#1 John Steuart Curry (American, 1897 - 1946), Parade to War, Allegory, 1938, oil on canvas, 47 13/16 x 63 13/16 in., Gift of Barnett Banks, Inc., AG.1991.4.1.

John Steuart Curry enrolled in classes at the Kansas City Art Institute while still a junior in high school in rural Kansas. Initially he earned a living illustrating popular stories of the Wild West. Curry entered the most productive and successful period of his career in the 1930s. He taught at Cooper Union and the Art Students League in New York. He also received mural commissions as part of the Federal Art Project, which employed artists after the Great Depression. Curry’s public mural projects concentrated on themes of religious intolerance, racial discrimination, and social upheaval. In 1936 he was appointed artist-in-residence within the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin, a post he held until his death. Curry is identified with the Regionalist movement through his depictions of the history, people, and landscape of the American Midwest.

Parade to War, Allegory was painted in the wake of the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II (1939-1945). Curry turns the pageantry of a parade into a scene of foreboding and dread, most obviously disclosed in the skeletal faces of the young soldiers. The panic and sorrow of the two women in the foreground contrast with the hopeful innocence of the central striding couple and the young boys gathering streamers. Typical of Curry’s work, this painting represents the isolationist attitudes and growing disillusionment expressed by an increasing number of Americans in the late 1930s.

“This painting continues to affect me every time I see it. It feels like a foreboding dream to me; it moves and haunts with the anticipation of the soldiers and the little boys versus the mourning of the woman in black and the policeman restraining the crowd.” – anonymous

#2 Norman Rockwell (American, 1894 - 1978), Second Holiday, 1939, oil on canvas, 33 ¾ x 47 ¼ in., Purchased with funds from the Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund, AP.2005.6.1.

Written by Allie Gloe, Curatorial Intern

Norman Rockwell was born in New York in 1894. After graduating from art school in his home state, he immediately found work as an illustrator, creating works for magazine covers, business advertisements and calendars. Working with big-name companies led to a long, successful career and also provided Rockwell with a strong sense of social awareness. Rockwell often illustrated the idea of the “American Life.” Because he was given so many commercial opportunities, his art reflected ideas and beliefs that could be widely received – ordinary people, ordinary lives, simple times, Americans and innocence. Most importantly, his paintings and illustrations told stories.

Second Holiday is an example of one of his illustrations that told a story. Rockwell created this illustration for a short story in American Magazine in 1939. The short story takes place at a clinic in Minnesota, where an eldery couple sits in a waiting room. Avoiding eye contact, the man and woman sit side by side and stare into space as their arms intertwine. The couple thinks of their visit to the clinic as a “holiday” due to the fact that it is only their “second” time away from their hometown in decades. And although the elderly woman is sick and dying, both the husband and the wife refuse to accept this reality in order to protect and support one other.

“I love the clarity of color and the intense emotion that is shown on the faces of the elderly couple – the sadness of losing the one you love.” – anonymous

#3 Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889 - 1975), June Morning, 1945, oil on masonite, 42 x 48 in., Purchased with funds from the Cummer Council, the Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund, and the Mae W. Schultz Acquisition Endowment, AP.1994.2.1. Art © T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Thomas Hart Benton used his art to elevate the experiences of everyday people and ordinary events.  Characteristic of his mature style, June Morning depicts a view from his mother’s house on Martha’s Vineyard.  In the foreground, the vibrant, twining foliage parts to reveal Benton’s neighbor milking a cow. The Atlantic Ocean is visible in the distance.  Painted one month after Germany’s surrender in World War II, this work is Benton’s patriotic testament to the strength of the American spirit in the face of the destructive powers of war.

© T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

“I come often to view this piece.  A great American Regionalist painter, Thomas Hart Benton captures the glory in a casual morning moment after the war.  The symbolism and contrast of dark and light bring life to painting.  I particularly enjoy the swirling movement in the work, as if there is a rhythm to the brushstrokes.” – Meghan Monahan

#4 Camille Pissarro (French, 1830 - 1903), Les Glaneuses (The Gleaners), c. 1889, gouache with charcoal, crayon and watercolor, 18 ¼ x 23 in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund purchase, AP.2004.3.1.

Written by Allie Gloe, Curatorial Intern

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was born in the West Indies on the island of St. Thomas, a major port between Europe, Africa and the Americas. In his early twenties, he left his home island and headed for Paris to study at various academies and learn from masters like Courbet and Corot. While in Paris, Pissarro attended the Great Exhibition at the World’s Fair and participated in both the Salon and the Salon des Refusés. Pissarro and his fellow Impressionist painters were criticized for their technique. During a time in which photographic quality and ideal figures were expected from artists, the Impressionists (then, a derogatory term) were thought to produce only mere sketches or impressions – unfinished paintings. This, however, did not prevent Pissarro from experimenting and looking for new inspiration. He paid close attention to light and the effects of the seasons on the landscape.

This study of The Gleaners depicts two groups of women gleaning across an open field. Gleaners would collect leftover grain after the farmers completed their harvest. This was a dreary and exhausting process, but had to be done, for gleaners were poor and hungry. In this study, Pissarro makes visible his grid lines and preliminary sketches. He uses gouache, charcoal, crayon and watercolor to illustrate rolling hills, trees, and the hard-working gleaners. He used this study for the final oil painting also titled The Gleaners.

“The Pissarro is one of my favorites because I love to see the artist’s mind at work trying to capture a moment in time.” — anonymous

#5 Thomas Moran (American, 1837 - 1926), Ponce de León in Florida, 1877 - 1878, oil on canvas, 64 ¾ x 115 7/8 in., Acquired for the people of Florida by The Frederick H. Schultz Family and Bank of America. Additional funding provided by the Cummer Council, AP.1996.2.1.

This painting of early Florida history depicts the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León (c. 1474–1521) in the company of native Floridians.  Moran painted this work to hang in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

Moran was familiar with the western Plains Indians and depicted them in the painting instead of the distinctly different Timucuan people inhabiting Florida at the time. While Moran’s vision of history is romanticized, his depiction of the Florida landscape is more accurate in the rendering of the clearing surrounded by palms, palmettos, and live oaks covered in Spanish moss and indigenous vines.

“This work is adventurous and detailed.  I like how it takes you through the forest and swamp, and gives the feeling of being there at the moment it captures so well.  It seems like you can walk into it and explore.” – anonymous

#6 Edmund Darch Lewis (American, 1835 - 1910), Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 1865, oil on canvas, 51 7/8 x 90 ½ in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1990.17.1.

Born and educated in Philadelphia, Edmund Darch Lewis studied painting for only a short time before he began exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later at the National Academy of Design in New York. He quickly became one of the most popular painters in Philadelphia, specializing in landscapes and marine scenes of New England.

This monumental painting highlighting Mount Washington in north central New Hampshire is sublime and picturesque in its grandeur. The placid, timeless scene depicts the majesty and power of nature and evokes the doctrine of Manifest Destiny that motivated settlers to explore America’s frontiers. The heroic landscape appears virtually unspoiled by human encroachment, yet signs of taming the wilderness are evident in the well-traveled path, the cleared land, the grazing cows, and the inclusion of two fishermen. Lewis followed the nineteenth-century formula for landscapes by depicting a foreground, middleground, and background receding into infinity. The preparatory sketch done on site for this panoramic view can be found in the Edmund Darch Lewis Sketchbook Collection at The Athenaeum in Philadelphia.

