European Art
Van Gogh Repetitions Coming to Phillips then Cleveland Museum
A new exhibit coming to two The Phillips Collection and the Cleveland Museum of Art will take a new look at the artistic process of Vincent van Gogh- and reunite several masterpieces.
The museum’s say the exhibition is the first to focus on van Gogh’s “repetitions”—a term the artist used to describe his practice of producing multiple versions of a particular subject. Van Gogh Repetitions is inspired by the artist’s iconic work The Road Menders (1889) in The Phillips Collection and a painting of the same subject (also from 1889) in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“This exhibition gives us a rare opportunity to get to know one of the world’s most recognizable artists in a fresh, new way,” says Dorothy Kosinski, director of The Phillips Collection. “He is such a beloved figure, but there is still much more to be learned. Through a close examination of this fascinating but only partially understood aspect of his work, we can create a richer, more meaningful understanding of both his personal life and artistic production.”
The exhibition invites deep, focused study of the similarities and differences between the two paintings, as well as van Gogh’s process and motivation in repeating himself. Paintings by van Gogh from some of the world’s most renowned collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; and the Art Institute of Chicago will also be on view.
Van Gogh Repetitions runs from Oct. 12 through Jan. 26, 2014 at the Phillips and March 2, 2014 through May 26, 2014 at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The Country Home of Mega-Collector Duncan Phillips
It was through the current exhibit (on view through January 6) at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art that I learned more about the Phillips Collection and Duncan Phillips himself. An astute collector, Phillips didn’t have the wealth to match Andrew Carnegie or Andrew Mellon, but never-the-less assembled one of the country’s great collections.
With just those three, Mellon, Carnegie and Phillips, plus Henry Clay Frick, it’s remarkable how much of the nation’s artistic heritage is tied to Pittsburgh (and the steel industry). Phillips collection is of course in Washington, D.C. where he moved in 1895. Duncan Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin, a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company. With repeated references to a home in Western Pennsylvania at an event at the Amon Carter, I asked Phillips Associate Curator for Research Susan Behrends Frank just where the family’s country home was.
The answer, Ebensburg, is a place I am well familiar with. It’s not far from a “cottage” that was home to B.F. Jones, the other partner in Jones and Laughlin. I knew about that home through recent news reports surrounding saving it from the wrecking ball. It sits next to a cottage once owned by Andrew Carnegie.
The Open Road- Phillips, Marjorie 1894-1985
Phillips married painter Marjorie Acker in 1921. Though the Phillips is known for its collection of modern art, Marjorie was a painter in her own right and the museum holds many paintings she likely did of the countryside around Ebensburg. The house there, known as Ormsby Lodge and Carriage House, is still standing, as is another home owned by a family member.
Marjorie Phillips studied at the Art Students League from 1915 to 1918 with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Boardman Robinson, and Gifford Beal. She also served as director of The Phillips Collection from 1925 until her retirement in 1972.
Duncan Phillips with the Dogs C’Est Tout, Ami and Babette- Phillips, Marjorie 1894-1985
Driving through Ebensburg, you can see why the landscape might be appealing as a retreat, and inspiring to an artist. (Although Mary Cassatt was said to have been frustrated by life in nearby Hollidaysburg). Located about an hour and a half from Pittsburgh, today the mountainous countryside still has its appeal. No tourist maps point you to the homes, but you can find them.
If you go:
Ormsby Lodge and Carriage House, Ebensburg -1889. Entrance 700 block W. Highland. An l8-room Eastlake Victorian summer house built for Duncan Phillips (the John Phillips House of the same family is at 413 W. Highland).
The cottages in Cresson are located on Cottage Street. The Google map vehicle hasn’t made it there yet.
Flea Market Renoir May Have Been Stolen Decades Ago
If it sounds too good to be true… That Renoir that made the feeds after being “found” at a flea market for $7 may be one previously stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art. According to the Associated Press, a Washington Post reporter uncovered documents in the museum’s library showing that the painting was on loan there from 1937 until 1951. It was purchased at a Virginia flea market for $7. The Potomack Co. was set to auction the painting for as much as $100,000, but has put the sale on hold. The museum documents indicate the work was part of the collection of donor Saidie May and was stolen shortly after her death in 1951.
Pictured is a long unviewed painting, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Paysage Bords de Seine”, that was recently unknowingly purchased at a Virginia flea market and will be sold at The Potomack Company auction gallery in Alexandria, VA on September 29. The auction gallery estimates the painting will sell for $75,000-100,000.
