A painting of the Greek youth Narcissus by Gustave Moreau, a Tiffany lamp, a group of Sri Lankan and Nepalese works, a painting of a country road in Virginia, a Staffordshire cup and saucer and a modern Eames table are among items added to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) collection recently. “Narcissus” is a circa 1890s oil on canvas by Moreau (1826-1898), who was the archetypal French Symbolist of his time. The painting measures 253/4 by 143/4 inches and was purchased by the museum through its Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams endowment. Ovid’s story of Narcissus was of a beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pond. Entranced, he wasted away until he was transformed into the flower that today bears his name. VMFA’s new Tiffany Studios works is known as the “Poppy Filigree” lamp because it represents two aspects of the studio’s production of lamps; the use of filigree in front of and behind the iridescent Favrile glass shade and the poppy theme, which occurs in various guises in Tiffany lamps. The studio, founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1879, was well-established in New York by 1900. VMFA’s lamp is from circa 1910-20. It is made of leaded glass and gilt bronze and stands 21 inches tall. The lamp has a dragonfly screen that can be suspended from the lamp by a hook and chain. It was designed to screen the glare of the lamp’s bare bulbs from those seated below it. The lamp was purchased in New York in the early Twentieth Century and remained in the Washbourne family until this year, when it was given to the museum in memory of Frank H. Washbourne. An anonymous donor has given the museum a group of Nepalese and Sri Lankan works, including manuscript pages, ritual regalia, stone and metal sculptures and a cloth painting. They were collected in Nepal in the 1960s, says Dr Joseph M. Dye III, VMFA’s chief curator and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art. The finest works in the group include Fifteenth/Six-teenth Century Nepalese Buddhist ritual regalia and several Sixteenth/Eighteenth Century illuminated Nepalese manuscript folios that depict both Buddhist and Hindu subjects. “Country Road, Amherst County, Virginia” is a 1941 oil painting measuring 28 by 32 inches by Elizabeth Nottingham Day (1907-1956) and was given to VMFA by H. Talmadge Day, her eldest son, of Alexandria, Va. The museum’s newly acquired cup and saucer is from circa 1880and is made of bone china. It was created by Christopher Dresser(English, 1834-1904) for Brownfield & Sons (1838-1891) ofCobridge, Staffordshire, England. The crane motif in blue and navy against a cream background on the gold-trimmed cup is one of Dresser’s most familiar signature themes. VMFA owns seven other Dresser objects. The cup and saucer were given to the museum by former director Katharine Lee Reid of Chapel Hill, N.C., in honor of Dr David Park Curry, VMFA’s former curator of American arts. The Eames table, crafted in walnut veneer and polished chrome, was given to the museum anonymously. It was designed by Americans Charles (1907-1978) and Ray (1912-1989) Eames for the Herman Miller Company of Zeeland, Mich. (founded 1923). Titled “DTM-1 Table,” it measures 281/2 by 54 by 34 inches. It was acquired by the donor between 1950 and 1954. For information, 804-204-2704.
24 Jan 2006 / 0 Comment
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