“I learned how to paint forests from this picture and the details of the mirror lake and the walking path inspired me to paint again.  Thank you!” – anonymous

#7 William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825 - 1905), Return from the Harvest, 1878, oil on canvas, 95 x 67 in., Purchased with Membership Contributions, AP.1964.2.1.

Reproduction of original frame by Diego Salazar Antique Frames, New York, given in honor of Jack Lee Scott by Jane McRae Scott, 2003.

After a strict academic training as a painter at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, Bouguereau was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1850. This prize enabled him to move to Rome, where he industriously studied and copied the Italian masters. Four years later, Bouguereau returned to Paris. His extraordinary success as a painter, combined with his influence as a teacher, make him one of the masters of nineteenth-century academic painting. As a prominent juror, Bouguereau also exerted decisive influence over the annual Paris Salon, keeping it within the bounds of official academicism and systematically rejecting the experimental painting of Edouard Manet (1832-1883) and the Impressionists.

The donkey ride, featured prominently in this painting, offers Bouguereau the opportunity to show his astounding technical skills and classical learning in the representation of an age-old harvest festival. The child riding the donkey is playing the role of the Roman god Bacchus, accompanied by joyful peasants. Additionally, the theme of this painting carries Biblical allusions whereby the child is identified as the young Christ. This painting was commissioned by Alexander T. Stewart, a wealthy American department store owner of Irish descent, who stipulated that “the painting was to be the artist’s greatest work and not a nude subject.” Unfortunately, Stewart died before Bouguereau could finish this much admired painting.

“I love the beauty of each face – how amazingly soft and real the skin looks; the tenderness of the mother and joy in the faces of all those dancing around…a celebration at the deepest level I think…I always see it as an adoration of the Christ child.” – Janet Kennedy, Germany

#8 William Glackens (American, 1870 - 1938), The Lake, c. 1913-18, oil on canvas, 25 1/8 x 30 in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1987.2.1.

A native of Philadelphia, William Glackens began his artistic career as a newspaper illustrator. In 1891, he enrolled in evening classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and met Robert Henri (1865-1929), who encouraged Glackens to paint. After the National Academy of Design rejected Glackens’s work in 1907, he joined Henri and six others to establish a group of artists known as the Eight. Derisively referred to as the Ashcan School by contemporary critics, the Eight were noted for their images depicting the reality of life in industrialized surroundings.

Glackens traveled to France several times throughout his career. Significantly influenced by the works of the French Impressionists after a visit in 1912, Glackens shifted his focus from gritty urban scenes to images of middle-class leisure. This painting shows a lake in the White Mountains near Conway, New Hampshire, where the Glackens family spent several summers. The brilliant palette, tilted perspective, and loose brushstrokes found in this scene of languid boaters reflect the artist’s assimilation of the Impressionist style. The patterning in the water and heavy applications of paint create a dynamic, energized composition.

“The large brush strokes, vibrant colors, textures, and relaxed scene make this work dramatic, beautiful, and interesting to view.” – anonymous

#9 Rolph Scarlett (American, 1889 - 1984), Abstraction, c. 1934, oil on canvas, 52 x 39 in., Museum purchase with funds provided by the Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund and gifts from Diane DeMell Jacobsen, Ph.D. in loving memory of her husband Thomas H. Jacobsen and James and Diane Burke in memory of Thomas H. Jacobsen, AP.2005.1.1.

A native of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Scarlett was an industrial and theatrical designer, jeweler, and artist who turned to abstraction after meeting the Swiss artist Paul Klee in 1919.  His work gained the attention of Hilla Rebay and Solomon Guggenheim, who were organizing the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum). Scarlett was well represented in the organization’s collection and exhibitions, and became the institution’s chief lecturer in the 1940s.  His work has come to define American Abstraction in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

“It’s fun to imagine what the shapes are.” – Celeste, age 8

“Abstraction” is my personal favorite because it bursts with colors and is an imagination creator.” — Dory

#10 Jacques De Claeuw (Dutch, active 1642-1676) Vanitas, 1677, oil on canvas, 44 3/8 x 57 3/8 in., Museum Purchase with Gift from Eunice Pitt Odom Semmes, AP.1962.3.1.

Jacques Grief was born in Dordrecht, a small river town in northern Holland. Because of a physical deformity, he was given the nickname of “de Claeuw” meaning “the claw.” The artist, a brother-in-law of the painter Jan Steen, was known for his still life images. Popularized as an independent genre by Dutch artists of the period, still life appealed to the taste of Calvinist patrons who objected to overtly religious art.

The term vanitas (Latin for “emptiness”) is applied to still life images featuring objects that represent the brevity of life or the emptiness of worldly concerns. De Claeuw’s contemporary public was familiar with such symbolism and would have recognized the partially covered celestial globe as an attribute of astronomy. The globe, along with a copy of the Amsterdam Waersegger Almanach (1677), a soothsayer’s almanac, refers to man’s inability to accurately predict the future. The musical instruments, inkwell, sealing wax, and cards refer to the vanity of worldly amusements. The hourglass and the smoke associated with the pipe and candle denote the passage of time. The flies and flowers are symbolic of decay and the shortness of life. The image of Venus refers to the impermanence of physical beauty. The small portrait of the prominent engraver Pieter de Jode (1604-1674) is a reference to the immortality an artist attempts to gain through art.

“There is so much meaning in the painting.  Every time you look at it you see something different that makes you think.” – anonymous

#11 Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874 - 1939), Before Her Appearance, 1913, oil on canvas, 61 1/8 x 61 1/8 in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1985.2.1.

Applying the last bit of ardent rouge to her lips before going on stage, a dancer sits on a stool in her dressing room, looking at herself in the mirror. This intimate scene was captured by the American Impressionist artist Frederick Carl Frieseke with a very tender, almost monochromatic palette of pink, pale blue, marble white, and an occasional patch of yellow.

Born in Ossowo, Michigan of German ancestry, Frieseke studied painting in Chicago and Paris. He spent most of his adult life in Europe and explained, “I stay on here, because I am more free and there are not the Puritanical restrictions which prevail in America.… I can paint a nude in my garden or down by the fish pond and not be run out of town.”

This painting was created while Frieseke spent the winter of 1912 on Corsica, an island off the Italian coast. He rented a house and garden there and sent for his favorite model Marcelle, who poses as the dancer in this painting. He wrote to an art dealer that he had nothing prepared for the upcoming Paris Salon exhibition. Nevertheless, Frieseke was able to complete six canvases that winter for inclusion in the Salon that spring. Before Her Appearance was among them and was very well received. It was bought by Mrs. Gertrude Whitney Vanderbilt for her private collection.

“She’s my favorite because she’s a pretty ballerina.” – Jenna, age 6

#12 René-Théodore Berthon (French, 1776 - 1859), Portrait of Princess Pauline Borghèse and the Baroness de Mathiesse, c. 1810, oil on canvas, 83 7/8 x 69 ½ in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.2002.2.1.

Princess Pauline Borghèse, youngest sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, and her lady companion are the subjects of this large double portrait exhibited in the Salon of 1812.  Berthon was one of the most talented and illustrious students of the Neo-classical artist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) who introduced the young artist to Napoleon when he was First Consul.

Pauline is seen as an important tastemaker of the day attired in the trendiest fashion of the time, namely an Empire-style dress and shawl inspired by designs created in the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome.

“I am such a big fan of that style and period of art. The mood of the portrait is so gentle, soft, almost delicate. I feel like I want to sit down with these two ladies. The detail is so intricate, you could almost feel the lace on the dress.” – Robin Albaneze

#13 Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917 – 2009), Light Wash, 1961, watercolor on paper, 30 ¼ x 22 in., Gift of Ms. Gillian Attfield, AG.1980.6.1. © Andrew Wyeth.

