wesleyan T re a s u re s Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
Cover: Anonymous Artist, c: 1900, Portrait of Gladys Parker McCoy (in her wedding dress), oil on canvas. Wesleyan College. Gift of Francis Tyrone McCoy, son of Gladys Parker McCoy (Class of 1903).
wesleyan T re a s u re s Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
September 10, 2011 through May 25, 2012
Cowles Myles Collier East and West Galleries, Porter Family Memorial Fine Arts Building Burden Parlor, Olive Swann Porter Building Benson Room, Candler Alumnae Center Lucy Lester Willet Memorial Library Frances P. and Dennie L. McCrary Gallery Valeria McCullough Murphey Art Building
Welcome to our Celebration! This year is especially meaningful for the Wesleyan community as we commemorate the College’s 175th Anniversary. Throughout our history, Wesleyan has carried out its mission to be first for women’s education, including with outstanding programs of study in music, the visual arts, and theatre. Now, with great pride in our accomplishments over the years, we also maintain a clear focus on future generations. We are especially committed to strengthening our role as a center for excellence as well as a premier educator of women in the arts. With dynamic instruction and opportunities to perform, creative women are and will continue to be drawn to our campus for the latest in fine arts programming. One of Wesleyan’s premier attractions for students and the community is our extensive collection of fine paintings, prints, furniture, and objects – donated over the years by alumnae, foundations, and friends. Among the most impressive in Georgia, these Wesleyan Treasures tell a compelling story about our history, too, and we are delighted to share them as part of our 175th Anniversary Celebration. For the first time, we exhibit selections from all of our collections together in this extraordinary six-venue event. Our 175th Anniversary exhibit of Wesleyan Treasures includes paintings, sculpture, objects d’art, documents, photographs, and dresses from the College’s permanent and special collections. Wesleyan’s most important works of art, including several impressive examples of our restoration program, are displayed alongside more contemporary art works and a selection of period dresses, historically significant documents and student essay books, archive photographs, and other memorabilia celebrating Wesleyan’s history as the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women. We are grateful to the Linda Harriet Lane Fund for its generous support of our Wesleyan Treasures exhibit, this special publication, and the major renovations recently made to the Cowles Myles Collier East and West Galleries. With the ability to highlight our works of art much more effectively, we are thrilled to open our campus to you, our visitors, so that you also can experience their beauty, inspiration, and historical value. With more than 300 paintings as well as several other major pieces (such as an Andy Warhol print, Manchu-dynasty silk, and silver dating from 1730) right here on our campus, we invite you to explore our collections again and again. We, the faculty, staff and students of Wesleyan College, feel privileged to steward these unique resources and to share them with the community and with visiting scholars and guests. Thank you for celebrating with us – and enjoy our Wesleyan Treasures!
Ruth A. Knox ’75 President 2
Wesleyan Treasures
Salvador Dali (1904-1989). Ivanhoe, original lithographs numbered 149/250. Suite of four, left to right: Wilfred of Ivanhoe – Cavalier of Coins; King Richard – King of Swords; The Overseer – Ten of Staves; Rowena – Two of Staves. Gift of Dr. Robert J. and Margaret Edenfield.
Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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wesleyan
T re a s u re s Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid. - J.R.R. Tolkien
The history of Wesleyan’s “treasures” – paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, furniture, musical instruments, costumes, objects d’art, documents, and embroideries – hails to the beginnings of the College itself. Commemorated in the Candler Alumnae Center murals by Athos Menaboni (Italian-American, 18951990), the Georgia Female College was chartered in 1836 to grant baccalaureate degrees to women; this was just over a hundred years after the founding of the State of Georgia, also represented in the murals. Based on the “sound philosophy” of fair education for women and “legitimate reasoning” that women should be “accurately tested,” Wesleyan’s charter is the key that opened the doors for women’s education. Wesleyan’s magnificent Treasures represent the belief upon which the College was founded: that education is the search for truth through the study of the liberal and fine arts, sciences, and professions. These works of art also express the heart of the College as a community of learners, because Wesleyan students have always looked both into and beyond themselves as they contemplate the creations of God and humans. In this 175th Anniversary year of the charter, we consider Wesleyan an inspired innovation; as the first president of the College, George Foster Pierce (1811–1884), stated in 1840 about this new venture: “the design is good, the progress promising and the prospect, as it looks out from the future, is gilded with the light of hope.” This catalogue is meant to be neither an exhaustive nor a finished product, but rather a celebration of the Treasures that reflect the history and life of Wesleyan College.