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1mzDN)
Exhibit Recreates Kennedy Suite in Hotel Texas
The Second Bedroom, the president’s room, featured late 19th-century and early 20th-century American art, including Thomas Eakins’ Swimming, 1884–85; Marsden Hartley’s Sombrero with Gloves, 1936; and Charles Marion Russell’s Lost in a Snowstorm, 1888; among others.Purchased by the Friends of Art, Fort Worth Art Association, 1925; acquired by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 1990, from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through grants and donations from the Amon G. Carter Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, the Anne Burnett and Charles Tandy Foundation, Capital Cities/ABC Foundation, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The R. D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation and the people of Fort Worth 1990.19.1
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Dallas Museum of Art will bring together the works of art installed in the president’s suite at the Hotel Texas during his fateful trip to Texas in 1963. The original installation, orchestrated by a small group of Fort Worth art collectors, was created especially for the president and first lady in celebration of their overnight visit to the city and included paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Thomas Eakins, Lyonel Feininger, Franz Kline, and Marsden Hartley, and sculptures by Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore, among others. On view from May 26 through September 15, 2013, Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy will reunite the paintings, sculptures, and works on paper for the first time in their original gathering, highlighting the diverse and thoughtful installation of artworks brought together for the presidential couple. The exhibition is presented in association with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, where it will be on view October 12 through January 12. Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy will also reveal for the first time the complete story of the presidential Suite 850 installation, which had been overshadowed by the president’s tragic death, and examine the significance of art both to the Kennedys and to the Dallas–Fort Worth communities. Additionally, it will bring to light related materials, most of which have remained in private collections since 1963, including photographs, videos, and other archival materials, ranging from images of the suite prior to the couple’s arrival to documentation relating to the president’s assassination.
Houston Renoir Makes FBI Top Ten
A painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir stolen from a Houston home last year has been added to the FBI’s Top Ten Art Crimes list. Estimated to be worth $1 million, Madeleine Leaning on Her Elbow with Flowers in Her Hair, was stolen during an armed robbery in September, 2011. A reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of the painting ir being offered. Renoir painted the work in 1918. The canvas size is 50.17 x 41.28 centimeters, and the artist signed the oil portrait in the lower right corner. The painting was taken with its frame intact.
Toledo Museum is Exclusive U.S. Venue for Manet Exhibit
Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883), Madame Manet at the Piano, 1868. Oil on canvas, 38 × 46.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Legs du comte Isaac de Camondo, 1911 Photo © 2011. White Images / Scala, Florence
A U.S. exclusive of an international exhibition that spotlights the work of artist Édouard Manet opens in October at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) in Ohio. Co-organized by TMA and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Manet: Portraying Life brings together 40 portraits by Manet on loan from museums in Europe, North America and Japan as well as numerous photographs. This exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on Manet’s considerable talents as a portraitist. Among paintings visitors will see are Lady with a Fan (Jeanne Duval), 1862, lent by the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest; The Railway, 1872–73, from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; The Monet Family in their Garden at Argenteuil, 1874, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Émile Zola, 1868, from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
Supersize Me: Double da Vinci May Be in Last Meal
British art expert Ross King suggested recently Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper may contain two self portraits. The apostles standing to the right of Jesus appear to resemble a self-portrait of the artist produced years later. The apostles represented are apparently Thomas and James the Lesser. One expert told reporters da Vinci may like to represent the “doubting Thomas,” as he himself was a great believer in asking questions. Read more in The Independent.
Indiana Museum Discovers it Owns a Picasso, Decides to Sell
Raymond Loewy with “Seated Woman with Red Hat” (“Femme assise au chapeau rouge”) Image courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library © Roy Stevens. Provided with news release.
A glass painting in storage at Indiana’s Evansville Museum of Art was recently determined to have been made by Pablo Picasso, but was not identified as such when it was gifted to the institution in the 1960s. “Seated Woman with Red Hat” (“Femme assise au chapeau rouge”) c. 1954-1956 was created using a layered glass technique called gemmail (plural: gemmaux), pieces of colored glass overlapped and joined together with clear liquid enamel and fused with heat. Though it was signed by Picasso, it was mistakenly cataloged as being created by an artist named Gemmaux.
Raymond Loewy, an internationally known industrial designer, purchased “Seated Woman with Red Hat” in the late 1950s and gifted the piece to the Evansville Museum in 1963. It remained in storage for more than 50 years. Loewy’s connection to the Evansville Museum was through Siegfried R. Weng, the museum’s director at the time.
The museum has determined that the expense and added requirements to properly secure a piece of potentially significant value are too great.
Picasso Painting to Stay in Britain for Now
The BBC reports that a painting by Pablo Picasso destined for the national exit door will stay in Britain, at least for now. The culture minister has placed a temporary exit bar on Picasso’s Child With A Dove, which has been on public display there since the 1970s. Owned by the Aberconway family in Wales, the work was recently sold by Christie’s. The move gives cultural institutions time to attempt to raise enough money, perhaps in the neighborhood of $79 million, to keep it there.
Paley’s Taste for Modernism Coming to de Young
A selection of major works from The William S. Paley Collection at The Museum of Modern Art, New York will soon be on view at the de Young in San Francisco. The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism is particularly rich in the works of Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, with significant works by Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Roualt, and Andre Derain. Among the pieces offered are Gauguin’s The Seed of the Areoi (1892) from the artist’s first visit to Tahiti, Degas’ large-scale pastel and charcoal Two Dancers (1905), Picasso’s celebrated monumental painting, Boy Leading a Horse (1905–1906), Derain’s vibrant Fauve paintingBridge over the Riou (1906), and Matisse’s Odalisque with a Tambourine (1925–26). Paley was founder and force at Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). His art patronage, showcased during parties held in his palatial 20-room apartment on Fifth Avenue, projected an aura of cultural sophistication comparable to that cultivated by New York’s social elite.
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