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June 25, 2001
LARGE COLLECTION OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SILVER,
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 This 1787 Hester Bateman silver teapot with a wood handle has been given to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It stands 12˝” high. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.) |
Some 300 pieces of English and America silver have been added to the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection, along with a powerful African mask, a
dashing 18th-century portrait by American artist John
Trumbull, seven Tibetan pieces with macabre overtones,
and an abstract painting by African-American artist
Norman Lewis.
The works in silver include approximately 175 pieces by Hester Bateman (London, 1708-1794), some 100 additional pieces dating from 1570 to 1800 by a variety of other English makers, and approximately 20 pieces dating from 1710 to 1845 by various American makers. The silver items include a variety of table silver by Bateman -- a four-piece 1789 tea service, along with castors, mustard pots, salts, tea caddies, tankards, teapots, flatware, trays, baskets and a cruet set, among other pieces -- as well as personal items, such as snuff boxes, a sealing-wax box and candle-snuffers. Also included are a communion cup and two stirrup cups in the shape of fox heads. Pieces by other English makers range from a rare carved gourd cup with an Elizabethan silver-gilt mount (1593), a silver-gilt tiger ware jug (1577), a number of 17th-century pieces, a George II coconut-shell flask carved with the royal crest (1735) and six apostle and seal-top spoons dating from 1598 to 1635. Among the American pieces are a 1710 sugar castor by New York silversmith Peter van Dyke (1684-1750) and a castor by Jewish silversmith Myer Myers. The collection was given to the museum by Mrs. E. Claiborne Robins of Richmond. |
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The African mask is approximately 4 feet tall and is
from the Songye culture (Democratic Republic of the Congo).
It is made of wood, paint and fiber and dates from the 19th-20th
century.
The mask includes a tall face with dramatic features, a loose fiber "mane," and woven fiber netting to conceal the wearer's body. Attached to the back of the mask's head is a horn with a feather tuft. It is rare for the fiber body coverings of such masks to have survived in complete condition, but the museum's has. The mask was purchased by the museum through its Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund. |
 This Kifwebe mask from the Songye culture -- new to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection -- stands about 4 feet tall and is made of wood, paint and fiber. (Katherine Wetzel photo, © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.) |
 John Trumbull's Portrait of Captain Samuel Blodget dates from about 1786. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.) |
The portrait by Trumbull (1756-1843) depicts Captain Samuel Blodget in
rifle dress circa 1786. It was painted in oil on canvas in a London studio and
measures 21-1/8 by 17-1/8 inches.
Trumbull, like his teacher, Benjamin West, painted images of his young country’s history that drew on venerable traditions of European and ancient art to lend artistic weight and resonance to contemporary subjects. For example, he often incorporated references to well known poses from antiquity in his portraits, as in that of Blodget, whose pose recalls the "Apollo Belvedere," one of the most beloved of all antiquities during the age of Neoclassicism. Trumbull was regarded as the finest American draftsman of the late 18th century. Blodget served as a captain in the New Hampshire militia during the American revolution. The painting was believed by Trumbull's first biographer to have been lost, but it was rediscovered in a British collection in the late 1980s. The painting was purchased with funds from the museum's J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art. All museum art purchases are made using endowment funds restricted to art purchases or other private contributions. No state funds are used to acquire works of art. |
 This Tibetan thanka depicts the mighty and fearsome Yamantaka. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © 2001 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.) |
The Tibetan pieces acquired by the museum are
an 18-inch tall late-14th/early-15th century copper-alloy depiction of Milarepa,
one of Tibet's most beloved mystics; a rare and exceptionally early (second half
of the 14th or early 15th century) opaque watercolor on cloth (47˝ by 31˝
inches) depicting Arhat Bhadra, regarded as a saintly exemplar of the Buddhist
faith; another opaque watercolor on cloth (known as a thanka and measuring
30 by 24˝ inches) from the 16th century that depicts Mahakala, a fierce
manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion; an exceptionally delicate and
early wheel of life thanka measuring 54 by 42 inches, depicting the six realms
of existence from which one must by liberated to escape the endless rounds of
rebirth that Buddhists believe characterize human existence; a 19th-century
dancer's apron with applied satins, damasks and leathers with silk wrapped in
horsehair cording, depicting Yama, the Lord of Death; and a late-17th/early-18th
century thanka depicting the 34-armed Yamantaka, believed to conquer
evil, suffering and death, in all his ferocious glory.
The Tibetan objects were a gift/purchase from Zimmerman Family Partners of Putnam Valley, N.Y. |
"Throughout his career, Lewis sought to reconcile the impulse to paint abstractly with the apparently contradictory expectation that an African-American artist's work should reflect his or her racial identity," Brand says.
"Post Mortem" belongs to a Lewis series from the 1960s known as his Civil Rights paintings. The paintings were made with varying shades of white strokes on black surfaces and are considered among Lewis' most important
achievements. The painting was a gift from the Fabergé Society of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. A number of other gifts and purchases have been approved by the museum's trustees.
- "Lion Devouring a Doe," a bronze master-model sculpture dated 1837 by French artist Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875), given by Mrs. Nelson L. St. Clair Jr. of Williamsburg, Va.
- Four hand-colored engravings -- "American White Pelican," 1836; "Brown Pelican," 1835; "Carolina Parrot," ca. 1828; and "Trumpeter Swan," 1838 -- from "The Birds of North America" by American artist John James Audubon (1785-1851), given by Harry and Alma Coon of Manquin, Va.
- Twelve vintage photographs by African-American photographer James VanDerZee (1886-1983) -- including a self portrait and images of Marcus Garvey and Adam Clayton Powell Sr. -- 11 purchased by the museum and one donated by Howard Greenberg of New York.
- "At the Milliners," a ca. 1882-85 oil on canvas by French artist Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas (1834-1917), bequeathed to the museum by the late Paul Mellon of Upperville, Va.
"We are especially pleased that we have been able to significantly strengthen our holdings in American and African-American art with these recent acquisitions," says Dr. Brand.
"The Robins gift of silver includes several American pieces of great interest. The John Trumbull painting is a magnificent portrait by the finest American draftsman of the late 18th century, and the John James Audubon engravings are noteworthy works by the 19th century's foremost ornithologist.
"We are also delighted to add to our collection the 12 vintage photographs by James VanDerZee, the first great African-American photographer of the 20th century, and the painting by Norman Lewis, the first major African-American Abstract Expressionist.
"As has been true since its founding, the museum is extremely fortunate to have generous benefactors who have given us individual works of art and established endowments for the purchase of art works for our collection. Their gifts to the museum enrich the Commonwealth and all of its citizens."
The museum's trustees also approved the addition to the collection of works by Marc Chagall, Martin Puryear, Gary Falk, William Henry Jackson, Charles White, Greig Leach, Alexander Calder, Ben Marshall and Alexandre Lunois.