Famous portrait of George Washington enters the collection
On view beginning July 1, 2010
The Portland Art Museum is pleased to announce the newest addition to the Museum's permanent collection: American artist Rembrandt Peale's portrait of revered war hero and first president George Washington.
Painted in the first half of the 19th century, the portrait presents a heroic, idealized image of Washington dressed in his military uniform. The edges of the painting depict an antique frame of masonry creating a porthole through which the portrait is viewed.
As just one of a handful of artists to have painted Washington from life, in this portrait, Peale created an image of the national leader to surpass all others in its expression and authenticity.
The painting is a gift from Museum patrons Veronica A. Macdonald and Valerie A. Story.
Portland Art Museum Receives Gift of Gauguin Painting
On view beginning May 3, 2009
The Portland Art Museum is pleased to announce the newest addition to the Museum's permanent collection of early Impressionist paintings. Paul Gauguin's 1884 Vue d'un jardin, Rouen (Garden View, Rouen) will be on view beginning Sunday, May 3.
The painting is a gift from longtime Museum patron and trustee Melvin "Pete" Mark in memory of his wife, Mary Kridel Mark. The painting will be on view in the first floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.
According to Museum Director Brian Ferriso, this is one of the finest works from Gauguin's time in Rouen.
Portland Art Museum Acquires Sculpture of Ganesha
On view beginning February 14, 2009
The Portland Art Museum is pleased to announce the acquisition of an important work of Indian sculpture, a stone stele of Ganesha. As the remover of both spiritual and material obstacles to success, the elephant-headed Ganesha is beloved by adherents of many faiths across South and Southeastern Asia and in Diaspora communities. The stele was made in northeastern India (the region corresponding to modern Bihar and Bengal, including Bangladesh) in the 11th century, a period when both Buddhism and Hinduism flourished under the rule of the Pala dynasty (mid-8th–12th century). Like other Pala period sculptures, it is designed to be viewed from the front and would have originally been placed within a niche in a brick shrine.
Ganesha is shown here seated in rajalilasana, “the posture of royal ease,” with one knee up and the other relaxed. His diaphanous dhoti and shawl are rendered in shallow incised lines, fully revealing the swelling forms of his body. One hand is raised in a gesture of reassurance (abhaya mudra), while others hold a bowl of sweets and a radish. (The fourth arm is broken.) A vidyadhara (“wisdom bearer”) floats over Ganesha’s shoulder, offering a floral garland, while a rat (Ganesha’s vahana, his “mount” or “vehicle”) looks up from below.
This acquisition complements two noteworthy examples of South Asian sculpture in the Museum’s collections—a 2nd–3rd century stone Buddha from Gandh?ra and a 12th century bronze Shiva Nataraja from Tamil Nadu—and is part of a strategy to provide regional breadth in the collection and the galleries. As the deity who presides over auspicious beginnings, Ganesha is the perfect acquisition to announce the Museum’s renewed commitment to the arts and culture of South Asia.
Portland Art Museum Receives Gift of van Gogh Painting
After four generations in a private collection, this masterpiece will be on public view
The Portland Art Museum received a major gift of an original canvas by Vincent van Gogh, The Ox-Cart (Charrette de boeuf). For nearly 50 years, this painting has resided with a family in Roseburg, Oregon.
"This is a defining moment in the history of the Portland Art Museum," said Brian Ferriso, the Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Director. "It is the ultimate philanthropic gesture when individuals choose to donate a priceless work of art to a public institution so that future generations can experience it. This is truly a gift to our children and the many generations to follow."
Fred and Frances Sohn are giving the painting to the Museum for the benefit of future generations. The Sohns have been Oregon residents since 1949 when they moved to Roseburg where Fred built a successful lumber business. The Sohn’s five sons and their families, including nine grandchildren, have grown up around the painting.
"Four generations of our family have had much pleasure from this painting. It seems to be a painting everybody likes, whether or not they know of the famous painter," said Fred Sohn. "The intimate experience of art in our home helped our children and grandchildren learn to appreciate good art. It is now time for a wider audience to enjoy and learn from this special painting."
Painted in Nuenen, The Netherlands, early in van Gogh’s career, The Ox-Cart (1884) is part of his exploration of peasant life, which included dozens of studies of peasants, farm work, and the rural landscape. Van Gogh had returned to his father’s home in Nuenen, after he had failed at the clergy and given away all of his possessions. He rented studio space from the local church and seriously pursued his career as an artist.
