March 29, 2007

CELEBRATING PAUL MELLON

J.M.W. Turner's Ingleborough from Chapel-Le-Dale will be on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art. (Photo © Yale Center for British Art)

Eugène Boudin (French, 1824-1898); Beach Scene at Trouville, 1863; oil on wood; 13-3/4 by 22-3/4 inches. On view in Eugène Boudin. From the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

The Dining Room, circa 1940-46; Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947); 33 by 39-1/2 inches; oil on canvas. On view in Géricault to Bonnard: Recent Gifts from the Mellon Collection. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © 2006 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is launching Celebrating Paul Mellon, a centennial celebration of the birth of one of its most important benefactors, the late Paul Mellon of Upperville, Va.

Mellon has long been recognized as a collector and philanthropist of local, national and international importance.

"Generous with his time as well as with gifts of art and money, Paul Mellon served on our board of trustees from 1938 until 1979 and was the longest-serving trustee in our history. He was one of the greatest 20th-century collectors of English art," says Alex Nyerges, VMFA's director.

Mellon's philanthropy in the arts extended internationally to institutions such as the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (which he founded) and the Tate Britain museum, both in London, and to the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, which he attended for two years. In the United States, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (founded by his father), the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Conn. (Mellon graduated from Yale in 1929), and VMFA (the official museum of his adopted state) were the principal art institutions to benefit from his support. In Virginia, Mellon also contributed generously to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, the National Sporting Library in Middleburg and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

SUPPORTED VMFA'S FIRST EXPANSION

Mellon, who was born in 1907 and died in 1999, was instrumental in VMFA's expansion through the years. His Old Dominion Foundation completely funded construction of VMFA's theater in the first wing in 1954 and contributed funds for the addition's galleries. In 1960, the Old Dominion Foundation provided funds for VMFA's second Artmobile, which in its inaugural tour featured an on-board exhibit of Impressionist paintings from Mellon's private collection.

In 1985, Mellon funded the West Wing galleries that bear his name, and then filled them with art from his and his wife's collections. Mr. and Mrs. Mellon's donations to VMFA number more than 2,000 works of art, including a choice selection of French paintings, sculpture (among them, original wax models by Edgar Degas) and works on paper. Mellon also gave a portion of his renowned collection of British sporting art and works by major 19th-century American artists (including paintings from George Catlin's famous Indian Gallery). In 1968 he donated funds to acquire an important group of Indian and Himalayan objects that expanded the museum's Asian holdings in a new and unforeseen direction. Finally, Mellon bequeathed VMFA additional funds to establish and increase endowments that support the museum's mission, which includes caring for and displaying the collection, research and publications, and educational programs throughout the state.

The centennial celebration will include two major loan exhibitions. The first, Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art, will be on view at VMFA from July 11 to Sept. 30. This groundbreaking exhibition will bring together 88 works, including masterpieces by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), John Constable (1776-1837), William Blake (1757-1827) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788).

"In all, 45 artists will be represented in a show that will span approximately 100 years - from the emergence of watercolor painting in the mid-18th century to its high point in the late-19th century. It is full of exquisite objects that are the products of a demanding technique," says Dr. Mitchell Merling, VMFA's Paul Mellon Curator and head of the department of European art

"Watercolors were for a time underappreciated, but that is no longer so, primarily because Mellon himself generated their reassessment," Merling says. Organized by YCBA and VMFA, the exhibition will also travel to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is supported in Virginia by the museum's Paul Mellon Endowment. A 232-page hardbound catalogue will be available for $45 in the VMFA Shop (800.943.8632).

BOUDIN SHOWCASE

A second major exhibition, The First Impressionist: Eugène Boudin, will feature works from the Mellon Collections at the National Gallery of Art and will be on view in Richmond from Nov. 14 to Jan. 27.

Merling says the exhibition not only showcases paintings, drawings and watercolors by an artist who was a personal favorite of Mellon's, but also reassesses this innovative artist's fundamental importance to the Impressionist movement.

The exhibition, organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is the most comprehensive presentation of Boudin's work in more than 30 years. (Selected works from the VMFA collection will be added for the Richmond showing.) The National Gallery's collection of works by Boudin (1824-1898) is one of the largest and most distinguished in this country, largely thanks to gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Mellon and Mellon's sister, Ailsa Mellon Bruce. The exhibition is on view in Washington through Aug. 5.

The exhibition will be underwritten in Richmond by VMFA's Paul Mellon Endowment and Philip Morris USA.

A smaller exhibition, Géricault to Bonnard: Recent Gifts from the Mellon Collection, will open June 13 and continue through the centennial year. The exhibition will present 20 French objects from the estate of Paul Mellon, recently presented to VMFA by Mellon's widow, Rachel.

