Allen Memorial Art Museum Oberlin College Bulletin Volume

Number 2

Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin Oberlin Volume College XLIX Number 2 1996

3 Charles F. Olney Front Cover Jasper F. Cropsey, and the Collecting of Curiosities Temple of the by Marjorie E. Wieseman Sibyl, Tivoli, 1876, oil on canvas, 43 Charles Olney, Charles Freer, 23.2 x 30.8 cm, Gift of and the History of Asian Art Charles F. Olney, Collecting in America 04.1186. by Charles Q. Mason Back Cover Japanese, Meiji period (1868-1012), 52 Acquisitions 1994-1995 Dragon-Form Incense Burner, bronze, in.8 cm 57 Loans 1994-1995 high, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 59 Museum Staff and Publications 04.723.

Published twice a year by the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Back issues available from the Museum. Indexed in the Art Index and abstracted by BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art) and ARTbibliographies. Reproduced on University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Printed by Austin Printing.

Copyright © Oberlin College, 1996. ISSN: 0002-5739.

Charles F. Olney and the Collecting of Curiosities

With perspicacity and intent, during the last Charles Fayette Olney was born in Hartford, quarter of the nineteenth century Charles Fayette Connecticut, on August 27, i83t, and was raised Olney assembled a wealth of art and objects that in the nearby village of Southington (fig. i).1 He not only became the physical beginnings of an was the son of Jesse Olney, a teacher, geographer, art gallery at Oberlin College, but also formed and author of several popular nineteenth-century the conceptual school texts. basis for the Allen Olney s paternal Memorial Art grandfather, Museum's promi­ Jeremiah Olney, nent function as and his great- a teaching uncle, Stephen collection. During Olney, had both Olney's lifetime been officers in and for a few the Revolution­ years after his ary War, while death, the collec­ his more distant tion was displayed ancestors had at the Olney Art been among the Gallery in early settlers of Cleveland. It was Rhode Island.2 bequeathed in its Dissuaded by entirety to his family from Oberlin College entering Yale in 1904, and College and portions were encouraged installed in the newly-built Carnegie Library in to pursue a career in education, Charles Olney t9o8. Olney's collection was impressive in its began teaching in local schools in about 1848, sheer magnitude (it numbered nearly 8000 and later established a high school in Stratford, objects) and encyclopedic diversity. This study Connecticut. He moved to New York City, where reconstructs the growth, presentation and inter­ he continued to teach in public schools through pretation of Olney's collection both during his the mid-r88os, and was one of the founders of lifetime and after its arrival at Oberlin, and the New York Teacher's Association. In April examines the ideals and motives of the remark­ 1861 Olney married Louisa Brown of New York. able man behind it. The couple had one child, a girl, who died in infancy. It was after Louisa's death in 1878 that and trustee of the church, was president of the Olney began to build his art collection in earnest, Pilgrim Congregational Society and of the although he had probably already been accumu­ Pilgrim Church Institute, and founded a Fine lating works of art for some time: "[t]his loss, Arts Club for the Church Institute. and the loneliness it entailed, helped to fix and In 1894, Olney headed the committee that intensify the artistic taste which had always organized the successful Cleveland Art Loan characterized him, but which now became a Exhibition, a public viewing of art lent from refuge as well as a passion. He became interested private collections—both local and national—for in forming a collection of works of art and the purpose of raising funds for the city's unem­ 3 articles of virtu. " ployed.5 In addition to his administrative role, On November 30,1887, Olney married Olney loaned numerous paintings, sculptures, Abigail (Abbie) Bradley Lamson (born 1830), a and objets from his own collection. He was also childhood friend and the widow of Thomas H. involved in more long-term projects that Lamson. Lamson, who had died in 1882, was a addressed the city's public image and specific prominent Cleveland cultural needs. Inspired businessman who by the Beaux-Arts had amassed a architectural ensemble sizable fortune as the of the Court of Honor head of the firm of at the World's The Lamson and jm Columbian Exposition Sessions Company, of 1893 m Chicago, manufacturers of Olney was a guiding nuts and bolts. His force in the early devel­ widow inherited this opment of the fortune and a house Cleveland Group Plan, at 137 Jennings which proposed a Avenue (now West similarly unified 14th Street) in arrangement of public Cleveland. Olney buildings around a moved into the ••^•^••I^^^^^^B ^^^•••^^•••P central mall in down­ house after his town Cleveland.6 marriage to Abigail, bringing with him his large Beginning in January 1900, Olney also served and continually expanding art collection. on the Board of Trustees of the as-yet unbuilt Having become a man of leisure and modest Cleveland Museum of Art; he was closely wealth, Olney devoted the next fifteen years to involved with the legal, financial, and architectur­ shaping his collection, to constructing and oper­ al aspects of planning for the new museum, ating the Olney Art Gallery, and to participating which opened only in 1916.7 Olney s most in a range of philanthropic activities that reflect impressive philanthropic and organizational his commitments to education, religion, and the undertaking, however, was the Olney Art Gallery. importance of the arts in civic life. He was a member of the Cleveland Public Library Board, Olney s Art Gallery vice-president and trustee of the Cleveland The Olney Art Gallery was the first public art School of Art and chair of its committee on gallery in Cleveland, anticipating the Cleveland instruction, president of the Cleveland Brush and Museum of Art by more than two decades. It Palette Club, charter member and an early presi­ opened with a lavish reception on December 13, dent of the Cleveland Council of Sociology, a 1893, and met with a enthusiastic response from trustee of several charitable institutions, and a the 600 invited guests. member of the Society for the Promotion of The Olney home was spoken of in terms of 4 Atmospheric Purity. Both Olney and his wife admiration as the guests passed from room were active in the Pilgrim Congregational to room....The sweet strains of music issuing Church in Cleveland; Olney served as a deacon from the vestibule, the beauty of the gallery,