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Wesleyan Treasure s
Athos Menaboni (1895-1990) Wesleyan College for Women Oil on canvas Wesleyan College
Athos Menaboni (1895-1990) James Oglethorpe Oil on canvas Wesleyan College
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Gaspare Diziani (1689-1767). Adoration of the Magi. Oil on canvas. Samuel H. Kress Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Mr. and Mrs. C. Brown Edwards
Gaspare Diziani (1689-1767). Adoration of the Shepherds. Oil on canvas. Samuel H. Kress Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Mr. and Mrs. C. Brown Edwards
Treasured Donors and Collections
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. – Frank Zappa The Wesleyan Treasures have been donated and lovingly cared for by hundreds of people connected with the College: alumnae, faculty, staff, students, friends, and administrators. The greatness of the collection is owed first and foremost to the generosity of the early donors. For instance, many objects were given by three of Wesleyan’s most illustrious alumnae, the famous Soong Sisters who greatly influenced Chinese politics during the tumultuous early twentieth century and who married political enemies. May-ling, an artist who later became Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Class of 1916), is portrayed in a portrait by Lazar Raditz (18871956), a Russian-born artist who came to America in 1903 and was a portrait painter in Philadelphia. The Chinese collection of silks, paintings, and objects d’art is located in the Benson Room, Candler Alumnae Center, and in the China Room in Lucy Lester Willet Memorial Library. Samuel H. Kress Collection. On December 16, 1936, a philanthropist and lover of Italian art, Samuel H. Kress, presented to the College a late fifteenth-century Madonna and Child painted in tempera on panel by the Venetian Renaissance artist Cima da Conegliano. Putting it into historic perspective, Dr. Samuel L. Akers, author of The First Hundred Years of Wesleyan College, 1836-1936 (published in 1976), remarked that Cima’s image was contemporary with Columbus’ landing on the shores of America and that the artist’s death occurred in the year that Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses on the church door at Wittenberg. More than half a century later, art history major Julie Jones (Class of 2003) wrote her senior thesis on the dating of da Conegliano’s Madonna, placing it definitively within the Venetian artist’s oeuvre. In 1937, Samuel Kress
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Wesleyan Treasure s
Cima da Conegliano (1459-1518). Madonna and Christ Child, tempera on panel. Samuel H. Kress Collection, Wesleyan College. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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One of a pair of embroidery-on-silk textiles given by Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. Together they honor the friendship between China and the United States.
