The Frick Collection members' magazine (Fall 2012)

2012·21.1 MB·English

by  The Frick Collection

Letter [rom the Directar
A visit to the Frick is always memorable, as it
presents the opportunity to see magnificent
works ofartinabeautiful historie setting. What
many visitors may take for granted isour well-
maintained interiors and the immaculate state
ofpreservation ofour holdings. The museums
Conservation Department is responsible for
the condition ofthe house and the collection, aswellasmuch more behind the scenes.
In 2000 the institution hired its first full-time objects conservator. The department
now comprises Chief Conservator Joseph Godla, Associate Conservator Julia Day, and
technicians Adrian Anderson and Patriek King. In consultation with the Curatorial
Department, the conservators perform necessary treatments onthe Collection's sculptures
and decorative arts (including frames, furniture, and ceramics) to stabilize their condition
and preserve their aesthetic appearance. These treatments-often involving hundreds
of hours of work-require expert hand skills and a knowledge of material science. The
department is also responsible for monitoring environmental conditions in the galleries
to ensure the safedisplay ofartworks.
Toassess the conservation needs ofthe collection, the department conducts targeted
surveys. For example, a review of our sixteenth-century Limoges enamels identified a
problem of deterioration in sorne of these works. A yearlong campaign of treatment
ensued, followed bythe creation ofahumidification system and LEDlighting that incor-
porated the latest technology into the enamels' original 1935 display cases. Results ofthe
project were shared in asymposium hosted bythe Frick, an example ofthe department's
many educational initiatives. Another recent project, the technieal study ofIehan Barbet's
Angel, has prompted are-evaluation ofthis earlyFrench bronze sculpture (seethe articles
in this issue). Currently the staffisbusy conserving anumber ofour important clocksfor
an exhibition that opens in January.
Before permanent staff positions were established, conservation for the Collection
was done on a contractual basis. We still maintain a relationship with The Metropolitan
Museum of Art's Paintings Conservation Department; its technical study of Bellini's
St. Prancis in the Desert and Renoir's Promenade contributed to reinterpretations that were
presented in recent exhibitions.
Preserving the historie Friek family mansion and its interiors is one of the depart-
ment's most critical roles. This entails everything from supervising the reproduction of
damasks for the Anteroom to overseeing treatment ofthe Herat carpet in the LivingHall
tothe renovation ofthe Library galleryin2011.Recently,wehavebeen focusing onrelight-
ingthe galleries.TheFragonard Room wasone ofthe firsttointroduce asystemthat subtly
blends artificial and natural light, thereby enhancing the brilliance of the paintings pre-
sented. TheWest Gallery lighting wasvastly improved in 2010, and studies are under way
to identify the best waysto reveal the glory ofthe English portraits in the Dining Room.
Tolearn more about the Conservation Department, please visit our Website.
With best wishes,
Ian Wardropper
Director
THE FRICK COLLECTION
MEMBERS' MAGAZINE FALL 2012
2 SPECIAL EXHIBITION
Mantegna ta Matisse:
Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery
8 SPECIAL LOAN
A"Painting in Clogs":Van Gogh's Portrait of a Peasant
from the Norton Simon Museum
12 PERMANENT COLLECTION
Iehan Barbet's Angel: A Fifteenth-Century Bronze
by aMaster Founder
16 COLLECTION NEWS
ACannon Maker and His Angel:ATechnical Study
18 COMMUNITY
SpecialEvents Bring Donors Together:
Spring Party, Director's Circle Dinner, and Garden Party
20 CALENDAR
Lectures, Concerts, Seminars, and Museum Shop
LEFT
Thefireplace inthe Fragonard Room, TheFrickCollection
FRONT COVER
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), detail ofPortrait ofaPeasant (Patience Escalier), 1888,
oiloncanvas,Norton Simon Art Foundation; photograph byStaceyRain Strickler
BACK COVER
TheGarden Court ofTheFrickCollection with Jehan Barbets bronze Angel, 1475;
photograph byMichael Bodycomb
SPECIAL EXHIBITION
Mantegna ta Matisse
Master Drawings [rom The Courtauld Gallery
October 2, 2012, through January 27,2013
E
stablished in 1932 as an academie many ofwhich are making their firstvisit to alsofunctioned aspreliminary ideas for nar-
center devoted to the study of art New Yorkfor this exhibition, offersaflorile- rativepaintings, such asinthe caseofVittore
history, The Courtauld Institute of Art is gium ofthe collection aswell as exemplifies Carpaccio's double-sided Virgin Reading to
Great Britain'smost prestigious institution of the different purposes and functions that the Infant Christ (late 1480sor early 1490S)
undergraduate and postgraduate education drawing has served during the Renaissance, or Paolo Veronese's quickly rendered groups
in this discipline. In planning the Institute Baroque, and modern periods. in a pen-and-ink study for the enormous
in 1927,two of its founders, SirRobert Witt In many cases, drawings functioned painting Christ Carrying the Cross of 1571.
