Harvard museums to sell Cassatt work

The Boston Globe ^ | November 23, 2005 | Geoff Edgers

[Republicanprofessor]

Harvard University Art Museums officials have decided to sell a Mary Cassatt painting that Christie's auction house estimates could bring as much as $5 million when it goes on the block Dec. 1. The brightly colored oil, titled ''Mother and Two Children," explores a familiar motif for the American-born artist, who spent most of her life in France.

| Breaking News Alerts Painted in 1906, the work was given to Harvard in 1922 by Ernest G. Stillman, a member of the class of 1907. The painting has rarely been on display. Money from the sale will go into the museums' acquisitions fund and is most likely to be used to buy a work by the same artist, according to Theodore Stebbins, curator of American Art at the Fogg Art Museum.

Mary Cassatt's a very important painter, and we'd really like to have her brilliantly represented here," said Stebbins. ''So if we could buy one of the great, early Cassatt pastels or one of the great Cassatt color prints, that's certainly something we would like to do."

[Republicanprofessor]

This is the only image I could find under the title in the article. I hope it is the right one.

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping.

Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off this list.

[opocno]

This is why you should never give anything to a university, you should LEND it. Never give a university the principal - put it in a trust and let them have the interest.

[battlegearboat]

Poor Harvard.

[nuconvert]

They're selling this Cassatt to buy another?

[Non-Sequitur]

This is why you should never give anything to a university, you should LEND it. Never give a university the principal - put it in a trust and let them have the interest.

On the other hand the painting was donated to the museum 83 years ago. It's not like they got it yesterday and flipped it immediately for a quick profit. It's been in storage most of that time, not a centerpiece of any show. I don't see where the family has any real grounds to complain.

[sgtbono2002]

This picture presents a mother and two kids ,

Thats not a liberal agenda.

Its gotta go.

Maybe they can take the money and buy an artists rendition of a feces covered Madonna.

[Non-Sequitur]

This picture presents a mother and two kids, Thats not a liberal agenda.

You are assuming that the mother is married to the children's father. Cassatt did paint in Paris after all.

Maybe they can take the money and buy an artists rendition of a feces covered Madonna.

The religious figure or the pop star?

[sgtbono2002]

The pop star covers herself in feces.

[GladesGuru]

"This is why you should never give anything to a university, you should LEND it. Never give a university the principal - put it in a trust and let them have the interest."

RIGHT ON ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

The University of Miami (UM) once had some 6,400 acres of land in the Everglades. But the UM administration gave the 6,400 acres to the Department of the Inferior and made the following serious, irreversible errors when they surrendered that land.

1. UM administration did not consult with the faculty before surrendering the land.

2. UM did not insist on research and educational access for students and faculty, in perpetuity, as a condition of the gift of deed.

3. UM administration surrendered the mineral rights which included a known oil well which produced oil at, as I remember, about 11,500 feet. Dr. Rich showed me a sample in a glass jar.

4. That well is located on a fill pad just a few hundred yards to the east of my private inholding in what is now (unfortunately) the Big Cypress National Preserve.

5. Between that oil well pad and my driveway are the remains of the old UM field research facility, now abandoned for decades as ParcMan banned the University from using the donated lands.

Both university administration and foundation management tend to be taken over by Communism Lite types. In the case of UM, this is clear and unambiguous. Art Marshall was faculty, and Dr. Rich was quite aware of, and related to me in detail, how Art went to the "People's Republic of Eugene' as Dr. Rich called it.

There Art saw the wonders of state wide land use planning, which we in the FR community know as socialism, and brought it to Florida. In so doing, he began the conversion of Florida into FloriDUH.

Dr. Rich also related how Art liked to "walk the halls of power" in Tallahassee, playing the political game without having to stand for office. He thought this was both highly inappropriate for an academic and indicative of a number of most undesirable character flaws.

Given the advanced state of socialism in Florida, one has to admit that Dr. Rich had a point.

Summary: Trust no university, much less any NGO, to carry out your wishes. In time, your hard earned gift will likely be casually disposed of by a quacking flock of socialist ducks Hell-bent on advancing some socialist goal.

[Sam Cree]

Are they making a good move here, RP?

[Sam Cree]

So how do you get along with Ms Shalala? I hear she is a good fund raiser.