“It captures a moment in time.  It reminds me of hanging wash with my Mom in the backyard and playing between the lines.” – anonymous

#14 William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825 - 1905), Day Dreams, 1904, oil on canvas, 45 3/8 x 32 in., Gift of Paul Reinhold in memory of Klare Neely Reinhold, AG.1986.7.1.

William Bouguereau’s realistic, sometimes sentimental style came to represent the academic tradition in nineteenth century French art.  He was both a commercial and critical success, exhibiting often in the French Salon and serving as President of the French Academy.  His disciplined method of painting entailed the creation of preliminary drawings, precise rendering forms in space and concealing every brush stroke under a highly finished surface.  At the end of the nineteenth century, modernist artists including the Impressionists challenged the artistic conventions at the center of the academic tradition.

“This work has haunted me since I was little…the girl’s eyes have a piercing, haunting quality to them.  Her gaze seems to follow one around the room and her image follows me in my mind long after I leave.” – anonymous

Augusta Savage (American, 1892 - 1962), The Diving Boy, c. 1939, bronze, 32 ½ in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.602.1.

Born the seventh of fourteen children in Green Cove Springs, Florida, Augusta Savage exhibited a talent and interest in the arts at an early age. After a marriage that left her widowed at the age of 16, Savage moved to Jacksonville, Florida to earn a living sculpting portrait busts of prominent African Americans. In 1921, she moved to New York and enrolled in the Cooper Union. She received many fellowships and awards, allowing her to travel and study abroad. In 1932 Savage began a notable teaching career with the founding of the Savage School of Arts and Crafts in New York. As an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, Savage worked with other important leaders, writers, musicians, and artists to celebrate the contributions of African American culture to American society. She overcame poverty, racism, and sexual discrimination to become one of twentieth-century America’s most prolific and influential sculptors. Because of her often difficult financial situation, Augusta Savage’s plaster originals were frequently destroyed before she could afford to have them cast in bronze.

Augusta Savage visited Ninah Cummer at her Jacksonville home in 1939 and presented The Diving Boy as a gift the following year. Originally placed at one end of a reflecting pond in Mrs. Cummer’s Italian Garden, the sculpture is typical of Savage’s interest in combining realistic details with psychologically penetrating expressiveness.

“It gives me courage to do things I’m scared of.” – Isabella, age 10

“This is the piece of artwork that I always seek out when my spirit needs lifting. It is often said that one’s attraction to a particular artwork has to do with your life’s experiences – ‘The Diving Boy’ reminds me of when my sons were young – they would step from the bath tub waiting for me to wrap them in a towel – the connection has nothing to do with diving, but the love and warmth of a mother’s love for her young sons.” – anonymous

Winslow Homer (American, 1836 - 1910), The White Rowboat, St. Johns River, 1890, watercolor on paper, 14 x 20 in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.154.1.

Winslow Homer was one of the first American painters to liberate watercolor from being simply a tinted drawing and to develop it as an independent medium. Especially in his later watercolors, Homer attained his purest artistic values through his painterly handling and use of saturated colors. His watercolors expressed a poetic vision not often found in his oil paintings.

Late in his career, Homer, an avowed sportsman, took fishing vacations to various places. In the spring of 1890 he visited the St. Johns River in Florida. The landscape stimulated in Homer a more spontaneous expression and pure visual sensation of nature. He painted scenes on the spot with a deft, fluid brush in full-bodied color. In this work, one of forty known from his various Florida visits, Homer simply and directly portrayed Florida topography as a vast expanse of river and marshes, punctuated by four swaying palm trees. Homer merged the epic with the mundane as he placed the stark white rowboat and three fishermen in this solitary habitat. The towering, indigenous palm trees stand as testaments to the dominance of nature over man.

“From Ninah Cummer’s personal collection!  Sweet watercolor in the Florida feel!” – anonymous

John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816 - 1872), Marine View of Beacon Rock, Newport Harbor, 1864, oil on canvas, 28 ½ x 45 ¾ in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.157.1.

Trained by his English father as an engraver, John Kensett chose to become a painter. In 1840 he went to Europe for several years to study Old Master paintings and to develop his skills in London, Paris, and Rome. Upon his return to America, Kensett was recognized for his excellence in landscape painting and was elected to the National Academy of Design in New York. Kensett was also one of the founders of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1870.

This painting illustrates Kensett’s switch from painting mountains and woodland interiors to coastal views. It also marks a change in his style to more contemplative painting known as Luminism, which focused on nuances of light and atmosphere, a method that may have been influenced by the new medium of photography. Kensett painted this favored panorama of Newport Harbor in Rhode Island several times. The viewer looks across Brenton Cove toward Beacon Rock on the right and Fort Adams on the left in the distance. This painting is renowned for its indelible sense of calmness, clarity, and quiet, and occupies a central position in Kensett’s oeuvre. Characteristic of his mature Luminist style, this work contains a sense of balance, spareness, and a rich evocation of hues.

“It conveys a sense of calmness and quiet.” – anonymous

Severin Roesen (American, c. 1816 – c. 1872), Still Life with Flowers, Fruit and Bird’s Nest, c. 1865, oil on canvas, 36 x 28 ½ in., Gift of Diane DeMell Jacobsen, Ph. D. in loving memory of her husband Thomas H. Jacobsen, AG.2003.2.1.

This extremely fine example highlights Roesen’s virtuosity as a still life painter.  His work is widely admired for its botanical accuracy and the variety of floral elements represented as well as the artist’s technical skills and draftsmanship.  This graceful, vibrant still life features elements that speak not only of luxury, wealth and abundance but also of the fragility of all living things.

Still life paintings often contain veiled allusions to the inevitability of decay and death.  Individual elements may be symbols that support such readings.  For example, this painting depicts a bird’s nest with eggs that may symbolize the promise of new life.  The number of eggs (three) may allude to the Holy Trinity just as the grapes may allude to the Christian mysteries of the Eucharist.

“Love the colors – very vibrant. The dew drops on the flowers and fruit look so real I always want to dry the painting.” – anonymous

Joseph Jeffers Dodge (American, 1917 - 1997), Dancing Pears II, 1992, oil on panel, 16 x 20 in., Gift of Mr. Joseph Jeffers Dodge, AG.1996.2.59.

Dodge’s inspiration was borrowed pears ordered from the Harry and David catalogues that arrive in many American homes with great regularity during the holidays.  The artist had refrigerated several of these and when he removed them the condensation made the paper cling to the fruit.  He was struck immediately by the very real artistic and expressive possibilities he saw, much as he had been when he recognized potential subjects in torn packaging and odd shaped bread from Bologna.

The subtitle of Fandango refers to a lively Spanish dance.  The paired canvases were among his most popular in the last exhibitions and Dodge himself admitted that he found them to be among his most successful late works.

“I like the realism and attention to detail, and the simplicity and balance of the composition.  It focuses attention on things we don’t often notice every day.” – anonymous

Edmund William Greacen (American, 1877 - 1949), Brooklyn Bridge, East River, 1916, oil on canvas, 37 x 37 ½ in., Gift of Mr. and Mrs.. Rene Faure (Daughter of Edmond Greacen, Nan Greacen Faure), AG.1972.2.1.

