VMFA logo
What's New title
June 4, 2008

PAINTING BY FIRST AMERICAN ARTIST TO VISIT INDIA IS PURCHASED BY VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
Sculpture of Vishnu as Mighty Boar, American Fireplace Surround, Scene from Napoleonic Campaign, Natural Bridge Painting Are Added


The Hour of Prayer at Moti Mushid (The Pearl Mosque), Agra
The Hour of Prayer at Moti Mushid (The Pearl Mosque), Agra, circa 1888-89, by Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849-1903); oil on canvas; original frame designed by Lockwood de Forest (American, 1850-1932). (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
An oil on canvas by the first American artist known to have visited India, Edwin Lord Weeks, has been added to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection.

The painting, The Hour of Prayer at Moti Mushid (The Pearl Mosque), Agra, dates from about 1888-89 and is nearly 10 feet wide by almost 7 feet tall. Weeks was awarded a Gold Medal at the 1889 Paris Salon for the work.

Weeks (1849-1903) was born in Boston and trained in Paris and was an inveterate traveler, according to Dr. Sylvia Yount, who is VMFA’s Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art and head of the American department.

He was inspired by exotic historical subjects and the painterly techniques of the French academicians. He attracted critical and popular attention on both sides of the Atlantic for his contemporary North African and Middle Eastern scenes before visiting India for the first time in 1882.

VMFA’s new painting dates from the second of three trips Weeks made to India and has rarely been seen since. When it was shown in Paris, an American critic deemed it “almost a perfect picture, complete in religious sentiment and poetical inspiration.”

Yount says Week’s paintings of India “are characterized by a rich pageantry and visual grandeur.”

The painting comes to VMFA in its original frame, which was made by American painter-designer Lockwood de Forest, a business partner of Louis Comfort Tiffany who maintained a workshop in Ahmadabad, India. Yount says the opportunity to acquire “one of Week’s most ambitious and commanding Indian narratives—and in its original frame by an equally important artist—is exceedingly rare and auspicious.” She says such monumental paintings by Weeks have not been on the market for more than half a century.

VMFA purchased the work through its J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art.

The VMFA board of trustees also added the following items to its collection.

    Vishnu as Varaha (The Mighty Boar)
    Vishnu as Varaha (The Mighty Boar), circa 10th century, Northern Bengal (present-day Bangladesh); gray stone. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
  • A circa 10th-century sculpture of Vishnu as Varaha (The Mighty Boar) from Northern Bengal, now Bangladesh. Made of gray stone and standing 44 inches tall, the sculpture shows Vishnu – a kind and benevolent Hindu god – as Varaha, rescuing Goddess Earth from submersion in the cosmic ocean by lifting her up with his tusks, says Dr. Joseph M. Dye III, who is VMFA’s curatorial chair and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art. “This sculpture is crucially important to our internationally recognized collection of Indian stone carving and is the first major stone sculpture depicting one of Vishnu’s avatars to enter our collection,” Dye says. The sculpture was purchased through VMFA’s Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund.

    • Tile fireplace surround
    Tile fireplace surround, 1878, by Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852-1911); hand-painted Minton, Hollins, and Company ceramic tiles, inset in ferrous metal surround. (Photo by Travis Fullerton, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
  • An 1878 fireplace surround by American artist Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911). The work, which measures 34 by 38-1/4 by 1-3/4 inches, is made of hand-painted ceramic tiles crafted by Minton, Hollins and Company of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Curator Yount says it “exemplifies the cultural spirit and varied production of the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement.” In his day, Abbey was acclaimed internationally for his illustration work as well as easel and mural paintings of both English and American historicized subjects. The fireplace surround was also purchased through VMFA’s Cochrane Fund.