made a gift of two more Venetian paintings to the College, The Adoration of the Magi and The Adoration of the Shepherds, oil sketches by the eighteenth-century Rococo painter Gaspare Diziani. Better than any textbook, these Kress paintings teach students to understand the fundamentals of stylistic development from the simple, classical, smooth, geometric style of the Venetian Renaissance to the more complex, dramatic, dynamic, expressionistic style of the Rococo period. The Kress Collection is permanently installed in the West Gallery of Porter Family Memorial Fine Arts Building. Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection. Even before Samuel Kress donated the Venetian paintings, Wesleyan already boasted a substantial collection of American art thanks to artist Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell, a native of Georgia and a graduate of the Class of 1897. In 1932 Helena Campbell gathered more than 125 paintings from artists, patrons, and her own collection, and gave them to Wesleyan. She had an eye for top-quality painting, and must have realized that American art would grow tremendously in value and importance, because among those she gave was Laguna, Venice by William Stanley Haseltine, an American who lived and painted in Italy from 1895 to 1899. Laguna, Venice expresses the warmth and serenity of the lagoon with its majestic sailing vessels and church of San Giorgio in the late afternoon light. Other paintings donated by Helena Campbell include: Nantucket Houses by New York artist Margaret Huntington (18671958), who expresses the familiarity of a traditional American neighborhood with expressionistic marks and dashes of color, and one of Helena Campbell’s own paintings, Roses, in which the floral arrangement is placed in front of a picture of Moses. Macon relatives of Helena Campbell, artist and educator Dorothy Ogden Brown (Class of 1967) and art historian Katey Brown, recently curated a special exhibit of the Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection at Wesleyan. Works from the Campbell Collection may be found in the East and West Galleries. 8
Wesleyan Treasure s
Lazar Raditz (1887-1956). Portrait of May-ling, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, oil on canvas. Wesleyan College. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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William Stanley Haseltine (1835-1900). Laguna, Venice, oil on canvas. Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection, Wesleyan College.
Cowles Myles Collier Collection. The galleries in Porter Family Memorial Fine Arts Building were donated by Georgie Collier Comer, whose wistful beauty glows from the portrait by Tennessee artist Charles Naegele (1857-1944), currently hanging in the lobby. “Miss Georgie” donated about thirty paintings by her father, Cowles Myles Collier, who painted primarily seascapes until his death in 1909. This is the largest number of paintings the College owns by a single artist. No doubt Collier acquired his love of the sea in the early nineteenth century when he was an officer in the U.S. Navy, but, he did not become a professional painter until after the Civil War, when he worked in Memphis, Tennessee. On his way to work every day he passed the shop of a young sign painter, Charles Naegele, and would stop to chat. One day Naegele asked Collier to paint a sign depicting a window with a raised curtain and through which an outdoor scene could be viewed. The success of the trompe l’oeil view set Collier on the road to fame as a prominent New York artist and member of the Salmagundi Club. In 2006, for her art history senior thesis, Aditi Tolia (Class of 2006) created a catalogue raisonné of Collier’s works, the very first effort to establish a stylistic chronology for his paintings. In one of Collier’s most dramatic paintings, Over Seas in Unfurled Field (Moonlight at Sea), Collier captures the majesty and romance of the sailing vessel and the dark beauty of the sea in moonlight that he must have experienced as a young naval officer. In Waiting for the Pilot, the artist evokes the quieter mood of the sea and brings out more subtle coloristic effects of atmosphere and light. Charles Naegele said of him: “His intense love for ships and for the ocean and his experience in the Navy fitted him well to become a marine painter. Even in a cat-boat, when he had sheet and tiller in hand, it was delightful to note the satisfaction on 10
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Cowles Myles Collier (1836-1908). Overseas in Unfurled Field (Moonlight at Sea), oil on canvas. Collier Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Kathy Travis and restored in 2003. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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Cowles Myles Collier (1836-1908). Waiting for the Pilot, oil on canvas. Collier Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Suzanne Spradling Martin ’67 and restored in 2006.
his face.” Some people are awed by the powerful and tragic aspects of the ocean. Colonel Collier was not. He loved it under all circumstances. The major stylistic characteristic of his paintings was not so much color, but the quality of color and Collier’s ‘feeling’ for it. Another friend, artist W. Granville Smith, said: “He did not depict the sea in its robust mood, but on the poetic side. He was a thorough student of every subject he painted and had an exquisite sense of color.” The Collier Collection may be found in the Cowles Myles Collier East and West Galleries and in the Burden Parlor. Olive Swann Porter and E. C. Cade Collections. The Porter and Cade Collections are displayed in the Olive Swann Porter Building. The collections boast paintings, furniture, and objects d’art. Included are: an Italian chest and mirror from the Shinholser House, designed and furnished by Neal Reid; an inlaid Louis XVI commode; an inlaid Louis XV desk; a Chinese Chippendale mirror; and an inlaid cabinet from Brussels (containing a Satsuma vase). A sensitive portrait of Olive Swann Porter hangs in the lobby near that of her husband, James Hyde Porter, one of Wesleyan’s most beloved Charles Naegele (1857-1944) Portrait of Olive Swann Porter Oil on canvas, Porter Collection Wesleyan College.