This view of the Brooklyn Bridge was probably painted from the roof of Edmund Greacen’s building on East 18th Street, the first apartment building erected in all of New York. With his use of broken brushwork and sketchy atmospheric color, the artist captured several aspects of the big city. He juxtaposed the gritty energetic foreground of industrial buildings with the beautifully subdued and suffused background of the East River and the Brooklyn skyline.

Edmund Greacen studied painting at the Art Students League in New York. Between 1906 and 1909 he lived in Paris and Giverny studying the works of the French Impressionists, particularly those of Claude Monet (1840-1926). The admission of several of his paintings to the Paris Salon attests to his early success. Greacen returned to America and opened the first of two art schools in New York and exerted great influence as a teacher.

“One of the best memories I have is of walking across the Brooklyn Bridge the day before moving to Jacksonville and the painting will always remind me of the fun my family and I had in my last day in New York.” – Tricia Lord, 20

#22 William Zorach (American, 1887 – 1966), Spirit of the Dance, 1932, bronze, 77 in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1990.21.1.

William Zorach was born in Lithuania in 1889, but moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was four. He first worked as a commercial artist in that city before receiving formal training as a painter in New York and Paris. He began carving wood in 1917, but devoted himself exclusively to sculpture in 1922. Zorach took great delight in finding unusual and exotic woods in order to experiment with their special characteristics such as grain, hardness, and color.

Zorach’s Spirit of the Dance was selected by the Rockefeller family to be placed inside Radio City Music Hall in New York. Cast in the then ultra modern medium of aluminum, the monumental dancer taking a bow was completed in 1932. Considerable controversy developed over the nudity of the figure when the sculpture was first exhibited, and for some months the dancer disappeared from view. When the artist exhibited a clay model, however, it was so well received by art critics and the general public that the aluminum sculpture was returned to public view at Radio City Music Hall where it can still be seen. Zorach authorized an edition of six bronze casts of this sculpture.

“I love its form and boldness. It is powerful!” – anonymous

Gustave Leonard de Jonghe (Belgian, 1829 - 1893), (L’admiratrice du Japon), The Japanese Fan, c. 1865, oil on canvas, 44 ¼ x 34 1/16 in., Gift of the Francis & Miranda Childress Foundation, AG.1988.3.1.

In 1855, Gustave de Jonghe moved from Belgium to Paris and exhibited regularly in the Salon for the next thirty years.  The English translation of the original French title provides an interesting double meaning to the work.  The woman, who clearly is a fan of all things Japanese, is the center of the activity in the painting.  The Japanese fan, so prominently implied in the title, is merely a small object on the floor.  The composition centers on the confrontation between the bird and the young woman which has, it appears, caused chaos in the room.  It is uncertain whether the woman is disciplining the cockatoo or the bird is threatening her.  The violent scene in the Japanese screen behind her reinforces the impression of a conflict between two antagonists.

“I have been in this position with my bird, I can totally relate to this painting.” – anonymous

Joseph Rodefer De Camp (American, 1858 – 1923), The Red Kimono, c.1919, oil on canvas, 53 ¾ x 46 ¼ in., Museum Purchase, AP.1975.2.1.

In The Red Kimono, a beautiful woman is surrounded by beautiful things as model “Reddy” Pierson watches over a tiny bird perched on the edge of a shallow glass dish of water.  Evident in the work is DeCamp’s interest in the Orient, which becomes a dominant theme in his last works.  This painting was featured in 12 major exhibitions between the time of its creation until DeCamp’s death in 1923.

“Striking red and detailed silk against dreary day outside draws your focus to her pensive thoughts.” – anonymous

Cummer Oak, 2008, Photograph courtesy of Greg Lepera.

“It is the largest and oldest living thing in Riverside.” – Wayne Wood

Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1579 - 1657), Still Life with Fruit and Flowers, c.1630, oil on panel, 31 x 45 ¾ in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1984.1.1.

An opulent display of fruit, flowers, and precious objects takes center stage in this painting by the Flemish artist Frans Snyders. He is considered one of the greatest masters of still life painting, a category of art that specializes in the skillful rendering of quietly appealing scenes of inanimate objects to produce a decorative and rhythmical composition. Snyders’s painting can be interpreted as an allegory of nature. The freshly cut flowers may refer to the brevity and passing nature of life; the tiny knight perched atop the golden chalice on the left is probably a reference to “the Christian soldier”; and the grapes are often seen as a symbol of the wine used in the Eucharist, and hence of Christ’s blood.

Snyders’s father was the keeper of a well-known Antwerp inn favored by artists. Following a thorough apprenticeship, Snyders was made a junior member of the Antwerp painters’ guild at the age of 23 and became a regular member seventeen years later. In 1608 he went to Italy, the obligatory tour of duty of any young artist, and returned to Antwerp after 15 months. Upon his death, Snyders was a respected and distinguished painter who left a valuable estate, including an important art collection.

“He painted glass!  I never imagined anyone could capture clear glass in an oil painting.” – Tim, age 44

Egyptian, (11th Dynasty), Stela of Iku and Mer-imat, c. 2100BC, polychrome on limestone, 23 ¼ x 20 5/8 x 5 in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1989.1.1.

This stela depicts a nobleman named Iku and his wife, Mer-imat. One of the principal purposes of the stela is explained in the vertical inscription located in front of the striding Iku. This written “appeal to the living” asks those who pause in front of it to read the text aloud, providing the deceased with “a thousand of bread and beer, a thousand of beef and fowl, and of everything good, for the high official, the honored Iku.” The text above Mer-imat’s head describes her titles as “king’s [ornament], priestess of Hathor, honored one, beautiful of ornament, overseer of oasis-dwellers.” That Mer-imat’s titles are significantly more elaborate than those of her husband suggests that Iku may have owed his noble position to their marriage. The wealth of the couple is underscored by their fine dress that includes intricately beaded wigs, jeweled collars, armlets, and anklets. Iku’s staff and scepter are traditional symbols of position and authority.

This funerary stela is almost certainly from Naga-ed-Deir, a village in Upper Egypt on the bank of the river Nile. The stela closely resembles nearly one hundred relief carvings found in the offering chambers of tombs in the vast cemetery at Naga-ed-Deir. Despite its fragmentary condition, the expertly carved surface and the original polychrome are well preserved.

“This is my favorite because it is ancient and people like us can not find stuff like that anymore.” – anonymous child

John Singer Sargent (American, 1856 - 1925), In the Alps, 1911, oil on canvas, 20 x 28 1/16 in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1990.20.1.

John Singer Sargent received strict academic training as an artist, but his teachers encouraged him to execute his work with immediacy and rapidity.  They disapproved of any re-working.

This painting, very expressive in style, is notable for its quick and dynamic brushwork.  On close inspection, the thick impasto becomes clearly visible, giving a rich texture to the painting.  The sky, clouds, rocks, and alpine flowers fill this canvas, which Sargent painted during one of his sojourns in the Simplon Pass in the Oberland Alps of Switzerland.

“This energetic picture makes me want to leave the flat lands and head for the hills.” – anonymous

Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640), The Lamentation of Christ, c.1605, oil on copper, 11 x 9 ½ in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.131.1.

Peter Paul Rubens, the son of a prominent Flemish family, was initially destined to become a courtier. He persuaded his mother to let him devote himself to painting. He left for Italy in 1600 and remained there for eight years until his mother’s illness forced him to return to Antwerp. Rubens’s study of ancient art and Italian painting profoundly influenced his artistic style. He established a studio, received significant commissions, and taught many pupils. After the death of his first wife in 1626, Rubens entered the diplomatic service and made several trips to England and Spain. He was a man of such wide-ranging intellectual learning and talents that some of his contemporaries considered his artistic gifts to be among the least of his talents. He was fluent in Latin, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish. Rubens was also a gifted diplomat and was widely read in classical literature, Christian thought, and contemporary affairs.

