manumission.

British painter Annie Kevans (whom I've mentioned before) has a show at Perry Rubenstein featuring work from her All The Presidents' Girls series: portraits of US Presidents' alleged mistresses and illegitimate children rendered gesturally in diluted oils.  Her subjects range from the iconic to the nearly anonymous, but all are imbued with a diaphanous vulnerability.  They are the casualties of power.

All the Presidents' Girls.

Here's a sampling of portraits of presidential mistresses from Annie Kevans' series "All the Presidents' Girls."  Isn't their ethereal quality just gorgeous?  I owe this discovery to Jamie of From Me To You who has been creating these intriguing self-portraits based on Kevans' paintings.