December 5, 1940
Selections from acquisitions of the Brooklyn Museum from May through October will be exhibited to the public in a showing which opens December 5 and extends through January 12. Objects from all the Museum departments which make collections will be shown.
Six oils and two water colors by eight American artists, three not living and the others contemporaries, constitute the paintings being shown by the Department of Painting and Sculpture. The acquisition of five of these paintings was announced in June, but this is the first time they have been put on public view. The three others not previously announced are: “Ghosts of the Forest” by Marsden Hartley, “Winter and Spring” by Henry Schnakenberg, and “Locomotive in Weehawken” by Reginald Marsh. The two last named are water colors. This Department has also placed in the exhibition a wood sculpture, entitled “The Player,” by Enrico Glicenstein. Of the paintings already announced, “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks (1780-1849), “Shooting for the Beef” by George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879), and “Hester Street” by George Luks were acquired from the Garvan Estate. The other two are “Swamp Folk” by Arnold Blanch, and “Green Seas” by Henry Mattson.
Also in the field of graphic arts, the Print Department will show two American color prints. Its outstanding accession is a paper probably from a sketch book of Daumier’s, with work on both sides of the sheet, the side shown being “A Head of an Old Lady in Profile,” and on the reverse side a group of studies of heads. It was acquired from the Stoneborough Collection. Another important accession of the Print Department is a gift to the Museum by Mrs. George D. Pratt of two pencil drawings by Jerome Meyers. Still other examples shown are a Daumier lithograph, “Embarquement d’une Dame,” often called “Le Gibon”; a lithograph in color by Utrillo, interesting because this French artist did only a few color lithographs; a color lithograph, “Enfant a la Lampe,” by Pierre Bonnard, also of the French School; a lithograph entitled “Le Gamin” by Edouard Manet; a silk screen print, “Roofs and Sky” by Louis Lozowick; and a woodcut in color, “Head of Allyne, “ by Bernard Schardt. The last two artists are contemporary Americans.
Other American pieces shown are from the acquisitions of the Department of American Rooms and Textiles, and comprise a Stiegel type emerald green vase, a Sandwich glass baluster-shape vase, a silver tablespoon, a cup and saucer made in an old Brooklyn porcelain factory, and a selection of costumes. The only other item shown by this department will be a Delft plate.
The Stiegel vase is twelve-paneled and is American early 19th Century work. It was acquired from the Wm. T. H. Howe Collection of Cincinnati, and before that it had been in the Herbert D. Mason Collection, New York City. Authorities attach considerable importance to this piece, as it is one of the five known Stiegel type emerald green pieces. The cup and saucer are the gift of Mrs. Luke Vincent Lockwood. They were made by Karl Muller, a German artist and designer, when he worked for the Union Porcelain works, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The subjects painted by him are Mercury and Justice. The tablespoon is important because it is American 17th Century work done by the silversmIth Arnold Collins, Newport, Rhode Island, who worked between 1690 and 1735. The Delft piece is the gift of Mr. Daniel Berry Austin, and is an 18th Century vegetable plate with twelve panels. Some of the costumes that have been acquired by this Department during the last few months will also be included in the exhibition. They are: a patterned olive green taffeta afternoon dress, American, 1860, given by Miss Etta Dahm; dress of white organdy with all-over floral design, American, 1865, gift of Miss Sarah Milligan and Mrs. Kate Milligan Brill; and a princesse evening dress and 'pancake' hat of old gold and pink satin, American, 1882, and yellow bengaline silk evening dress, American, 1892, given by Miss Evelyn Eaves and Mrs. Emma Eaves Alyea.
Two objects are shown from the Department of Egyptology. The most important is a limestone sculpture of a man and his wife sitting with their arms around each other. It is a representative example of the late 18th Dynasty, and has considerable human interest in that it reflects the sentimentality of the period akin to the Victorian period of modern times. It is approximately fourteen inches high, and was acquired from the Meux Collection in England. The other object shown by this department is a faience necklace from Thebes, also of the late 18th Dynasty, showing the Egyptian use of porcelain color in place of jewels or gems, and is an excellent example of the skill attained in the minor arts of the period.
The Department of American Indian Art and Primitive Cultures and the Department of Oriental Art are showing augmentations of existing collections. From the first are costumes and costume accessories such as belts, bags, hats and ceremonial sticks of the Mexican Huichol Indians. It is the first material in this category the Museum has acquired. There is also a collection of baskets from various parts of the world, given to the Museum by Dr. D. D. Streeter, which amplifies usefully some groups in this field. Other objects are two Fiji Island tapas, three Zapotecan urns, and a Guatemalan wooden mask.
Mrs. George D. Pratt presented the Museum with two Near Eastern costumes and a belt, scarf and hat, a Persian book cover and seven Indian miniatures, shown by the Department of Oriental Art. The four Chinese costumes given by Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt are all in the exhibition. The other objects in this section a pair of Shansi bracelets, given by Miss C. F. Bieber.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 10-12/1940, 251-3. View Original