This painting depicts the scene after Christ’s descent from the cross and before his entombment. The Virgin Mary leans over the body of Christ while Mary Magdalen kneels at his feet. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and lamenting women complete the circle of mourners. The back of the painting bears the seal of the noble Colonna family of Rome. The work is listed in the 1783 inventory of art treasures in the Colonna palace outside Rome. From 1605 to 1606, Rubens’s brother Philip was secretary and librarian to Cardinal Ascanio Colonna (1559-1608), and it is likely that the Cardinal commissioned this picture. It was later given to the painter Giuseppe Cades (1750-1799), whose signed declaration of ownership remains on the back.

“I feel the mourners’ pain.  The painting draws me in.” – anonymous

Agnolo Gaddi (Italian, 1350 - 1396), Madonna of Humility with Angels, c. 1390, tempera on panel, frame: 43 ½ x 24 ¼ in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.130.1.

Gaddi was heir to the great Florentine painting tradition of Giotto (1266-1337), the acknowledged father of the Italian Renaissance. Gaddi inherited his father’s workshop, which he directed very successfully until the end of the fourteenth century. The Cummer panel is rare because it is one of the very few small works completed entirely by Gaddi. His skill is demonstrated in the acute attention to detail, especially in the elaborate tooling and punching of the gold leaf found in the background and halos. Many of these specific punch marks can be seen in Gaddi’s other works.

The Madonna is shown suckling the Christ Child while seated on the floor with her head bowed. This humble portrayal of the Madonna became prevalent in fourteenth-century Italian painting and was a result of the humanization of the Virgin Mary as a mother. Two hovering angels hold a crown over her head revealing that the Madonna is also the Queen of Heaven. To emphasize this royal reference, she is clothed in a beautiful blue mantle that is lined in green and trimmed in gold. The robe underneath is decorated with an intricate gold pattern. The patterning is continued in the cloth of honor that is held aloft by two red-clad, red-winged heavenly angels.

“At the moment, I am fascinated with the Gaddi. I like seeing the artist’s hand and mind at work – the presence of the underpainting, the attention to detail and the symbolism and devotional nature of the piece. I’m not often interested in angels, but I like the texture and the pattern in the work and like finding the cultural references of Tuscany in the painting.” – anonymous

# 31 Frederic Remington (American, 1861 - 1909), The Bronco Buster, c.1900-1909, bronze, 24 1/8 in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1982.2.1.

Born in Ohio, Frederic Remington was largely a self-taught artist.  He studied briefly at the Yale University Art School in Connecticut and the Art Students League in New York before moving westward.  Remington translated his fascination with the American West into art, as a painter, sculptor, and illustrator.  The Bronco Buster is one of his best known works.  The rearing horse forms a powerful diagonal as he attempts to throw his rider.  The horse’s precarious pose, the crop and reins detached from the body of the sculpture, and rider’s foot suspended outside of the stirrup contribute to the overwhelming sense of movement and energy in this work.

“I love this because I love cowboys!” – Aaron, age 7

#32 Marie Laurencin (French, 1885 – 1956), Woman with Guitar (Femme et Mandolin), 1943, oil on canvas, 33 ¾ x 29 3/8 in., Gift from Jack and Marcelle Bear, in honor of John S. Bunker, AG.1995.2.1.

Poet and painter Marie Laurencin was closely associated with the Parisian avant-garde movement.  Woman with a Guitar demonstrates Laurencin’s schematic treatment of human anatomy.  The sitter’s porcelain skin, demure mouth, and widely set almond eyes are particularly striking.  The flat planes of pastel hues are typical of her work.  Laurencin achieves an ephemeral elegance with her unique combination of simplified forms, graceful lines, and pleasing palette. Reflecting her own interest in the literary, performing, and visual arts, Laurencin often painted figures in the guise of the Muses, draped in togas and carrying the attributes of their art.

“I love the softness of the colors and the simple beauty of the figure.” – Kelly, age 23

Eugène Louis Charvot (French, 1847-1924), View of Rue El – Alfahoui, 1889, oil on canvas, 47 ¼ x 39 7/8 in., Given by Yvonne Charvot Barnett in memory of her father Eugène Louis Charvot, AG.1999.5.3.

In 1889 Charvot painted View of the Rue El-Alfahouine in Tunis. It became one of his major exhibition canvases and was included in the Municipal Exposition of Geneva, Switzerland in 1898. A large canvas of Tunisian city life, it captures the rhythm of the city. In a letter to a niece he wrote:

The city of Tunis and particularly the Arab markets are from the point of view of the artist beyond all description. Delacroix, Fortuny, only gave a faint idea of it. There … all is bright and colored, luminous and fresh. The cube-shaped houses, the mosques, dabbled high and low with white lime, shine under the eastern sun like immense blocks of chalk.

Charvot was clearly taken by the exotic aspects of life in North Africa. When he was sent to Gabès, a lonely desert outpost in southern Tunisia, he used his free time to explore various desert communities. Following are some of his observations:

Djara presents an extraordinary appearance for a Parisian, especially the section extending into the oasis.… I am in a country completely unexplored by painters, and I want to make a good showing before leaving. If my paintings aren’t sucessful … at least they have the appeal of the strange and are sincere.

The Charvot Collection is comprised of 19 paintings, 202 works on paper, and associated archival materials. Research on the collection is continuing and will be presented in special exhibitions and publications.

Italian Fountain, recast in 2001 by Marble Studio Stagetti in Pietrasanta, Italy, April 2004. Photograph courtesy of Mick Hales, Greenworld Pictures Inc.

“Sitting in the garden is so peaceful and the view of the river is really beautiful”  –Katie Horton Taylor

“About 5 years ago, my husband proposed to me in the garden area under the covering of the building on a rainy day and it was beautiful….”  –Brooke Rojas

The Cummer Gardens are a rare thing of beauty, set in the heart of Jacksonville.  Historically preserved since they were managed by the Museum’s founder, Ninah May Holden Cummer, they are still true to the design she left.  The Gardens feature an English and an Italian formal garden with a green lawn in between.  They are unique examples of early 20th Century garden design, and have been recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.   The Cummer Oak, one of the most striking features of the Gardens, boasts the title of being one of the oldest trees in Jacksonville at approximately 200 years old.  It is a live oak tree with a canopy of over 150 ft.  Words, however, do not do the Gardens justice, so here are some more pictures!

Jan ten Compe (Dutch, 1713 - 1761), View of Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, 1752, oil on panel, 21 3/8 x 29 ½ in., oil on panel, Museum purchase with Membership Contributions, AP.1963.6.1.

Jan ten Compe found his calling in painting views of major Dutch towns.  His paintings are so precise that they are of special interest to historians because of their topographic and architectural accuracy.  He rendered buildings in minute detail, adding daily activities to enliven the scene.

Bathed in morning sunlight, the turreted building dominates Nieuwmarkt Square in Amsterdam.  Originally built as a city gate, the stately structure became a Waag, or weigh house, in the seventeenth century.  A small group of men load several large bags onto a scale in front of the weigh house and the skeleton painted on one of the doors of the weigh house indicates the entrance to the meeting room of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons.

Theodoor Rombouts (Flemish, 1597 - 1637), The Concert (A Musical Party), c.1620, oil on canvas, 44 7/8 x 68 7/8 in., Museum Purchase with funds by Eunice Pitt Odom Semmes, AP.1970.10.1.