benefactors; both were painted by Charles Naegele. A dramatic and atmospheric painting of an Italian landscape by an anonymous Italian painter of the eighteenth century also graces the Porter lobby, as well as a George III mahogany secretary with applied carvings, gilding, and ivory inlays, donated by Dr. Robert J. and Margaret Edenfield.
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Madonna of the Chair is a faithful copy of the masterpiece by Raphael and was painted by Professor Silvio Zocchi; Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College. The painting, in a frame copied from the original designed by Michaelangelo, hangs over the mantel in the Burden Parlor. In January, 1929, Admiral William S. Benson presented the copy of Raphael’s Madonna of the Chair in honor of his mother, Mrs. Catherine Brewer Benson. Thus, the Wesleyan Treasures collection began appropriately with a painting given in memory of the first graduate of the College. On the occasion of the presentation Admiral Benson wrote: “I consider it a great privilege to have been given the opportunity of making this offering which may be to the world and to posterity a token of filial affection to the dearest and best of mothers-she who instilled into me the fine principles of right living that have carried me successfully through life.” Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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Gustave Wiegand (1870-1957). Clinging Mists, oil on canvas. Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Mary Ann “Polly” Pollard Houghland ’60 and restored in 2005.
Permanent Collection. The Permanent Collection consists of numerous items given by individuals and includes exciting works on paper by important artists. For example, a suite of lithographic Cats by twentiethcentury Dutch modernist Karel Appel, donated by Dr. Beverly Sanders, Jr., hangs in the Munroe Science Center, and colorful screen prints by Andy Warhol and Sister Mary Corita Kent were donated by alumna Lynda Brinks Pfeiffer (Class of 1963). In recent years, Richard and Marjorie Lowrance have given a number of art works, including bronze sculptures of an Olympic Man on Rings and Olympic Woman on Balance by Thomas H. Williams (housed in the East and West Galleries). Happily, the College continues to receive beautiful and powerful works of art, expanding its collection. Wesleyan’s Director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts, Lisa Sloben (Class of 2000), is excited that the College has received several new acquisitions that will be exhibited publicly together for the first time. These include: (1) Elizabeth Browne Crowe Bacon’s Lady Fishing c.1870s, a gift from the artist’s grandson, Frank M. Bacon. Mrs. Bacon was on the faculty of Wesleyan College from the 1860s through
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Emil Holzhauer (1887-1986). Conservatory with Macon House, n.d. Verso: Asheville, North Carolina Front Porch, 1941. Both, watercolor on paper. Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College. Gift of Gail Thompson Webster-Patterson ’64.
Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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Karel Appel (1921-2006). Cats, a suite of 13 lithographs. Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College.
the 1870s as an art and music teacher; (2) Portrait of Gladys Parker McCoy in Her Wedding Dress, by an anonymous artist c. 1900, (shown on cover), a gift of Francis Tyrone McCoy, son of Gladys Parker McCoy; (3) Portrait of Joseph T. Derry, by an anonymous artist c. 1840. Derry was a Wesleyan faculty member and the grandfather of Gladys Parker McCoy. The other figure in the painting is an unidentified cousin. The painting is a gift of Francis Tyrone McCoy; (4) Julie McCraney Brogden’s bronze sculpture of Orion Tracking, a gift from Richard and Marjorie Lowrance; (5) Beverly Buchanan’s Floral Abstract, mixed media on paper, dated 1982, a gift from C. Terry Holland; (6) Emil Holzhauer, Conservatory with Macon House, n.d., and Asheville, NC Front Porch, 1941, a two-sided watercolor on paper given by Gail Thompson Webster-Patterson (Class of 1964); (7) A suite of four limited edition Salvador Dali lithographs donated by Dr. Robert J. and Margaret Edenfield.