4 • Hbt~ the paintings and the decorations all united •Mr ^m^j: ••«#' '

to please the senses....Upon the walls are ~-~ ". _. .!.'• works of art by Bouguerau [sic], Lambrinet, v W^ 1 . -- • Corat [sic], Hart, Dupre, Verbeckhoven [sic] and other eminent artists.9 The gallery was regularly opened to the *. } 121 ^ public one day per week, and also offered a full \ • •PRSSBIan HMk^i If^ I 4f 1 schedule of lectures, tours, and receptions. It iii remained in operation in Cleveland for almost ^»|f*Tj 1 **<• Ji fifteen years, until the collection was moved to 7— it * i ~t i i i! If- Oberlin College in early 1908. Throughout the p \**W MSIH^ ^ vVfiJlgB 9fl WrLA Gallerv's existence, charmed visitors recorded guest register:10 A veritable seat of the muses. (February 22,1895) Kind Professor! We leave your beautiful gallery feeling that we have had a ULilH veritable art bath... (May 17,1895)

collection it has been my pleasure to visit in the U.S. (May 25,1896) While we honor him who produces let us not grudge to him who assembles and publishes. As I walk through this T rift gallery two names united in my mind —Prof. Olney and Lorenzo de Medici. 51 w (December 28,1896) Must have been saved from shipwreck 'H-l to experience such afternoons as this. (September 3,1897)

Metropolitan Art Gallery of NY. City. Opposite: Fig. 2. Coburn and (January 26,1903) Heureux de trouvez a Cleveland, un Gallery (1802-oj), Cleveland. Photo by George H. petit "Louvre." (March 23,1903) Ketteringham; courtesy the At the time of his move to Cleveland in 1887, Western Reserve Historical Olney s collection probably numbered about Society, Cleveland, Ohio. 4000 objects, enough to overwhelm the living Above Top: Fig. j. Olney Art space of the rather modest house on Jennings Gallery, interior view, ca. 1000. Avenue, even by the claustrophobic standards of Bottom: Fig. 4. Olney Art late-nineteenth century interior decoration. Gallery, interior view, ca. /goo. Construction of a gallery addition was underway by summer 1892. Designed by the Cleveland architectural firm of Forrest A. Coburn and Frank S. Barnum in a classical revival style, the fireproof structure was constructed of yellow brick with terracotta ornament (fig. 2). It consisted of a single large room, which could be accessed either through the "annex," which led from the drawing room of the main house, or from a separate entrance facing onto Jennings The profusion and diversity of the Olney Art Avenue (figs. 3, 4). Immediately inside the Gallery was evidently not at all confusing to Jennings Avenue entrance was a foyer or "recep­ contemporary viewers, however; one visitor tion room." Passing through the foyer into the remarked that it was "the only collection I have gallery, on the left, opposite the doorway leading ever seen so housed that whatever the spectator's to the main house, was an inglenook, a recessed taste, it can be gratified without searching and niche housing a large fireplace flanked by seats. groping."11 Olney's library was housed on a balcony directly The installation was nonetheless rather above the foyer, which extended the full width of different than in most museums and private art the gallery. Just below the ceiling of the gallery galleries of the era, where, although paintings was a decorative band alternating casts from the were still hung edge to edge, artful displays of Parthenon frieze with cartouches bearing the small objets d'art were more commonly segregat­ names of famous artists. The gallery was illumi­ ed to other rooms of the home.12 Olney's nated by both a skylight and electric lights deliberate mix of paintings, sculpture, decorative suspended from the ceiling. arts, curiosities, and naturalia in the same gallery By modern standards, the interior of the constructs an overall context for the objects that Olney Art Gallery seems impossibly cluttered, is both homelike and quasi-scientific. Most with virtually every square inch pressed into use importantly, the setting is directly related to for the display of art and curiosities (fig. 5). his own priorities as collector and interpreter Paintings were hung cheek-by-jowl, cases and of those objects: priorities which differed statues lined the perimeter of the room, the significantly from those guiding the majority of center was littered with display cabinets and his contemporaries. vitrines placed at random—not to mention the In many respects, the exuberant eclecticism odd table or chair—and every level surface was (verging on horror vacui) of the Olney Art beset with an accumulation of artistic objects. Gallery typifies late nineteenth-century domestic decor, which combined a desire for the material display of \ 1 grj affluence with a taste % 1 for the exotic in a tmtf^mM \ Ail feverish accumulation ; k • yw:~jmm • <*jfl of bric-a-brac. In ^_«_^^B discussing the wide­ i spread cult of 'frij CE1 !**£.- collecting during the period and its impact 111 •[ - «-' on interior design, the PBZW cultural historian Kenneth Ames has '• 1 noted that, • •*S M 4 %m •4 «SHH| 1 m r