Theodoor Rombouts studied in Italy from 1616 to 1625, following an apprenticeship in the vibrant and commercial city of Antwerp in the early seventeenth century. He was in Rome in 1620 and may have worked for the Medici in Florence until 1625, when he returned to Antwerp. Rombouts became a master at the Guild of St. Luke and embarked on a distinguished career producing mainly secular works for private patrons.

The Concert depicts a group of costumed musicians playing various instruments around a table covered with a Persian tapestry rug. Music parties of this type were typical subjects for Flemish artists during the seventeenth century. This painting shows the play of deep shadows and bright highlights that reflect the strong influence of the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio (1571-1610), whose paintings Rombouts studied during his years in Rome. Caravaggio’s works were characterized by dramatic figures depicted with unflinching realism.

This music party is a celebration of the five senses. Rombouts indicates the various senses by selectively illuminating an ear, nose, hand, and eyes, but omits the sense of taste. This fifth sense may be represented by the foremost figure who looks out, inviting the viewer to complete the circle of senses and welcoming the patron of “good taste” who commissioned Rombouts’s paintings.

Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819 - 1904), Orchid with an Amethyst Hummingbird, c.1875 - 90, oil on canvas, 18 1/16 x 10 1/8 in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.112.1.

Martin Johnson Heade has acquired a reputation both as an artist and a naturalist. His studies of nature, particularly of hummingbirds, began in his youth and continued throughout his life. Following in the footsteps of other American artists, Heade went to South America and the Caribbean between 1863 and 1870. He visited Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. At the age of 64, Heade married and moved from New York to St. Augustine, Florida, where he continued to paint for many years. Heade’s patron at the time was Henry Flagler (1830-1913), railroad magnate and real estate developer of Florida’s east coast. When Flagler built the great Hotel Ponce de León in 1885 (now Flagler College), he included studios for artists in order to attract them to St. Augustine. Heade occupied one of these studios.

Heade’s writings on the conservation of Florida’s natural wilderness are unparalleled as pioneering efforts. Heade’s contribution to American nineteenth-century painting is embodied by his study of light, particularly as reflected in paintings of sun-dappled fields and marshes. In this painting, the orchid is a carefully studied representation of the Cattleya labiata Lindley, which is found in Venezuela, whereas the hummingbird has been identified as an Amethyst hummingbird, commonly found in the Amazon Basin.

Mar. 16, 2011 Answers!

#1: Jan ten Compe (Dutch, 1713 – 1761), View of Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, 1752, oil on panel, 21 3/8 x 29 ½ in., oil on panel, Museum purchase with Membership Contributions, AP.1963.6.1.

#2: Joseph Jeffers Dodge (American, 1917 – 1997), Dancing Pears II, 1992, oil on panel, 16 x 20 in., Gift of Mr. Joseph Jeffers Dodge, AG.1996.2.59.

#3: Edmund Darch Lewis (American, 1835 – 1910), Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 1865, oil on canvas, 51 7/8 x 90 ½ in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1990.17.1.

#4:Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874 – 1939), Before Her Appearance, 1913, oil on canvas, 61 1/8 x 61 1/8 in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1985.2.1.

Edgar Degas (French, 1834 - 1917), Scene with Ballerinas, 1890 - 95, charcoal and pastel on paper, 15 x 20 ½ in., Bequest of Ruth P. Phillips, AG.2005.5.1.

Born Hilaire Germain Edgar De Ga, who at the suggestion of his father signed his name as “De Gas”, studied at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand and briefly at law school but was most interested in becoming an artist.  In 1853 he began to copy at the Louvre and shortly thereafter entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

In Scene with Ballerinas, Degas used charcoal for most of the composition.  There are hints of blue pastel throughout the group of four ballerinas, which appear to surround the central figure.  The focal point of the drawing is the standing ballerina, who is dressed in a flowing skirt, with cap sleeves and a u-shaped neckline.  The faint structure sketched behind the ballerinas appears to be a rocky landscape with ruins that are not well defined.

“The Degas print is my favorite because I like ballerinas” – Alana, age 3 1/2

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Paulus Bor (Dutch, 1601 - 1669), Allegory of Avarice (The Miserly Woman), 17th century, oil on canvas, 48 x 39 3/8 in., Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer, C.0.128.1.

The old, miserly looking woman embodies the deadly sin of greed. She sits on a low stool amidst moneybags and pots of coins. Her homely spindle is discarded on the floor and the fire and lamp are extinguished. A snarling dog lies on an empty moneybag. The legal document hanging over the parapet suggests the hold the woman has over her debtors. A string of onions hangs on the wall-often a reference to old women as procurers of illicit love.

In 1793, this painting entitled Avarice was illustrated in a French book of engravings and ascribed to Rembrandt. Experts do not always agree on the authorship of a particular painting, and Allegory of Avarice is a good example. Following Rembrandt, a number of Dutch artists, most persuasively Paulus Bor, have been mentioned in association with this painting.

“Both dog and old woman are looking at you as if you are there.  There are beautiful details in her face.  Nice play with shadows and positioning of objects and subjects.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Mar. 2, 2011 Answers!

#1: John Steuart Curry (American, 1897 – 1946), Parade to War, Allegory, 1938, oil on canvas, 47 13/16 x 63 13/16 in., Gift of Barnett Banks, Inc., AG.1991.4.1.

#2: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825 – 1905), Day Dreams, 1904, oil on canvas, 45 3/8 x 32 in., Gift of Paul Reinhold in memory of Klare Neely Reinhold, AG.1986.7.1.

#3: Gustave Leonard de Jonghe (Belgian, 1829 – 1893), (L’admiratrice du Japon), The Japanese Fan, c. 1865, oil on canvas, 44 ¼ x 34 1/16 in., Gift of the Francis & Miranda Childress Foundation, AG.1988.3.1.

#4: Edgar Degas (French, 1834 – 1917), Scene with Ballerinas, 1890 – 95, charcoal and pastel on paper, 15 x 20 ½ in., Bequest of Ruth P. Phillips, AG.2005.5.1.

Gioacchino Assereto (Italian, 1600 - 1649), The Lamentation (The Pieta), c. 1640, oil on canvas, 50 x 62 in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1988.1.1.

This dramatic tableau was meant to fulfill the Counter-Reformation Catholic Church’s doctrine that art was to “sting the heart,” making the viewer see and feel every aspect of the life and death of Christ. Here, the greatly foreshortened pallid body of Christ forms a diagonal that draws the viewer into the midst of the emotional scene, completing the circle of mourners. The play of dark shadows and bright highlights over the surface of the painting theatrically intensifies the sorrow-filled moment. Gioacchino Assereto’s Lamentation depicts Christ descended from the Cross and laid upon a cloth on the ground. Mourning him are the Virgin Mary who is near his head, Mary Magdalene who kisses his hand in a penitent gesture, and St. John the Evangelist who holds the crown of thorns.

Assereto worked in Genoa, Italy and specialized in painting religious subjects. He visited Rome in 1639 where he experienced firsthand the burgeoning interest in realism. This work is one of the very few paintings by Assereto found outside of Italy. Most of his paintings are still in the churches and palazzi for which they were originally commissioned.

“It depicts mother and child relationship and how a mother genuinely loves her son.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Peter Thijs (Flemish, 1624 –1677) and Pieter Boel (Flemish, 1622 - 1674), Huntsman with His Dogs and Game, c.1650, oil on canvas, 72 x 103 ½ in., Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, AG.1961.9.1.