    • Military Event from Napoleon’s First Spanish Campaign
    Military Scene from Napoleon's First Spanish Campaign, 19th century, by Claude Bonnefond (French, 1796-1860); oil on canvas. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
  • Military Event from Napoleon’s First Spanish Campaign, an 1823 oil on canvas by French artist Jean-Claude Bonnefond (1796-1860). It depicts two soldiers during the 1808 invasion of Spain discovering pieces of a comrade’s uniform at the foot of a bloody well while a monk flees in the background. It measures 23-3/8 by 21-1/4 inches. “The painting dramatizes one of the major events of Napoleon’s campaign—that is, the abolishment of the Inquisition,” says Dr. Mitchell Merling, VMFA’s Paul Mellon Curator and head of the department of European art.

    • Natural Bridge
    Natural Bridge, 1877, by Jervis McEntee (American, 1828-1891); oil on board. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
  • Natural Bridge, an 1877 oil-on-board painting by American artist Jervis McEntee (1828-1891). The New York artist spent a summer afternoon at Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County and wrote that he found it “very interesting and impressive.” The bridge, which Thomas Jefferson called “the most sublime of nature’s work,” spans 90 feet and soars 240 feet above a creek bed. McEntee, who studied with Hudson River School artist Frederic Church, pictured Natural Bridge from a southern vantage point just as afternoon light illuminated the top of the arch. The plein-air sketch measures 7-1/8 by 5 inches and was purchased through the museum’s John Barton Payne Fund. It is the first painting of Natural Bridge, a Virginia Icon, to enter the VMFA collection.

  • A group of French Art Nouveau textiles designed by Alphonse Mucha (Czech, 1860-1939), Georges de Feure (Dutch, active in Paris, 1868-1943) and Félix-Albert-Anthyme Aubert (French, 1866-1940). The textiles have been carefully preserved and are in “especially excellent condition,” says Barry Shifman, VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Late 19th and Early 20th Century Decorative Arts. The textiles will be displayed with icons of VMFA’s acclaimed Art Nouveau decorative arts collection. They were purchased with funds from VMFA’s Swenson Fund for Art Nouveau.

  • Lotus and Laurel, a 1904 oil on canvas by American artist Henry Prellwitz (1865-1940). The work, which measures 30 by 60 inches, is VMFA’s first American Renaissance painting and won a silver medal at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. It was given to the museum by Joseph T. and Jane Joel Knox of Richmond.

  • Construction #5, a 1958 oil on canvas by American artist Ralston Crawford (1906-1978). It dates from a period when the artist was perfecting a bold abstract style grounded in both expressivity and rationality. The painting interprets a skyscraper under construction on Church Street in Lower Manhattan. The work was, in part, a gift from the artist’s son, Neelon Crawford, supplemented by VMFA’s Floyd D. and Anne C. Gottwald Fund.

  • A page from an illustrated manuscript in opaque watercolor, ink and gold of the Bhagavata Purana, circa 1760, from Nagpur, a city in the Northern Deccan region of India. Measuring 7-5/8 by 15-1/2 inches, it depicts on one side the deity Krishna playing amorous games with a group of cow maidens in the Yamuna River. On the reverse is a depiction of the maidens desperately searching for Krishna after his sudden and deliberate disappearance. It was purchased by the museum with funds given by Don Dale of Richmond in memory of his mother, Mary Helen Nichols Dale, and with additional funds from VMFA’s Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund.

  • A page from a Ramayana series, Hanuman Flies Across the Ocean to Lanka, executed in opaque watercolor and gold on paper in about 1800 in the Punjab Hills in the Kangra region of India. Measuring about 9-3/4 by 13-1/2 inches, it depicts the departure of Hanuman, a hero in the shape of a monkey, launching himself across a turbulent sea. It was purchased by the museum with funds contributed by the Friends of Indian Art supplemented by VMFA’s Williams Fund.

  • A wisdom basket made of raffia, cane, cowries, glass beads and copper from the Kuba Culture (Democratic Republic of Congo). Standing 25-1/2 inches tall and dating to the 19th-20th century, it would have been used as a container for royal charms. VMFA African art curator Richard Woodward calls it a “wonderful and old example.” It was also purchased through VMFA’s Williams Fund.