The exhibition highlight will be seven paintings and watercolors by the Post-Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), including an outstanding 1940s composition, The Dining Room. Merling says this gift of Bonnard masterpieces "transforms the VMFA's Post-Impressionist collection." Other works on view will include oils, drawings and watercolors by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Theodore Géricault (1791-1824) and Odilon Redon (1840-1916); bronze animal sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875); and works by Isidore-Jules Bonheur (1827-1901), Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), Christophe Fratin (1801-1864) and Pierre Jules Mêne (1810-1879). The exhibition will also include several decorative objects by jeweler and designer Jean Schlumberger (1907-1987) that were donated by Mrs. Mellon.

SPORTING ART CATALOGUE

VMFA will publish Country Pursuits: Sporting Art from the Mellon Collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in April. Written by VMFA Paul Mellon Curator (emeritus) Malcolm Cormack, the book is a major catalogue of sporting works in VMFA's Mellon British, French and American collections. It is co-published by VMFA and the University of Virginia Press. The 480-page hardbound volume will include 126 catalogue entries and 225 illustrations. It is available for $75 in the VMFA Shop (800.943.8632) or through the University of Virginia Press (800.831.3406).

VMFA and the Virginia Historical Society will present a free screening of the new National Gallery documentary Paul Mellon: In His Own Words on June 11, the anniversary of Mellon's birth. The screening will begin at 6 pm at VHS, two doors north of VMFA on the Boulevard. Advance reservations are required: phone 804.340.1405.

On July 11, VMFA will present a free public lecture by Scott Wilcox, co-curator of Great British Watercolors. His talk, "Like a Cremona Violin: The Appreciation of Technique in British Watercolors," will be at 6:30 pm in the museum's Marble Hall. Advance reservations are required: phone 804.340.1405.

Celebrating Paul Mellon is part of an international observation of the centennial of Mellon's birth.

RELATED EVENTS

June 11
VMFA and the Virginia Historical Society will present a free screening of the new National Gallery documentary Paul Mellon: In His Own Words on June 11, the anniversary of Mellon's birth. The screening will begin at 6 pm at VHS, two doors north of VMFA on the Boulevard. Advance reservations are required: phone 804.340.1405.

June 14 POSTPONED
VMFA presents "Country Pursuits: Sporting Art in Great Britain, France and America," a lecture by Malcolm Cormack, Paul Mellon Curator (emeritus) at VMFA. The lecture, offered in conjunction with the Paul Mellon centennial celebration, will be at 6 pm in the Pauley Center parlor. Cormack is the author of a new VMFA book on sporting art in the Mellon Collections. His talk will demonstrate how British, French and American artists produced an intriguing and original art that has unjustly been overlooked. Admission is free, although advance tickets are required: visit VMFA or telephone 804.340.1405.

July 11
VMFA will present a free public lecture by Scott Wilcox, co-curator of Great British Watercolors. His talk, "Like a Cremona Violin: The Appreciation of Technique in British Watercolors," will be at 6:30 pm in the museum's Marble Hall. Advance reservations are required: phone 804.340.1405.

November 7
Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard, 6:30 pm
Dr. Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will present VMFA's 2007 Paul Mellon Lecture, "The National Gallery of Art and the Mellon Legacy," at the Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard, at 6:30 pm. He will discuss Andrew W. Mellon's offer, in 1936, to donate his superb art collection to the nation. Although he died in 1937, Andrew Mellon's vision was realized in 1941, when the National Gallery of Art opened to the public. Yet he could not have foreseen that the greatest donors to the museum would be his own children, Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Dr. Powell will trace the collections and gifts of all three Mellons and show how they shaped the National Gallery of Art. The lecture is funded by VMFA's Paul Mellon Endowment. Tickets are free (limited seating: advance reservations are required; limit 2 per person; phone 804.340.1405.)

November 16
VMFA presents "Au bord de la mer: Eugène Boudin and the Art of the Modern Seascape," a lecture by Dr. Kimberly A. Jones, associate curator of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., at 6 pm. Jones makes the case that Eugène Boudin (1828-1898) was born to paint the sea. The son of a mariner, he grew up with an eye to the horizon, learning to gauge the moods of sand and surf as well as his own. Gifted with a keen sense of observation and a passion for nature, Boudin promoted his practice of painting from nature among other young artists, most notably Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot. While his name has been overshadowed by those of other Impressionists, there is no question that Boudin is the father of modern marine painting. The lecture, which will be at the Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard, is funded by VMFA's Paul Mellon Endowment and is free and open to the public. (Advance reservations are required; phone 804.340.1405.)

November 18
Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard, 2 pm
VMFA presents "The French Perspective," a Paul Mellon Centenary concert, featuring classical guitarist William Feasley, at the Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard. Feasley will perform works unified by a uniquely French sensibility. He begins with the quintessentially Baroque Suite No. 1 in G minor by Jean Baptiste Loeillet (1680-1730). Also on the program are "Le Coucou" by Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772), who at the age of six played for Louis XIV; "Rondeau du Concert," a work exemplifying late-19th-century salon music, by Napoleon Coste (1806-1893); and works by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) and Jean Francaix (1912-1997) that demonstrate that the French perspective endures to this day. The concert, funded by VMFA's Paul Mellon Endowment, is free and open to the public. (Advance reservations are required; phone 804.340.1405.)