[GladesGuru]

Dr. Rich was first a professor in a number of courses I took, then a friend, then a member of the original Everglades Institute Board of Directors.

He was a product of the University of Chicago and Berkley, back before it became more accurately known as "Berserkley". He studied under some of the best minds of his time, and while a New Deal Democrat at heart, and deeply disturbed by my friendship with some of the principles of the Republican Revolution, could still accurately and fairly relate what had happened and who did what to whom and why.

He was never a member of either the Communism Lite bunch nor was he a practitioner of "Agenda Uber Alles". The lovely MS Shalala, alas is not cut from the same bolt of cloth as was Dr. Rich.

Come to think of it, I think she was a Clinton character. Her appointment to what has become known as Suntan U surprised me not at all. The large majority of the earlier donor crowd at that university was influenced by the Miami Jewish community.

Those donors devotion to what can (with an English level of understatement) be considered socialism is a matter of history.

That such an institution would select a leading exponent of Communism Lite to fill the office of President of that university therefore surprised me not at all.

As an example of the level of socialism and revisionist history at one of America's universities, look up "That Turkey Is Marxist" on the FR search engine.

Yes, I am including a Maggot Gagging Bad Socialism alert, but read it anyway. It is almost surely going to be as great a surprise to you as it was to me.

[Sam Cree]

How do you like the Cassat painting?

[GladesGuru]

I was somewhat underwhelmed. But, I was shaped by somewhat different schools of art. One very pleasing influence was a lovely young lady I met in the Boston Museum of Fine art while I was examining a detail of a painting.

I asked her what her opinion of a rather puzzling, vaguely birdlike figure might be.

That led to a discussion of landscape paintings in general. She mentioned that one of her relatives was represented by a number of large landscapes in the museum's permanent collection.

She sensed my skepticism, took my hand and said,Let's go look at them." I followed her don some corridors to where a guard sat in a chair. He looked up and said "Coming to look at those paintings your grandfather did, Ann."

At that point I realized it was premise revision time. Ann's last name was Ver Planck and her relative was a member of what the art world calls the Hudson River school. And, I lived near the Hudson for a year or three.

Light, especially the surrounding, warmly ebveloping light in some paintings turned out to be a real, though short lived phenominon. My landscapes are done with a Noblex 150U because the instructor in Woodstock kindly told me I had at least 20 years ahead of me before I could consider doing a landscape in oil. I switched to photography that week when my step father gave me a 21/4X31/4 Graphic and Ansel Adams basic Photo series.

I like Rennaissance oils, and once saw a stained glass work by Titian (owned by an auctioneer who kept a goodie for himself) which was absolutely magnificent. Ah well, back to mere photos with me.

[Republicanprofessor]

I had to post and run this morning, so I never got much time to write my own opinions.

I'm not thrilled about this painting; there's something stiff about it. If it is usually in storage, perhaps it is a good idea to sell this for an earlier, more freely executed oil or one of her pastels. I like her pastels the best. There is a freshness to them, and perhaps that would round out their collection more.

What is really a shame is when musuems sell established masterpieces that may not be in style right at the moment and then buy some contemporary $#@^ for their permanent collection. But that does not seem to be the issue here.

[Sam Cree]

The Hudson River Valley is one of the all time beautiful areas of the US, IMO.

Do you remember the name of your friend's relative?

[conservative in nyc]

Was there some other thread on Harvard's Cassat painting? The Harvard Crimson published an article today stating in part:

In response to concerns, Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., graduate of Harvard Law School in 1964 and curator of American Art at the Fogg Art Museum said, “I think that if the painting was donated last year, then it would be insensitive, but after 77 years, it’s not insensitive, but instead impractical to attempt to contact a scattered group of descendants of the initial benefactor.”

But some criticize the sale on the grounds that the Fogg Museum is getting rid of an artwork of great aesthetic significance in order to increase its endowment, according to comments on internet blogs such as www.freerepublic.com.

Someone poster may be quasi-famous.

[Republicanprofessor]

A cool reference. Thanks.

My husband has often had his posts so referenced, and this makes me feel pretty good. But one could question how closely this reader did in fact read the comments, or perhaps another post is being referred to.

In any case, I love FR!