(a lawyer) and Samuel Courtauld (a textile as studies for single figures that were part Drawings also may have served asaform of
manufacturer) visited Harvard University's of larger compositions. Jacopo Tintoretto's note-taking or asan aide-mémoire to record
recently created Fogg Art Museum. It was Male Figure Bending Forward (c. 1575-85), asignificant visual experience, such asPeter
the intention of the three founders- the for example, relates to acommission for the Paul Rubens's black chalk copy of about
third being the politician and diplomat ducal palace in Venice, while Jean-Antoine 1608, made after the head of the Farnese
Viscount Lee of Fareham-that, as part of Watteau's Satyr Pouring Wine (1717)isarare Hercules, one of the most famous classical
its mission, the Courtauld train its students preparatory study for Autumn, one of four statues in Rome, which he encountered dur-
byfamiliarizing them with original works of allegories intended to decorate the dining ing his staysin that cityasayoung artist.
art, as well as with reproductive prints and room ofaParisian hôtelparticulier. Drawings Some of the most finished and meticu-
photographs ofpaintings. louslydrawnsheetspresented intheexhibition
Named after its most generous bene- were intended forreproduction byengravers:
factor, whose house in Portman Square, Maerten van Heemskerck'sColossus ofRhodes
designed by Robert Adam in the mid-rzzos, (1570), Johannes Stradanuss Pearl Diving
wasthe Institutes first home, The Courtauld (c. 1596), and J.M.W Turner's Colchester,
Gallery is perhaps most famous for its Essex (c.1825-26)allweremade with replica-
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paint- tion in mind. In addition to Michelangelo's
ings. (The Institute and Gallery moved to Dream (page 4)-the most celebrated of all
their current premises at Somerset House in the Courtauld's independent drawings-the
1989.)The Gallery alsoboasts acollection of exhibition includes a range of self-sufficient
some 7,000 works on paper-more than a compositions in a variety of techniques and
third ofwhich are from the British school- degrees of finish. Pieter Bruegel the Elder's
ranging from the early Renaissance to the astonishing Storm in the River Schelde with
twentieth century. A selection of fifty-eight a View of Antwerp (c. 1559)is an exception-
of The Courtauld Gallery's finest drawings, allyturbulent marine view that served as an
autonomous sheet with a neo-Stoic subtext.
Charles-JosephNatoires immaculately drawn
RIGHT
and colored Life Class at the Royal Academy
Leonardo daVinci (1452-1519), Studies for Saint Mary
Magdalene, c.1480-82, pen and inkonpaper. Images of Painting and Sculpture, signed and dated
illustrated arefrom the collection ofTheCourtauld
1746,waskeptbyNatoire formore than thirty
Gallery,London.
years and served as a pictorial testament to
OPPOSITE PAGE the precepts and values of the state system
Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557), Seated Youth (recto),
c.1520,blackchalk onpaper in which all artists were trained during the
2 The Frick Collection
SPECIAL EXHIBITION
to her right, eyes upturned. In the smaller
sketch below, Leonardo made the radieal
adjustment ofhaving the Magdalene, initially
shown inprofile,confront theviewerdirectly.