Intrigued by the work of Rembrandt, the great Dutch genre traditions, and Millet, van Gogh’s paintings from Nuenen show his deep identification with the simple, yet difficult life of peasants eking out a humble existence on the land. This exploration of the dank and dark landscape is a sharp contrast to his later work produced in southern France where he was inspired by the bright colors of the region and the work of fellow artists Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin.
Van Gogh’s visual expression of emotions through color and the physicality of the brushstrokes redefined art making practices and have influenced generations of artists. The Ox-Cart represents a critical step in his artistic journey, and helped to set the stage for his seminal painting, The Potato Eaters of 1885 and for his later work produced in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise.
Van Gogh produced two versions of The Ox-Cart, one with a black ox and the other with a red ox. (Ref: Letter to Theo #373). The second version with a red ox is part of the Rijksmuseum’s Kröller-Müller Foundation collection, and The Ox-Cart (featuring the black ox) will now be a permanent part of the Portland Art Museum’s collection and will be on display on the first floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in conjunction with the Museum’s Impressionist and School of Paris early modernist works.
This painting by van Gogh, creates a strong visual connection with the Museum’s Cezanne painting from 1872, Paris: Quai de Bercy – La Halle aux Vins (Paris: Bercy Quay – The Wine Depot), and the birthing of modernism through the artist’s experimentation with the combination of color, paint, and simplification of form. These works, in combination, give viewers the first sense of the psychological below the reference of image, and suggest the synthesis of structure and materials that is a modern picture. This is the first work by van Gogh to enter the Museum’s collection.
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous artists of modern times, and among a handful of artists, such as Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Rembrandt, who have achieved universal recognition across cultures and time. Although van Gogh’s career was short, he has influenced and inspired artists as diverse as Max Beckmann, Chaim Soutine, Marsden Hartley, Henk Pander, and Robert Colescott, all of whom are represented in the Museum’s collection.
"Art, as one of the ultimate expressions of our human experience, is an inspiration for us all," said Ferriso. "The addition of this original, simple painting by van Gogh to the collection will give our visitors the opportunity to study and reflect on the genius of van Gogh. It will surprise and delight our citizens. The Museum is grateful to the Sohn family for their generous gift and this model gesture of civitas."
In mid-November, this treasure will go on public display on the first floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.
Portland Art Museum Receives Gift of Colescott Painting
In honor of the appointment of Brian J. Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Director of the Portland Art Museum, longtime Museum supporters Arlene and Harold Schnitzer have presented the Museum with a major painting by noted African-American artist Robert Colescott.
The painting features a self-portrait of the artist working on a reprise of Henri Matisse’s magisterial canvas, La Danse. This self-portrait shows Colescott, the artist, seated at his easel surrounded by the debris of the studio and sporting blue-and-white checkered slippers as he contemplates his voluptuous blonde model.
Robert Colescott’s work presents social and racial commentary with a sly humor and barbed political insights. The Museum has some 19 works from across Colescott’s distinguished career, including Venus I, an earlier gift by the Schnitzers.
The work is installed in the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, on the fourth floor of the Hoffman wing.
Portland Art Museum Purchases Major Work by Robert Rauschenberg
On January 19, the Portland Art Museum announced the purchase of a major assemblage sculpture by the renowned American artist Robert Rauschenberg.
Patrician Barnacle (Scale), 1981, is part of Rauschenberg’s Scales and Spread series in which he returned to mixed-media and found-object collage work after almost a decade of experimentation in other forms. The nearly eight-foot-tall wedge appears precariously balanced against a found wooden ladder evoking a sense of dependence and independence, movement and stasis.
The work has had a distinguished exhibition history, and before the artist himself played a role in placing at the Museum. Rauschenberg invited Chief Curator Bruce Guenther to select a work for the Museum with the proceeds going to support the capital campaign of Portland’s Blue Sky Gallery. Longtime Museum supporters Carol Hampton and her late husband John Hampton provided the gift to acquire this significant work.
This is the first unique Rauschenberg in the Museum’s collection. To date, the Museum has only had a handful of Rauschenberg multiples and editioned work to represent this protean artist’s seminal career.
Patrician Barnacle is installed in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.