Fig. 3. Olney Art Gallery, interior view, ca. iooo. Photo courtesy the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. most homes furnished then...were domestic Gallery appears to be a typical manifestation of museums. [T]he aesthetics and values the fashionable taste for art and exotica that governing home furnishing and decorating prevailed during the Gilded Age. Particularly around 1888 meant that those who furnished among the wealthy American elite, the collecting also thought like collectors. They selected and display of art was held as an indicator of examples of design and workmanship they wealth, power, and cosmopolitan sophistication.J7 felt would inform and enrich their lives, The private art galleries that became a prominent adorn and beautify their surroundings. They feature of the mansions constructed by rising valued quantity. They prized diversity. tycoons and magnates were deliberately and They succeeded in creating complex, object- strategically publicized via select invitations and intensive interiors where tangible things exclusive publications, to the social, aesthetic, seemed to take on meaning and significance moral, and civic credit of their owners.18 In beyond—or above—the people who lived Olney's gallery, however, his ambitions as an with and used them.13 educator were very much in evidence, and the Olney's Art Gallery, both literally and figura­ objects displayed there primarily served a more tively an extension of the personal space of his serious aesthetic and didactic function. The home, adopted the aesthetics of a domestic space substance of his constant public lectures and rather the formal aspect of a museum or public gallery tours (as well as his former career as a art gallery. A visit to the gallery was a very teacher) indicates that his collecting was motivat­ controlled experience, akin to being ushered into ed not by a desire for the visible trappings of a private salon, with Olney as host dictating the social and cultural prestige, but rather by a environment and encouraging an intimate, sincere educative impulse to create an encyclope­ almost cozy, encounter with the artistic object. In dic overview of the natural, fine, and applied arts. The Art Treasures of America (1879), Edward Unlike the more narrowly defined art galleries Strahan [Earl Shinn] describes another collection created by many American collectors at this time, which admirably combined bric-a-brac and fine which usually focused on European and art: "Evidences of the most advanced 'collector- American paintings and sculpture and relegated ship' are everywhere visible, expressed in ivories, minor arts and non-Western "exotica" to other enamels and faience; their usefulness is to give a rooms in the home, Olney's gallery housed home-character to the interior, and to take away Western paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts, from the public gallery or museum air which Asian art, and representative pieces from other might otherwise be conferred by walls so cultures, as well as a smattering of naturalia completely covered with canvases."14 (shells, minerals, tusks and horns, relics, curios, and the like). Rather than being subsumed into a A few years after the gallery was completed, domestic "art" ensemble, each object was exhibit­ Olney sent photographs of the interior and exte­ ed and elucidated as a unique creation of art or rior to his friend, the artist Frederic E. Church, nature, or an historical artifact, worthy of individ­ who noted at once the ties to contemporary ual study and contemplation. domestic interiors: "The exterior view of your house greatly pleased us. The gallery is a fine The systematic gathering of representative building possessing that sense of repose I referred specimens of nature, art, and artifact—and the to preeminently— The interior is most attrac­ equitable juxtaposition of these items within the tive— and home like. It is evident that your same space—has distant origins in the European collection of works of art is very choice— I Kunst- und Wunderkammern of the sixteenth and should like to see it—."I5 The popular actor and seventeenth centuries. A manifestation of the amateur painter Joseph Jefferson, visiting the Renaissance search to understand all aspects of Olney Art Gallery on November 2,1900, also the physical world and human achievement, these remarked upon this quality: "It is a wise and private galleries (literally, rooms of art and thoughtful nature that can harmonize Art and curiosities) gathered the rarest, most curious, Elegance with a sweet Home like influence."16 beautiful or exotic creations of man and nature At first glance, then, the profusion of objects for intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual wonder­ 19 and