In this quickly executed drawing, we almost
seeher head turn. Ithas been suggested that
Leonardo has portrayed the Magdalene as
she gazes directly at the risen Christ at the
exact moment that she recognizes his divin-
ity. In contemporary devotional literature,
the sense of sight was understood to repre-
sent the Magdalene's most elevated love of
Christ; the twelfth-century Cistercian theo-
logian Bernard of Clairvaux wrote in his
Sermon on the Song ofSongs that shehad seen
hirn "with the mind's eye"
A drawing by a Florentine artist of the
next generation bears the marks not only
of its maker, but of the members of his
workshop in whose hands it may have cir-
culated; the sheet is heavily stained with
splashes of gray-black ink. Pontorrno's riv-
eting Seated Youth (left) most likely shows
one of his apprentices, or garzoni, posed
on stone steps, resting his right arm and
shoulder on a block and bringing his left
hand to his mouth in a gesture of anxiety.
The boys eyes are wide open, and both his
facial expression and body language seem
ancien régime. Honoré Daumier's watercolor made in -Florence early in his career, for to register fear. This drawing from lifewas
LeMalade imaginaire (c.1850), acomie inter- paintings that were never realized. Although done quicklyand confidently, with Pontormo
pretation of a scene from Molières last play, independent devotional paintings of the revising onlythe placement ofthe boy's right
has the refinement and finish that rivals his Magdalene were unknown at this time, arm. Although itsmain contours areincised,
small cabinet pietures and may have been Leonardo was following the standard depic- the study-like all of those by Pontormo
made expresslyforthe market. tion ofthe sinner whohumbled herselfbefore that show his apprentices in their aprons
Leonardo's pen-and-ink Studies for Saint Christ bybathing his feetwith her tears and and stockings-cannot be related to a fin-
Mary Magdalene (left), in which the saint is drying them with her hair, then anointing ished mural or drawing. Pontormo mayhave
shown carrying an open oil jar wrapped in them withperfumed oils.Heprobably started based the pose ofhis modelon the figure of
cloth, are most likely compositional ideas, with the larger motif of the saint looking Heraclitus/Miehelangelo in Raphael's fresco
Members' Magazine Fall 2012 3

SPECIAL EXHIBITION
of the School of Athens. However, it is also
probable that he directed the boy to assume
a quite different expression from Raphael's
prototype-both of face and body-trans-
forming the figure study into an exploration
ofthe depiction offear.
From a decade later, Michelangelo's
Dream or Il Sogno (opposite page)-the
title given to this sheet by Giorgio Vasari in
lS68-is an early example of a meticulously
finished composition intended as an inde-
pendent work of art. This complex, enig-
matie allegory was in all probability made
for a young Roman noble, Tommaso de'
Cavalieri, who studied Michelangelo's draw-
ingscarefully and shared them with sophisti-
cated connoisseurs in his circle.Abeautiful,
muscular male nude resting against asphere
is shown seated on a box, open to reveal a
jumble oftheatrical masks. Awinged figure,
sounding a trumpet that is directed at the
youth's forehead, descends from the sky.
Behind these central figures are groups of und Aspang. The Austrian count was an art intimate studies of Helena, probably made
men and women who engage in violent and historian who, atthe ageofthirty, inherited a at the same sitting, each of which may be
bestial activities associated with the seven fortune from his grandmother and began to considered independent works that are not
deadly sins. Two disembodied hands to the collect Old Master paintings and drawings. preparatory forafinished painting. (Rubenss
right ofthe angel hold apurse bulging with Rubenss Helena Fourment (above), the mag- full-Iength portrait ofFourment, now in the
coins; another hand, less easy to decipher, nificent chalk portrait of his second wife, is Louvre, is more formal in presentation and
to the left ofthe kissing couple beneath the oneofthe masterworks ofthe Courtauld. The showsher with averydifferent countenance.)
angel, clasps a phallus. The composition sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy silk The artist's depiction of his young bride's
seems to address an eternal theme: how to and tapestry merchant, Helena ismost likely face, with its soft, rosy skin and somewhat
overcome temptation and achieve avirtuous shown soon after her marriage to the fifty- vulnerable expression, is a technical and
life, with the youth embodying the human three-year-old Rubens in December 1630.