This life-size portrait of an unknown hunter is considered to be the collaborative work of Pieter Thijs and Pieter Boel. Both artists were born in Antwerp and became members of the Guild of St. Luke in 1644 and 1650 respectively. Credited with the image of the hunter in this painting, Thijs was known for large-scale religious compositions and elegant portraits. The game and dogs are attributed to Pieter Boel, a specialist in animal painting who was an accomplished still life painter. Boel was active in France after 1668 and served as Peintre Ordinaire to Louis XIV (1638-1715). While in France, Boel produced tapestry designs for the Gobelins factory and made studies of animals in the royal menagerie.

Collaborative efforts between artists were not uncommon at the time; specialists in areas such as portraiture, landscape, or still life often worked cooperatively to accommodate the wishes of a patron. Hunting scenes became popular artistic subjects in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. The sport was a favorite among the nobility and was also enjoyed by the wealthy merchant class. Images of hunters with the abundance of their sport were often commissioned to commemorate specific events and desired for their decorative value. The wide variety of small game included here indicates the skilled hunter’s marksmanship.

“The painting seemed to come alive.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Feb. 16, 2011 Answers!

#1: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844 – 1926), Simone in a Large Plumed Hat, c. 1903, pastel counterproof on paper, 26 x 21 in., Purchased with funds provided by the Mae W. Schultz Acquisition Endowment and the Cummer Council, AP.1992.8.1.

#2: Eugène Louis Charvot (French, 1847-1924), View of Rue El – Alfahouine, 1889, oil on canvas, 47 ¼ x 39 7/8 in., Given by Yvonne Charvot Barnett in memory of her father Eugène Louis Charvot, AG.1999.5.3.

#3: Edmund William Greacen (American, 1877 – 1949), Brooklyn Bridge, East River, 1916, oil on canvas, 37 x 37 ½ in., Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Rene Faure (Daughter of Edmond Greacen, Nan Greacen Faure), AG.1972.2.1.

#4: Frederic Remington (American, 1861 – 1909), The Bronco Buster, c.1900-1909, bronze, 24 1/8 in., Morton R. Hirschberg Memorial Fund Purchase, AP.1982.2.1.

Abraham Rattner (American, 1895 – 1978), Crucifixion in Yellow, 1953, oil on masonite, 45 ¾ x 35 ¼ in., Gift of Genny, Clifford, and Robert Ayers in Memory of Genevieve Schultz Ayers, AG.1987.7.1.

Rattner’s style of figurative expressionism combined traditional themes with the formal elements of Modernism. The theme of the crucifixion grew out of Rattner’s reaction to World War II. For Rattner, the crucifixion became a symbol of man’s condition. He included himself in this spiritual examination when he said, “It is myself that is on the cross, though I am attempting to express a universal theme-man’s inhumanity to man.” In Yellow Crucifixion Rattner shatters and reassembles the image of a figure on a golden cross. The brightly colored facets of thick paint and the delineating black lines are reminiscent of the Gothic stained glass windows Rattner admired during a brief residence in Chartres, site of the famous French cathedral.

“I love the fact that you have to really “study” the piece to see what the artist was trying to say. Also it is beautiful and different from The Cummer’s other works.” – Wilma

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Augusta Savage and The Diving Boy, c. 1939

One of our great African American female artists represented in The Cummer’s collection is Augusta Savage.  You may have seen her work when visiting the current Cummer Legacy exhibit, but did you know that she is a native of northeast Florida? She was born February 29,1892 (leap year!) in Green Cove Springs.  At an early age, she fell in love with sculpting when she used clay she found in the ground to create small animals.

With the encouragement of one of her teachers, she followed her passion to become a professional sculptor working in Jacksonville and then moving north to Harlem in New York. There she was able to go to art school at Cooper Union and became known as a prominent portrait sculptor. Busts of W.E.B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson and Marcus Garvey are attributed to her. Her rise in talent and popularity made her one of the first visual artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Her work led her to study in Paris for a few years.

Augusta Savage, American, The Diving Boy, c. 1939, Bronze, 32 1/2"

Excited by her own work, Savage wanted to pass on her passion for art to the greater Harlem community. Upon returning to New York after her studies in Paris, she opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts which evolved into the Harlem Community Arts Center. Many well known African American artists started there including Jacob Lawrence and William Artis.  She even set aside much of her own work as a sculptor to teach young people.

The Cummer Museum is lucky to have The Diving Boy in Bronze because many of Savage’s work was not cast and therefore has not lasted through the years. Mrs. Cummer acquired this piece in 1939 for her garden where it sat looking over a reflecting pool in the Italian garden.

As an artist, teacher and activist she said, “If I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work.” The Cummer honors her life’s work with the naming of one of our community programs, Project Augusta Savage, where we teach art in two urban Catholic schools and bring the students to the museum multiple times per year to study our collection and garden. We hope that Savage’s passion for the arts lives on in these young students.

Pieter Aertsen (Dutch, c. 1507 – 1575), The Parable of the Marriage Feast, 1550 - 1554, oil on panel, 48 ½ x 66 ½ in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1965.12.1.

Pieter Aertsen was trained in Amsterdam, but worked for much of his career in Antwerp, where he enrolled in the Guild of St. Luke as a master painter. He was particularly known for his important religious paintings and monumental genre scenes. This is one of his most important large religious works because it survived the Beeldenstorm of 1566, a rebellious event in the Netherlands during which religious paintings and sculptures were destroyed. Later in life, Aertsen returned to his native Amsterdam and remained there until his death.

The large size of this work permits the artist to depict a continuous narrative in one painting. The subject of this very involved picture comes from the Bible. In Matthew 22 verses 1-14, Jesus describes how a king invited his subjects to celebrate the marriage of his son. When no one came to the marriage feast, the king commanded his servants to go out and collect people both “good and bad” to attend the event. As the king observed his guests, he noticed one who did not wear the appropriate attire for the celebration. Because of this infraction, the king had the man bound and cast into darkness. The parable of the marriage feast ends with the words “many are called, but few are chosen.”

One of the most striking aspects of this scene is the combination of ancient ruins with contemporary sixteenth-century architectural elements from Rome. These kinds of buildings were known through the many drawings and prints done by other northern artists traveling to Rome.

“I like the idea it represents.  Just because you are called doesn’t mean you will be chosen.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Takashi Soga (Japanese, b. 1952), Sea of the Ear Rings, 2008, metal, 13 x 13 ft., Gift in memory of Dudley D. Johnson, Jr. (1961-2004), AG.2008.3.1.

The Sea of the Ear Rings is made of stainless steel and stands 13 feet tall by 13 feet wide and is located at the entrance to The Cummer facing Riverside Avenue.  It is a kinetic structure as the upper ring of the sculpture gently moves up and down.  The artist has expressed his interests in space and especially in gravity and its influence on space.  By controlling gravity, the artist is able to show “unusual space.”

Soga, who lives in Utica, New York, was born in 1952 in Osaka, Japan.  He graduated from Osaka University of Art in 1975.  He has received numerous awards and honors, among them the Grand Prize at the 13^th International Art Exhibition of Japan in 1980, the Nagano Prize in 1998, and the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2005.

“The Soga sculpture is my favorite work of art because it’s modern, contemporary, and moves by sheer gravity rather than some sort of motor.  It’s innovative and interesting, which makes me want to see what other sculpture he will produce.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Johann Gregor Höroldt for Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (German, 1696 – 1775), Meissen Augustus Rex Vase, c. 1728, porcelain, various heights, Gift of Miss Constance I. and Mr. Ralph H. Wark, AG.1973.25.1 -5. Photograph courtesy of Brian Shrum.