their conspicuous display in the Olney Art ment. The popularity of the Kunst- und Wunderkammer had begun to wane by the mid- club from Madagascar, carved elephant tusks seventeenth century in Europe, when it was from Africa, 165 Chinese or Japanese ivories realized that it was impossible to contain all that (primarily netsuke and okimono), examples of was "knowable" within the confines of one cham­ European ivory carving from several centuries, ber, and when the defining of universal scientific scrimshaw and etching on ivory, and a few exam­ laws made such encyclopedic collections redun­ ples of ivory carvings by contemporary artists, dant. In the nineteenth century, however, an including several pieces by the American sculptor explosion of scientific and historical knowledge Frits Kaldenberg, who was a friend of Olney s. based on experimentation, exploration, theory, Other portions of the collection, notably a large and research, demanded new institutions assortment of stones and minerals (alabaster, jade, prepared to express and display this knowledge.20 agate, etc.) in both raw and highly finished states, Museums, of course, were one such public insti­ attempt a similar historical, technical, and stylis­ tution, and many of the encyclopedic collections tic overview. formed in the United States at this time were a The most significant way in which Olney renewed attempt at a systematic mastery of the distinguished himself from other collectors was material universe. Contemporary discussions in operating the Olney Art Gallery as a public concerning the ideal contents of museums in institution. During the economic and aesthetic America advocated gathering all manner of boom years of the post-Civil War era, construc­ objects, from original paintings, plaster casts, and tion of a private art gallery adjoining one's home reproductions, to gems, coins, and ethnographic was a fairly common practice among America's objects, to illustrate (in Jackson Jarves's words) wealthy elite. Many of these galleries were also the "entire epitome of the art-phase of human (at least in theory) accessible to the public: in 21 life." New York, for example, John T Johnson's private In part, the display of art and objets in the gallery, located above the stable behind his house, Olney Art Gallery also endeavored to demon­ was open to the public one afternoon a week in strate the various developmental stages and the early 1870s; William H. Vanderbilt's individual manifestations of artistic virtuosity, magnificent collection was accessible by select and man's improvement/elaboration upon the invitation during 1883-84.^ Before 1876, William artistry of nature. Similar motives had dictated T. Walter's Baltimore gallery was open by invita­ the selection and appreciation of objects in the tion to artists and selected guests; after that date, Kunst- und Wunderkammern of the sixteenth and it was opened to the general public on certain 24 seventeenth centuries: items which combined days for a fifty-cent admission charge. In St. natural elements with elaborately crafted mounts, Paul, the railroad baron James Hill carefully or in which the natural forms were intricately controlled access to his collection over a twenty- worked, were particularly prized, as they seven year period (1894-1921) by personally 25 displayed both the artistry of nature and the issuing admission tickets. In Cleveland, Liberty ingenuity of man. Such objects were often E. and Delia Holden received visitors at their art displayed next to examples of the material in its gallery at Loch Hame, constructed around 1884 raw state, thus facilitating appreciation of human to house a collection of early Italian pictures achievement.22 purchased from James Jackson Jarves. In practice, the limited hours of opening for most of these Olney's extensive collection of ivories best endeavors (usually a weekday afternoon, when all exemplifies this encyclopedic approach in his except the leisure class were at work) and the own gallery. The inventory compiled after his frequent stipulation of a personal reference meant death lists more than 230 items that can be cate­ that private galleries usually remained just that. gorized as ivories, beginning with "3 narwhal Towards the end of the century, collectors in tusks 6' long," four tusks found in Siberia, and a many East Coast cities were induced to bequeath pair of walrus tusks—curious or beautiful speci­ all or part of their collections to public museums, mens of the material in its unworked state. Then but this practice—together with the institutions there is a range of both utilitarian and purely themselves—developed more slowly in the decorative workings of the medium: a "rudely Midwest. carved animal by Alaskan Indian," an ivory war