mind awakened from evildreams. Here she clasps aprayer book in her gloved
ABOVE
Twenty-nine of the drawings in the cur- left hand; her beautiful bare right hand, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Helena Fourment,
c.1630-31, black,red,andwhite chalkwithpen and
rent exhibition (including those byLeonardo, drawn in red,black,and white chalk, reaches
inkonpaper
Pontormo, Michelangelo, and Rubens) up to catch the mande or veil that was sus-
entered The Courtauld Gallery in 1978as a pended from the top of her headdress. This OPPOSITE PAGE
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), The Dream
bequest from Antoine Edward, Count Seilern sheet isone ofthree similarly large-scale yet (IlSogno), c.1533,blackchalk onpaper
Members' Magazine Fall 2012 5
SPECIAL EXHIBITION
prominent laid lines. Seurat may have made
this drawing in his final year at the École
des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied
between 1876 and 1879. Aswould have been
appropriate for this fairly convention al aca-
dernie exercise, Seurat places his model in
the center of the page and depicts her full
length against adark background. There isa
certain awkwardness in Seurat's grasp ofhis
model's anatomy. His repeated delineation
of the model's right breast-not altogether
successful-and the incomplete hands and
feet also suggest that the female nude still
presented certain challenges at this early
stage of his career. Seurat's model might
have been allowed to rest her right knee on
a chair to support her weight, a concession
not available to those who posed for more
formal exercises.Thecontours ofthe model's
anatomy are defined byshading and smudg-
ing the crayon with a sturnp; there are no
independent outlines in this académie, and
the pulsating energy ofSeurat'shand endows
the sheet with extraordinary sensuality, soft-
ness, and atmosphere.
The grandest of the works on paper
bequeathed by Courtauld to the Gallery is
psychological tour de force. She is literally founder, Samuel Courtauld, who had Paul Cézanne's Apples, Bottle, and Chairback
and figuratively unveiled for the beholders been advised in his early acquisitions of (opposite page), a watercolor made in the
delectation. Impressionist works by Roger Fry. (Fry last years of the artist's life. Here Cézanne
The Gallery's renowned holdings of was briefly an advisor to Henry Clay Frick; literally floods the paper with color and
French nineteenth -century paintings and it was he who had been responsible for light, achieving a freshness and radiance
drawings were the gift of its eponymous Frick'spurchase ofRembrandt's Polish Rider that equal, if not surpass, his late paintings
in 1910.) Georges Seurat's vibrant Pemale in oil.This festive stilllife consists of ablue
ABOVE Nude (above)-one of the very few studies and white faience dish, placed at the cen-
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Pemale Nude, c.1879-81,
of naked women that the artist made- ter of the table and filled with apples. Five
blackConté crayon overgraphite onpaper
emerges from a web of black Conté crayon apples have tumbled from the dish and now
OPPOSITE PAGE marks, applied with considerable energy sit apart on the table; a sixth seems to be in
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Apples, Bottle, and
Chairback, c.1904-6, graphite and watercolor onpaper onto richly textured Michallet paper with its the process ofjoining them. At left, aboule
6 The Prick Collection
SPECIAL EXHIBITION
with its neck truncated glows almost black. the monumentality and solidity ofthe com- The exhibition isorganized by Colin B.Bailey,
In front ofit isatall, empty wine glasswith position. Despite its mundane subject mat- Deputy Director and Peter lay Sharp Chief
an elegantturned stern;Cézanne haspainted ter, Cézanne's Apples, Bottle, and Chairback Curator, The Frick Collection, and Stephanie
itblue to reflect the hues ofthe faience dish. achieves a grandeur and joyousness that are Buck, Martin Halusa Curator of Drawings at
Anchoring the composition in the back- celebratory. ''A strong sensation of nature;' The Courtauld Gallery, London. Support for
ground isthe ornamental back ofawooden Cézanne wrote to a friend in January 1904, thepresentation inNew Yorkisgenerously pro-
chair ofvaguely Baroque design. In its turn, "was the necessary basis of every concep- vided by Jean-Marie and Elizabeth Eveillard,
the chairback frames a view of the colored tion of art:' No less essential, however, was The Christian Humann Foundation, ThePeter
wallpaper in the background. Vibrancy is to know the "means ofexpressing our emo- IaySharp Foundation, thelateMelvin R.Seiden
everywhere. tion;' something that could only be gained in honor ofNeil and Angelica Rudenstine, the
Cézanne composes in both line and "through long experience:' In its fusion Joseph F McCrindle Foundation, Diane Allen
color; the vigorous graphite underdrawing of deeply felt emotion and mastery of the Nixon, and an anonymous gift in honor of
functions not only as a sort of armature or means of expression, the Courtauld's mag- Colin B. Bailey and in memory of Melvin
palimpsest, but reinforces the structure of isterial, late watercolor perfectly exemplifies R. Seiden. The exhibition isalso supported by
every object, endowing each motif with an Cézanne's credo.-Colin B. Bailey, Deputy an indemnity from the Federal Council on the
interior dynamism that in no way impugns Director and Peter lay Sharp Chief Curator Arts and the Humanities.
Members' Magazine Fall 2012 7
SPECIAL LOAN
A "Painting in Clogs"
Van Gogh's Portrait of a Peasant from the Norton Simon Museum
October 30, 2012,through [anuary 20, 2013
W
ritingfromArlesonAugust18,1888, symbolic associations. Atthe same time, the that makes possible the exchange of single
Vincent van Gogh announced to sitter,whom he refers to in another letter as works for aperiod ofthree months.
his brother and dealer, Theo, "You'llshortly a "pure-bred" peasant, brings hirn back to The Dutch-born Vincent van Gogh
make the acquaintance of Mr. Patience his earlywork inNuenen, Holland, inwhich arrived in Arles in February 1888 and
Escalier-a sort of man with a hoe, an old he aspired to be a "peasant painter" and to remained there until May 1889, when illness
Camargue oxherd, who's now a gardener at dignify and giverecognition to the common forced hirn to leave. In Paris, where he had
afarmstead inthe Crau:' Hewasreferring to man through portraiture. spent the previous twoyears,the largelyself-
the painting known asPortrait of a Peasant Portrait of a Peasant (Patience Escalier) taught minister's son studied in the atelier
(Patience Escalier), nowinthe Norton Simon remained in private hands from the end of of Fernand Cormon and befriended such
Museum, inPasadena, California. Thedraw- the nineteenth century until 1975, when it artists as Camille Pissarro, Émile Bernard,
ing in reed pen (opposite page) that he had wasacquired bythe entrepreneur and indus- and Paul Gauguin. There he also gained
made after the painting and enclosed in his trialist Norton Simon for the museum he familiarity with the Impressionists' optical
letter to Theo would not have prepared his founded in Pasadena; since then, it has not mixing of colors, Seurat's pointillism, and
brother for the shock of the life-size, bust- left the institution. This exceptional oppor- the Symbolists' ideas ofthe relation ofcolor
length figure painted in vivid blue, bright tunity to display the painting in New York to emotion. His palette brightened, and he
yellow, and green, with a network of reds, isthe result of arecent program established shared with his fellowartists an apprecia-
gold, and green in the face (seecover). Such between the Norton Simon and the Frick tion ofIapanese prints, with their fiatforms,
audacity in portraiture would not be seen
again until the early twentieth century in
the work of Matisse. The painting, together
with Vincent's many statements about his
artistic process and the deep significance of
portraiture forhirn atthis time, isaprofound
testament toaturning point inagreat artist's
work. Using high-keyed colors, he stepped
boldly offthe path of strict naturalistic rep-
resentation into a more subjective realm in
which he attempted to express the spirit or
essence of his sitter through color and its
RIGHT
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Harvest atLa Crau with
Montmajour intheBackground, 1888, oiloncanvas,
VanGogh Museum, Amsterdam
OPPOSITE PAGE
VanGogh, Peasant oftheCamargue (Patience
Escalier), 1888,brown inkovergraphite onpaper,
Harvard ArtMuseums/Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge,
Massachusetts
8 The Prick Collection