The Ralph H. and Constance I. Wark Collection of early Meissen porcelain is one of the three finest and most comprehensive collections in the world. Ralph Wark (1902-1907) bought his first Meissen piece in 1922, and over the next sixty years acquired more than seven hundred pieces. Before World War II, Mr. Wark was a representative of the National Cash Register Corporation in Europe and traveled extensively on the Continent. At various times, he lived in Hamburg, Paris, London, and Berlin. Ralph Wark and his sister Constance, residents of St. Augustine, donated this unique collection to the Cummer in 1965.

“At first glance I was not excited to walk into a room full of china. But then I actually stopped to look and there was a bear who looked like it was about to fight a dog on a tea cup. The Meissen is like a collection of comics. Each one is a story but in a most unlikely yet accessible dinnerware format.” –Tony Allegretti

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

How well do you know The Cummer?  If you think you can identify these items—currently on display throughout the Museum as 50 Favorites.  Write your guesses in the comment section below and we will give the answers in two weeks, along with the next challenge.  One winner will receive a complimentary one-day pass to the Museum.  Good luck!

Workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598 - 1680), Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, c. 1641, marble, 26 in., Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Lane, Jr., AG.1970.7.1.

Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642) was a man of respectable but humble origins who became the chief minister of King Louis XIII (1601-1643) in 1624 and, eventually, the virtual ruler of France. Bernini completed a marble portrait bust of the Cardinal in 1640. The pre-eminent sculptor and architect of his day, Bernini’s work is characterized by the dramatic play of light and dark seen in the deep carving of this piece. The solemn, piercing gaze of the Cardinal and the slipped button on his lapel silently convey the dynamic tension for which the artist was known.

This sculpture is one of several nearly identical marble portrait busts of Richelieu credited to Bernini’s workshop or assistants. Similarities between the drill marks and details found on this bust and the original, at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, suggest that this marble was created in Bernini’s studio in the presence of the original. Bernini executed the original bust in Rome while Cardinal Richelieu was in France. Access to a triple portrait of the cardinal by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674), showing Richelieu from three angles, made it possible for Bernini to carve a close likeness. The number of seventeenth-century copies of this work attests to the popularity of the original at a time when studio assistants were producing sought-after replicas under the supervision of their master.

“Bernini didn’t want to do the bust, but was forced to. The cardinal was very precise in his dress, so as a slight Bernini made one of his 3 buttons half in and half out. I was sent here as an extra credit project for SJRCC. This piece was listed in my humanities book and I thought it was cool to see it in person.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Master of the Stötteritz Altar (German, active late 15th century), Mother of Sorrows, c. 1480, oil on panel, 8 ¾ x 6 ½ in., Gift of Mrs. Clifford G. Schultz in memory of Mr. Clifford G. Schultz, AG.1984.1.1.

This painting is one of only six known works attributed to the anonymous artist, whose identity comes from his association with the Stötteritz Altarpiece, a triptych located in the church at Leipzig-Stötteritz in Germany. His work, including this Mother of Sorrows, exemplifies the heightened realism and emotional drama that characterized Northern Renaissance painting.

With painstaking acuity the artist has articulated the expressive details of the Madonna’s features, costume, and gesture. Her sorrow is explicitly revealed in her red swollen eyes and the tears that fall upon her cheeks. The Madonna extends her left hand out to the viewer in a gesture of intercession, welcoming the prayers of the faithful. This panel was the left half of a portable hinged diptych designed for personal devotion. Traditionally, the subject of the grieving Madonna was paired with an image of Christ as the Man of Sorrows. Mary’s gesture of grasping her mantle can be interpreted as a prelude to wiping the brow of the suffering Christ in the missing panel. The window ledge in the foreground enhances the sense of three-dimensional space, an artistic technique perfected during the Renaissance, whereas the flat, gilded background harkens back to more archaic medieval traditions.

“Sweet and tender – compelling example of Mother of Sorrows.  I love the sweet, kind face – her hand out to the suffering people.” – Anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844 - 1926), Simone in a Large Plumed Hat, c. 1903, pastel counterproof on paper, 26 x 21 in., Purchased with funds provided by the Mae W. Schultz Acquisition Endowment and the Cummer Council, AP.1992.8.1.

The daughter of a wealthy family from Pennsylvania, Mary Cassatt received her initial artistic training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Against her family’s wishes, she moved to Paris where she remained as an expatriate artist for more than forty years. By the age of 28, Cassatt’s work had been accepted to the Paris Salon. Cassatt exhibited with the Impressionist group four times between the years of 1877 and 1886, the only American artist ever to be invited do so. Throughout her highly successful career, Cassatt transcended traditional expectations for women.

Domestic scenes of upper-class Parisian mothers and children comprise only one-third of Cassatt’s oeuvre, but form the basis for her continued popularity. This sentimental image of a young girl holding a dog is characteristic of Cassatt’s mature Impressionistic style. The composition is tightly cropped and the sitter is pushed to the front of the picture plane. Such simple, graceful compositions were greatly influenced by her fascination with Japanese woodblock prints. Cassatt was very adept at the medium of pastel and took advantage of its spontaneity and subtle variations in color and texture. Created by pressing a damp piece of paper against a pastel drawing, this counterproof exhibits the muted, highly atmospheric effects typical of Cassatt’s work.

“I like Simone and the dog. They are so cute!” – Eleanor, age 4

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Herman Herzog (German/American, 1832 - 1932), Figure in a Landscape, c. 1910, oil on canvas, 15 13/16 x 19 7/8 in., Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. Herman Terry, AG.1987.11.1.

A native of the German city of Bremen, Herman Herzog entered the Düsseldorf Academy when he was seventeen.  The young artist was attracted to landscape compositions and traveled widely in pursuit of inspiration.  During the 1860s, the artist settled in Philadelphia but continued to travel, including regular visits to his son’s home in Gainesville.  Herzog created more than 250 Florida views of the lush vegetation between the Suwannee and Homossassa Rivers.  This painted record of unspoiled Florida was created for Herzog’s appreciation alone without any audience in mind. Financial success allowed the artist to cease selling his paintings later in life, resulting in a studio collection of nearly 1000 works at the time of his death.

“Herzog’s style combines detail and impressionism.  His colors depict the true feeling of nature.  The Florida landscape is near and dear to my heart.” – anonymous

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!

Giorgio Vasari (Italian, 1511 - 1574), The Holy Family with the Infant, St. John, the Baptist, c. 1540, oil on panel, 42 ¾ x 32 1/8 in., Museum purchase with Council funds, AP.1989.3.1.

The intense, bright colors and exaggerations in scale of this asymmetrical composition demonstrate Giorgio Vasari’s close affiliation with the Mannerist style of painting.  The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are shown as caring parents of the Christ Child, who holds a goldfinch in his left hand. The bird is seen as a foreshadowing of the Crucifixion, as is the inscription on the banderole, Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God.  St. John the Baptist is clad in the animal furs that foretell his preaching in the wilderness.

In addition to his successful work as a painter, Giorgio Vasari achieved fame as the author of Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (Florence, 1568), an important history of Italian Renaissance artists.

Keep an eye out every week for more visitor favorites.  We will be highlighting each of the top fifty pieces during our 50th Anniversary year.  If you want a more intimate encounter, stop by the museum and see these masterpieces for yourself!