New Portrait Unveiled in Hall

Magdalene College is proud to unveil the first portrait of a female Fellow, Professor Helen Vendler (1994), in Hall. Professor Vendler was Parnell Fellow at Magdalene from 1994 to 1995 and was elected as an Honorary Fellow in 1997.

Professor Vendler is an esteemed American Literary Critic who has held the position of a professor of English at Harvard University since 1984. She was appointed as the William R. Kenan Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard, and from 1987 to 1992, she served as the Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences. Professor Vendler became the A. Kingsley Porter Harvard University Professor in 1990, marking her as the first woman to hold the position. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the federal government's highest honour for achievement in the humanities. The New York Times called Vendler "the leading poetry critic in America".

The artist behind this remarkable portrait is Mrs Mary Minifie, a renowned portraitist hailing from the East Coast of the United States. Mrs Minifie is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Boston University School of Fine Arts, where she earned her MFA. Her artistic journey led her to live and work abroad in Egypt, England, and Austria, where she exhibited her work extensively. Upon her return to the US, she commenced her focused study of portraiture and the human figure under the guidance of portrait painter Paul Ingbretson.

The College is enormously grateful to a number of Fellows whose generous donations funded the painting of the portrait and to Robert Chartener, 1982, Chairman of the Magdalene College Foundation and Fellow Commoner, for his great efforts to make the painting possible and arranging for its transport to Magdalene.