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Andy Warhol (1928-1987). General Custer, Cowboys and Indians Suite, color screen print on museum board. Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College. Gift of and adopted by Lynda Brinks Pfeiffer ’63.
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Lace collar detail from the wedding dress of Gladys Parker McCoy. A gift of Francis Tyrone McCoy.
Historic Dress Collection. Wesleyan’s historic dress collection chronicles an important chapter in the College’s history of being “first for women.” These unique objects of apparel provide special insight into the commonality and diversity of the Wesleyan experience during student days and beyond. The dresses are not only beautiful, they also narrate stories of the everyday lives of Wesleyan women and how they have expressed themselves through fashion as students, graduates, and women who have made a difference in the world. The items of period clothing worn through the decades say much about style and how people have made and continue to make statements about life, living, and learning. For 175, years Wesleyan women have been in step with history and the world around them. The displays of historic dress in the East and West Galleries, Benson Room, Burden Parlor, and Willet Library present a panoramic view of period attire from the 1830s through the 1980s. While the early treasures reflect the influence of Southern culture and heritage and the later costumes express cosmopolitan chic, each individual costume represents, in its material and design, a story that is special to Wesleyan’s history. For instance, the home-grown, cotton-spun material of the early-nineteenth-century day dress bespeaks of a simple and perhaps difficult, but pleasant rural life; the intricately-patterned lace adorning graduation and wedding dresses suggest the delicate beauty of a refined lady. Then, the tailored apparel of an early Red Cross nurse’s uniform reflects a self-sacrificing, courageous woman, while the dramatic flair of a 1950s piano recital dress reveals the inner passion and artistry of a musician. Finally, Miss America’s gown (on loan from Neva Jane Langley Fickling, Class of 1955) expresses all the grace and elegance of the beauty queen herself, and the twenty-first-century inaugural gown portrays the dignity and brilliance of Wesleyan’s first alumna president, Ruth A. Knox (Class of 1975). In short, the historic dress exhibit manifests a timeless expression of feminine fashion-forward couture de jour. 18
Wesleyan Treasu re s
Brown jacket and skirt with embroidered panel. Gift of and worn by Sara Branham Matthews, Class of 1907. Dr. Matthews discovered the cure for spinal meningitis. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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Students from the Class of 1904 with Helen Roberts Ross (front row wearing white dress), daughter of Wesleyan President Dr. J. W. Roberts (1896-1898). Gift of Clyde Killebrew McNeill.
Archives. According to Director/Archivist of Willet Memorial Library, Sybil McNeil, the Wesleyan College Archives hold significant collections of materials that provide insight into the history of the City of Macon, the State of Georgia, and Wesleyan College. The Archives are the repository for the records of the College and hold papers of missionaries like Mary Culler White (Class of 1891) and writers such as Rebecca Caudill Ayars (Class of 1920). Actress Eugenia Rawls’ (Class of 1934) papers include her own accumulation of memorabilia related to nineteenth century British actress Fanny Kemble (1809-1893). Among the prominent archival collections is that of the Soong Sisters; Madame H. H. Kung (Class of 1906), Madame Sun Yat-Sen (Class of 1913), and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. Some of these artifacts are displayed in a special collections reading room in the Library known as The China Room. More recent collections include that of Betty Thompson (Class of 1947), journalist and past editor of The Christian Century, and Anne Carlton Blanchard (Class of 1947), teacher, author, and dramatist. Papers and artifacts of Joseph T. Derry, an early professor at Wesleyan College and author of works such as History of the United States for Schools and Academies, were donated by his great great granddaughters, Catharine Burns Liles (Class of 1966) and Hazel Burns Struby (Class of 1974), and by his great great grandson, Francis T. McCoy. One of the newest collections given to the College is that of the Park Family of Macon; the gift of Judge Orville Park’s library, forming the basis for the Georgiana Special Collections in The Georgia Room of the library. Letters written by students at Wesleyan College, both during and after the Civil War lend reliability to a study of Georgia in that era, just as a collection of student essays from 1845 to 1907, currently being transcribed and digitized, is meaningful to a study of women’s history. Research into the collections held in the Archives is available by appointment. Many objects are on display in the Willet Library during the 175th Anniversary year.
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Original diploma of Catherine Elizabeth Brewer (Benson), Class of 1840. By virtue of being alphabetically the first in line, Catherine Brewer was the first woman to receive her degree from the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women.
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A Corsi Lalli (1837-1936). The Last Supper, oil on canvas. Copy of Leonardo da Vinci mural, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy. Adopted by members of the Wesleyan College Board of Trustees and friends of the College and restored in 2008.
Adopt-A-Painting and Conservation Programs for Wesleyan Treasures …where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal - Matthew 6:20 Under the leadership of President Ruth Austin Knox, administrators and faculty asked themselves these questions: “What is the purpose of our art collection? How should we preserve it?” The decision to conserve and restore paintings and other objects was based on our appreciation of them as profound works of artistic and cultural significance, on our sense of stewardship toward this valuable educational resource, and on the realization that the treasures are the artifacts of the history of the College. President Knox states: “I view the Wesleyan art collection as one of the College’s great treasures. Some works serve to remind us of people and institutions who have made significant contributions to the College and whose stories we need to tell over and over again.” This renewed focus on the preservation of Wesleyan’s treasures was heightened even more after the College asked Dr. William Eiland, Director of the Georgia Museum of Art, to evaluate the collection. Dr. Eiland’s enthusiasm for the importance of Wesleyan’s collection inspired the Board of Trustees to commit to a greater level of stewardship. As a result, the universally beloved painting, The Pink Lady by Edward Dufner (1871-1957), was the first to be adopted by Wesleyan Trustee Dennie McCrary and his wife, Frances Parker McCrary (Class of 1962), and thus the Adopt-A-Painting Program was born. The program was launched to the public on January 14, 2003, in the Cowles Myles Collier Galleries. That evening President Knox adopted the charming painting, Mary and Yorkie, by Susan Richer Knox, declaring, “I love
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Edward Dufner (1872-1957). Lady in Pink (The Pink Lady), oil on canvas. Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Dennie L. and Frances Parker McCrary ’62 and restored in 2003. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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this painting, and of course … I want to do my part in preserving such an important facet of Wesleyan history.” Susan Allen, senior development officer for Wesleyan, added “Donating to the restoration and conservation program will ensure that future generations will enjoy and learn from Wesleyan’s fabulous art collection.” Due to the generosity of all our donors who have made gifts both large and small, the College has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars to date for the conservation and display of the Wesleyan Treasures. Adopt-A-Painting. For many years now, the Adopt-A-Painting Committee has worked with painting conservator Catherine Rogers, paper conservator Marion Hunter, and frame restorer Nancy Newton to restore works of art to their original brilliance. These skilled conservators have literally saved the art from disintegration and destruction by removing darkened varnish, straightening warped canvases, consolidating cracked and flaking surfaces, filling in paint losses, removing mold and mildew from fragile paper, gold-leafing frames, and miraculously putting a Chippendale mirror back together after a damaging fall. Thanks to this kind of work, one can admire even more than before, Edward Dufner’s painting, The Pink Lady, and especially his deft handling of the pink satin dress, the delicate rendering of the lady’s shoulder and face, and her soft, pensive expression. The Pink Lady may be viewed in the West Gallery and the mirror inside the lobby of Porter Auditorium.
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Frances Coates Jones (1857-1932). The Sisters, oil on canvas. Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Wesleyan Class of 1960.
Charles Naegele (1857-1944). Portrait of Georgie Collier (Mrs. E.T) Comer, oil on canvas. Cowles Myles Collier Collection, Wesleyan College. [Left: before restoration. Above: after restoration.] This stunning portrait was partially restored in 1999 and fully restored in 2008 through the generous donations of Mr. & Mrs. Percy Montague III, descendants of Cowles Myles Collier and Georgie Collier Comer. Details highlight features that were once too dark to fully appreciate, such as the weightless quality of the lace and delicate expression in the hands captured by the artist.
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Antonio Guarino (1882-1931). La Chiesetta Bianca, Francavilla, Abruzzo, oil on panel. Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Patrenice Guthrie Thomas ‘96 in memory of Laurence Channing Thomas and restored in 2010.
The exhibits feature many other paintings that have been restored to their original splendor. For example, Water Breaking on Large Rocks by Frederick Waugh (1861-1940) has regained the fresh atmospheric effects it had on the day it was painted. An illustrator, writer of children’s books, bookplate designer, designer of silver and copper objects, and camouflage artist during World War I, Waugh was best known for his ocean views that captured waves crashing against jagged rocks and the reflections of light on the waves and clouds along Jane Peterson (1876-1965). Bowl of Zinnias, oil on canvas. Helena Eastman the New England coast. Another restored painting, Jane Peterson’s Bowl of Ogden Campbell Collection, Wesleyan Zinnias, was in the poorest condition of those in the Adopt-A-Painting Program. College. Adopted by Ruth A. Knox ’75. It has served as the model for the project, illustrating what could happen to other paintings if intervention did not occur immediately. The prominent modernist Jane Peterson (18761965) studied with Joaquin Sorolla, among other well-known artists. During her career she won numerous awards and had more than eighty one-person exhibitions. In 1925, The New York Times characterized Peterson as “one of the foremost women painters in New York.” Bowl of Zinnias is one of her flamboyant floral paintings, executed in vibrant colors and thick paint. A final example of an “extreme makeover” is The Two Sisters by Francis Coates Jones (1857-1932); it was in a very precarious condition, suffering from a large gash that is hardly noticeable today. The artist lived in Maryland where he painted female figures in 26
Wesleyan Treasu re s
Louis F. Berneker (1876-1937). Emily, oil on canvas. Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection, Wesleyan College. Members of the Wesleyan College Class of 1963 are raising the funds needed to adopt and restore Emily. They plan to present the gift during their 50th Reunion in 2013. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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A collection of American and British sterling and Britannia silver dating from 1730. Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College.
interior and genre settings. In 2004, art history major Sarah Houston (Class of 2004) wrote her senior thesis on Francis Coates Jones. The job of conserving all of Wesleyan’s Treasures is collaborative and continuous. The College has made the collection more accessible to visitors by keeping the galleries open and staffed with student docents during regular hours. President Knox states, “I would like Wesleyan’s collection to be widely known and respected for its quality and for attracting a steady stream of visitors, researchers, and supporters.” Curatorial Note: The articles “Among Wesleyan’s Treasures” and “The Wesleyan Collection of Representative Pieces of Work by Contemporary Artists” from the Bulletin of Wesleyan College, 1938 and 1950, senior art history theses on the Wesleyan Treasures, the Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell Collection Catalogue, and selected Wesleyan Magazines are placed in the West Gallery for your perusal. Throughout the fall semester, Wesleyan students will write floor text for the treasures and place them in key locations. For basic information on most artists see www.askart.com.
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Thomas H. Williams. Olympic Man on Rings, bronze, Richard and Marjorie Lowrance Collection, Wesleyan College. Celebrating 175 years of history through art, artifacts, and archives
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Frederick J. Waugh (1861-1940), Water Breaking on Large Rocks, oil on canvas, Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Bryndis Roberts ‘78, Trustee, Jennifer Jenkins ‘03, and estored in 2003.
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Wesleyan Treasu re s
Ruger Donoho (1857-1916). Landscape with Two Trees, oil on canvas. Permanent Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Wesleyan President Ruth A. Knox ‘75 and restored in 2005.
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Sources:
Akers, Samuel Luttrell. The First Hundred Years of Wesleyan College, 1836-1936. (Macon, GA: Beehive Press, 1976). Boney, F. N. “The Pioneer College for Women: Wesleyan Over a Century and a Half.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 72, no. 3 (1988): 519-532. Coleman, Kenneth, ed. “An 1861 view of Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 51, no. 4 (1967): 488-491. Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. “Education of Women in the United States South.” Journal of Women’s History 9, no. 1 (1997): 203-211. Glenn, Helen. And So it Began (Macon: Wesleyan College, 1958). Griffin, Richard W. “Wesleyan College: Its Genesis, 1835-1840.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 50, no. 1 (1966): 54-73. Knox, Ruth A. “Letter to the Friends of Wesleyan,” and Brown, Dorothy Ogden. “The Legacy of Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell (1897-1964): American Painter and Collector.” in Helena Eastman Ogden Campbell (1879-1964): American Painter and Collector, Exhibition Catalogue. Cowles Myles Collier East and West Galleries, Porter Family Memorial Fine Arts Building, November 1, 2007 – January 31, 2008 (Macon, GA: Wesleyan College, 2007). Miller, Margaret. “The Founding and Early History of Wesleyan College,” M. A. thesis, University of Georgia, 1935. Quillian, William Fletcher. A New Day for Historic Wesleyan. (Nashville, TN: Publishing House Methodist Episcopal Church, 1928). Salmagundi Club. Exhibition of Pictures by Cowles Myles Collier, New York: 1909. (New York, Salmagundi Club, 1970-79). Microfilm, Wesleyan College Library. Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian schools. (London: Phaidon, 1966), 60 and Fig. 144. Rees, Frances. “A History of Wesleyan Female College from 1836 to 1874,” M. A. thesis, Emory University, 1935. Thomas, Kenneth H., Bamby Ray, and Lynn Speno. Wesleyan College Historic District. National Register of Historic Places designation report (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior / National Park Service, 2004). Van Horn, Frances Bruce. Original documents, photographs and catalogue materials (Macon, Ga.: Wesleyan College).
Acknowledgements
Wesleyan Treasures: A special publication in honor of Wesleyan College’s 175th Anniversary was funded through the generous financial support of the Linda Harriet Lane Fund.
175th Anniversary Exhibit Committee:
Dr. Libby Bailey, Professor of Art History Dr. Vivia Fowler, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Lauren Hamblin Gibson ‘06, Associate Director of Alumnae Affairs Mary Ann Howard, Director of Communications Dr. Karen Huber, Assistant Professor of History Sybil McNeil, Director/Archivist of Willet Memorial Library Lisa Sloben ‘00, Director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts Cathy Coxey Snow ’71, Director of Alumnae Affairs Susan Welsh, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Design: Brandi Thomas Vorhees, Art Director Photography: Neal Carpenter, Inward Studios, Macon GA Printing: Panaprint, Macon GA
Attributed to Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899). Wild Horses in the Arena at Rome, Cade Collection, Wesleyan College. Adopted by Lu McElroy Steed ’58 and restored through the Adopt-A-Painting program in 2003.
In support of Wesleyan’s art restoration program, your tax-deductible donation may be made by credit card or in the form of a check payable to Wesleyan College and designated for Art Restoration or Adopt-A-Painting. Please contact the Office for Institutional Advancement at (478) 757-5187 for additional information about the program’s specific needs, paintings awaiting adoption, or about donating a work of art to the College. Thank you for investing in the preservation of our special Wesleyan Treasures. W
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4760 Forsyth Road Macon, GA 31210 www.wesleyancollege.edu