beach Museum of Art (VBMA) is delighted to present American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, an exhibition of more than 80 works by renowned American artists, including Benjamin West, Sarah Miriam Peale, Edward Moran, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Robert Henri, and Charles Alston. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, January 31, through Sunday, June 7, 2026.
 
Spanning 250 years, with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries, the works in this exhibition, drawn entirely from the rich holdings of the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, highlight masterpieces of painting and sculpture by many of this country’s most important artists. While American Made includes eighty-five examples of painting and sculpture, the Collection as a whole currently includes more than three hundred works of art and continues to grow. It was put together by Dr. Diane DeMell Jacobsen and her late husband, Thomas Jacobsen.
 
The American Made exhibition is organized into eight thematic sections that demonstrate how American artists from the colonial era to the 20th century supported the nation's growth and progress.
 
Museum guests will discover:
  • Colonial-era portraits by masters, such as Benjamin West, Thomas Sully, and Rembrandt Peale;
  • Late 19th- and early 20th-century depictions of colonies and destinations by artists including Marsden Hartley, Leon Kroll, and John Sloan;
  • Mid-19th-century landscape painting depicting the United States from the mountains to the sea by artists such as Asher B. Durand, Jasper Francis Copsey, and William Bradford;
  • Still life paintings illuminating nature’s bounty by John Francis, Charles Ethan Porter, and Elizabeth Williams, and trompe l’oeil (French for “fool the eye”) still lifes by masters, including William Michael Harnett, John Haberle, and John Peto;
  • Genre scenes depicting everyday American life, including masterpieces by Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, Seymour Guy, and Daniel Huntington;
  • The late 19th-century origins of American Modernism through works of artists such as Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, and Edwin Lord Weeks, who lived or spent considerable time studying abroad;
  • Examples of early 20th-century Modernism and mid-20th-century Abstract Expressionist style from Max Weber, John Marin, Charmion von Wiegand, and others;        
  • Works depicting post-1930 urban and rural life by artists including Paul Kelpe, Molly Luce, and Walt Kuhn; and
  • A selection of 19th and 20th-century sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Frederick William MacMonnies, Elizabeth Catlett, and others.
American Made was curated by Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum; Kevin Sharp, director of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens; and Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum.

American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection is generously supported by:
 
DIRECTOR’S SPONSOR:
Theodore W. Brickman Jr. and Sally B. Brickman Endowment for Exhibitions of 18th and 19th Century Art
 
PRESENTING SPONSORS:
The Laura t. Buck Exhibition Endowment
Dorinda Dodge
The Yela “Peter” and Derek Fowler Endowment for Acquisitions and Exhibitions
Molly Butler Hart & Michael D. Griffin
Patricia M. Patten Endowment
Estate of Glee and Robert Ries Endowment
Emily and Ned Sherwood
Charlotte Stifel
William and Carolyn Stutt
Roberta and James W. Titelman Endowment for Exhibitions
 
SUPPORTING SPONSORS:
Donald H. Layton and Sandra L. Lazo
Mason Investment Advisory Services
James and Priscilla Morphy
Charlotte and Henry G. Stifel Endowment for Exhibitions
 
PREMIER SPONSOR:
Tom and Ann Piper
 
PATRON SPONSORS:
Bank of America
Broadbent Family Endowment
James and Wendy Daverman
Sherry Ann and Ned Dayton
Mike and Sandy McManus
Sandy and Randy Rolf Endowment for Exhibitions
 
EXHIBITION SPONSOR:
Schumann Foundation Endowment for Exhibitions

IMAGE CAPTION: 
Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860). George Washington, Porthole Portrait, circa 1846, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation.

Vero Beach Museum of Art Celebrates Our Nation’s 250th Year with American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection