Parking Lot Moment
Driving in to work today I heard a story on NPR that kept me in my car long after I arrived at my destination. The story talks about the murals that are on view at the Justice Department headquarters. It was an incredible reminder of the power that art can have in educating, inspiring, and uniting the country.
The artwork above is in the Carter’s collection, but not currently on view. It is by John Steuart Curry, one of the artists featured in the story. The image is of John Brown who is one of the more controversial figures in our nation’s history.
One More List
Thank you to Gaile Robinson at the Fort Worth Star Telegram for including Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism in her list of best exhibitions in 2008.
More Lists
I want to send a special thank you to our friend over at Fort Worth West and Clear for including two Carter exhibitions, Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s and Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism in the list of top five art events in 2008. Take a moment to check out two of the great exhibitions that will be on view in 2009.
Marsden Makes the Top Ten
In case you missed it, on Friday Michael Granberry at the Dallas Morning News included the Carter’s exhibition, Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for American Modernism in his list of Top Ten Art Happenings in 2008.
Put Some Howdy in Your Holiday!
Frederic S. Remington (1861–1909)
A Dash for the Timber,1889
Oil on canvas
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
1961.381
Calling all cowboys and cowgirls—come on down to the Carter for this month’s Target Family Fun Day, Holiday Howdy! From 1 to 4 p.m. this Sunday, cowpokes of all ages can participate in the many minds-on activities that are designed to bring the Carter’s outstanding collection of Western art to life. In addition to fun looking and art-making activities, representatives from the Fort Worth Herd will be onsite (and in full Drover attire) from 1 to 3 to demonstrate the skills and tools that real cowboys and cowgirls need to do their jobs. From 3 to 4, join us for a poetry slam—cowboy style—as students from Timberview High School in Mansfield read the cool cowboy poems that they wrote after seeing the works of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell during their October field trip to the Carter. The day is sure to be a hoot and a holler, and we hope to see y’all there!
Behind the Seen
Have you ever wondered what happened to the person after their portrait was painted?
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Alice Vanderbilt Shepard, 1888
Oil on canvas
1999.20
At the time that this portrait was painted, Alice Vanderbilt Shepard was a member of one of the richest families in America, perhaps even the world. Her grandfather William Henry Vanderbilt inherited 90 million dollars from his father, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, and then turned that into an even greater fortune when he became president of the New York Central Railroad.
John Singer Sargent was one of the most popular portrait painters of his era. He met Alice while painting this portrait of her mother.
Portrait of Mrs. Elliot Fitch Shepard (Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt), 1888
Oil on canvas
San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Lillie and Roy Cullen Endowment Fund
84.57
While painting this portrait, Sargent became familiar with the entire Shepard family and was so captivated by the eldest daughter, Alice, that he asked permission to paint her portrait—which was very unusual for Sargent. At first Mrs. Shepard refused saying that Alice, then thirteen years old, could not withstand the tedious sittings. According to Alice’s granddaughter, Alice was something of a tomboy, and a few years before this painting was completed, she had fallen out of a tree and damaged her spine. Mrs. Shepard relented only when Sargent assured her that the number of sittings would be limited and short in length.
Look closely at the portrait the next time you are at the museum. Notice the difference in the amount of attention that Sargent paid to Alice’s face versus the rest of her body. Look at her expression, what do you think she was thinking? Look at her posture. Scholars have supposed that her rail-straight posture coupled with the pillow behind her are helping her withstand the pressure on her back that sitting for the portrait must have caused.
This portrait is a favorite stop for tours of audiences of all ages—in fact it is one of two portraits that open the “Eye for Detail” program that we offer to all first-year medical students at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. It is interesting to note that regardless of age, education, etc. there are always a few people in each group that first assume when they look at the portrait that this is a young boy. Alice’s hairstyle and outfit, which are both reminiscent of something you might see in a portrait of one of our founding fathers, always throws them.
Turns out, Alice was right in style for the time, as you can see from this photograph of her that was taken around the time that the portrait was painted.
Many years later…
Alice studied at Radcliffe College and married a young man named Daven Hennen Morris. Mr. Morris would later become a lawyer and diplomat. Together they had five children—two sons and three daughters.
Even though Alice was busy as a wife and mother, she found time to develop an international language that is still used today by medical and scientific professionals. Go here for more information on this incredible woman.
Get Behind the Visual Arts
Driving into work today, I heard a teaser for a segment that will appear on this evening’s All Things Considered. The teaser reads as follows: When Barack Obama was a child, arts education was different than it is now. Now a well-connected musician has an idea for the president-elect: MusicianCorps which is sort of a Peace Corps for musicians.It got me to thinking about what would need to happen in order to create a Visual Arts Corps program, and all of a sudden I was overwhelmed by what seemed like an insurmountable task.
Music educators do an outstanding job of organizing their advocacy efforts for continued support of music education in schools—perhaps the best known example of this is VH1’s Save the Music Foundation. Unfortunately, visual arts educators haven’t been as successful in creating and presenting a unified front to support their efforts. Perhaps this is because there are so many different views on what a visual arts program should be. Some arts educators focus on art-making alone, others focus on art history and criticism, while others look at putting art in the larger cross-curricular context. I am of the mind-set that a sustainable visual arts program should include aspects of all of these, but realize that despite our better efforts this isn’t always possible.
As Chair of the Museum Division of the Texas Art Education Association, I recently facilitated a discussion between museum educators representing museums from across Texas that tried to nail down in tangible terms the reasons why field trips to art museums are a vital part of every student’s education. During the discussion we grappled with the following ideas: How do we verbally describe the wonderful things that we see taking place in our galleries on a daily basis? How can we encapsulate how cool it is to see a student who isn’t successful in the classroom setting, succeed in confidently describing their observations and opinions in the museum? How do we tell you that exposing students to different types of environments and information is vital to their development as human beings? Not to mention the benefits of seeing and hearing different points of view that students may not be exposed to otherwise. The gains that we see can’t be measured by a standardized test, or any other short-term methods, does that make them any less worthy?
Perhaps the time has come to “Save the Visual Arts” and organize our efforts as visual arts educators (both in the museum and in the classroom) to make a unified and clear case for why visual arts education is an integral part of every student’s experience.
Behind the Seen
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Thunder Shower, 1940
Oil and wax emulsion on canvas
1967.190
After focusing on three very realistic looking artworks in our collection, I thought it would be nice to switch gears and talk about something different.
Thunder Shower is one of my favorite artworks at the Carter. When I look at it, I feel like I have a better sense of what it would be like to be in the landscape than I do when I look at the Whittredge.
The artist, Arthur Dove, used both bright and muted colors and coupled these with expressive forms and shapes to show us what it was like for him to drive through a hail storm. Look slowly, can you feel the vibrations and hear the sounds that accompany that lighting strike?
Dove, like many other artists of the time, subscribed to the ideas related to the theory of synesthesia, which (in very simplified terms) refers to moments when an individual who receives stimulus in one sense simultaneously experiences a sensation in another. For example, if you are like me and hear the sounds of thunder when you look at this painting, you are experiencing a type of artistic synesthesia. This may be why I feel like I know more about being in this landscape when I look at it then I do when I look at the Whittredge.
A critic once said of Dove’s art, “To show the pigeons would not do/and so he simply paints the coo.” Which do you feel is better at capturing the essence of the “pigeon”?
Behind the Seen
Worthington Whittredge (1820–1910)
On the Cache La Poudre River, Colorado, 1876
Oil on canvas
1975.4
Pop Quiz
What does the above painting have in common with this painting?
Answer: Whittredge, the artist who created the above landscape painting, served as a model for both George Washington and a steerman in Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting, which is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Whittredge is hardly a household name now, but in his time he was a highly regarded artist and was friends with several leading American artists including Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford. Whittredge traveled widely and excelled at landscape paintings, many of which are now on view in major museums.
Whittredge was born in a log cabin near Springfield, Ohio in 1820. He painted landscapes and portraits as a young man in Cincinnati before traveling to Europe in 1849 to further his artistic training. While in Germany he studied with Leutze at the Düsseldorf Academy, a major art school of the period.
Whittredge spent nearly ten years in Europe, meeting and traveling with other important artists including Gifford. He returned to the U.S. in 1859 and settled in New York where he launched his career as a landscape artist painting in the Hudson River School style.
Between 1866 and 1871, Whittredge made three trips to the Rocky Mountains and found his inspiration in the open expanse of the Great Plains. “I had never seen the plains or anything like them,” he wrote. “They impressed me deeply. I cared more for them than for the mountains … [and] could hardly fail to be impressed with [their] vastness and silence.” The Carter’s painting, a study of the cottonwood trees along the Cache La Poudre River framing a view to the mountains beyond, is one of the grandest productions to come from Whittredge’s experience in the West.
Behind the Seen
William M. Harnett (1848–1892)
Ease, 1887
Oil on canvas
1972.2
Over the next few weeks, I hope to share some of my favorite “behind the seen” stories about a few of the works in the Carter’s collection. It is my hope that these stories will inspire you to take a closer look at the works of art in our collection.
This painting, Ease, was commissioned by James T. Abbe, of Springfield, MA, the owner of the Holyoke Envelope Company and president of the company that published the Springfield Daily Union. Mr. Abbe was considered a successful businessman, an art connoisseur, and critic.
A report in the Springfield Daily Republican stated that Ease was done “to order” for Abbe by noted trompe l’oeil painter, William M. Harnett (1848-1892). The artist took seven months to paint it. Unfortunately, not long after the painting was completed, a fire destroyed the Holyoke Envelope Company. Scholars have speculated that Abbe’s financial concerns, resulting from the factory fire, prompted the sale of Ease to California railroad tycoon Collis P. Huntington for $6,000.
Huntington had several mansions and an extensive art collection that was widely dispersed following his death. Huntington’s home in San Francisco was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, and it was assumed that the Ease was destroyed as well. For many years the only proof of Ease was a photograph that had been taken of the original painting.
In March, 1971, while working on Harnett’s biography, Alfred Frankenstein received a call from an art gallery owner in California. She described a painting that had been brought to her for cleaning and that she suspected might have been done by Harnett. Frankenstein asked her if the painting had a palm leaf fan on the right-hand side, and when she confirmed that there was a fan there he knew that Ease had been found.
While piecing together the story of the painting’s whereabouts since 1906, Frankenstein discovered that it had been damaged in that tragic fire. The canvas had been trimmed on all sides, likely to remove smoke or fire damaged areas, and Harnett’s original signature, that had been in the lower left corner, was lost in the trimming. Frankenstein’s research also revealed that the painting was a part of the San Francisco Art Association until around 1919 and then was in the collection of a private family for several generations. It remained in the basement of at least one family member for many years. The owner’s renewed interest in the painting led her to contact someone who might be able to identify and clean it.
Until 1971, the photographs of Ease were the only proof that the painting had once existed. Today, you can see it in the Carter’s second floor painting and sculpture galleries.