8 In contrast to these exclusive and often The socially diverse audiences drawn to these exclusionary offerings, the Olney Art Gallery lectures, the range of topics addressed, and the was an ambitious product of Charles Olney's accessible, contextual approach to the fine arts, commitment to making artistic beauty accessible were one very visible manifestation of Olney's to all, regardless of wealth or social station. Over sentiments about the "civilizing" effects of the a ten-year period, the Gallery's guest register arts, and his ongoing mission to ensuring the arts records visits not only from private individuals a more dynamic role in the civic life of and the requisite complement of religious, cultur­ Cleveland. This same concern fired his involve­ al, educational and social organizations, but also ment in other civic and philanthropic activities, from such diverse groups as the Barber Avenue notably the Cleveland School of Art, the Police Station, delegates to the 1896 conference Cleveland Group Plan, and the embryonic of the Y.M.C.A., the Woman's National Press Cleveland Museum of Art. In an address deliv­ Association, the National Merchant Tailors' ered before the Cleveland School of Art Exchange, and "Little Girls of the Sewing (ca. 1892-93), Olney described the spiritual and School." Olney provided guided tours of all social benefits which could accrue from an or part of his collection, often incorporating a appreciation of the fine arts: musical interlude on the organ or on the grand My Dear Friends, I would see aesthetics take piano he had built especially for the Gallery. In the helm in this teeming city. We need a addition to displaying his own collection, on at broader conception of the possible influence least one occasion Olney presented a special of the law of harmony upon the great masses exhibition: in late 1893 or 1894, Jean-Leon of the people....The more cultivated and Gerome's La Golgotha was shown to benefit the refined the masses, the more room for that 26 Pilgrim Congregational Church. which shall sanctify home and society, and Olney also offered a more formal series of therefore, the less room for multiform social lectures on art under the aegis of the Pilgrim and political ills. A greater love for the Church Institute, from 1894 at least through the beautiful,—more extended facilities for the late 1890s.27 The topics of the lectures ranged production of the beautiful,—more of the widely, from "The Close Relations Existing beautiful in our homes, churches, schools, Between the Fine Arts and Religion," to a series hospitals and everywhere,...will tend to bring of lectures on art glass introduced by an enthusi­ us into closer relations with the Source of astic encomium devoted to quartz (an essential all beauty and invest life with a meaning now 29 element in the production of glass) and related so imperfectly understood. quartzite minerals. Olney illustrated his lectures Olney was not alone in these sentiments; with various objects from his own collection, integrating the arts into civic life was a popular occasionally supplemented by lantern slides. In a rallying cry during the 1870s and 1880s, a period lecture on "Perspective and Atmosphere," for which witnessed the establishment of museums 30 example, he closely analyses several American and arts institutions across America. As landscape paintings from his collection (includ­ Olney crusaded vigorously for public institutions ing works by James Hart, George Inness, and in Cleveland, he also took matters into his William Sonntag) to demonstrate the various own hands by offering his own collection for the artistic means used to achieve atmospheric public good. effects.28 And although there are only passing references to specific objects in the series of Forming a Collection lectures on glass, the collection contained Assessing the quality and importance of the vast sufficient material—from samples of quartz and collection which Charles Olney had bequeathed other minerals in their rough, polished, and to the College, Oberlin College professor carved states, to glass representing every period Frederick O. Grover commented gracefully on from ancient Rome to contemporary works by the nature of the contents in the Presidents Tiffany and Galle—to assure ample illustration Annual Report of ^07-08: of every topic under discussion. It should be remembered that it [the collection] is the product of rather intermit- tent collecting extending over a period of Gallery compiled within a few years after his forty years or more, and that it is the expres­ death (ca. 1907-08) reveals the full extent of the sion of a lifelong interest in beautiful objects collection, and furnishes some additional infor­ on the part of a man with little or no specific mation about the acquisition of individual pieces. art training, and with an income by no The inventory was probably drawn up—or at means large....Although as a consequence least annotated—by Louise (Mrs. Frank E.) very unequal in merit it is as a whole a Guernsey, who acted as "custodian" and occasion­ collection of unusual artistic excellence, of al docent of the collection from at least the time wide scope, and of large commercial value.31 of the opening of the Art Gallery.33 The By all estimations the collection was uneven voluminous list suggests a veritable Kunst- und in quality, and on the surface seemed an indis­ Wunderkammer, with over 7900 objects classified criminate hodgepodge of treasures and trinkets. according to material and origin with Linnaean In Olney's defense, however, it must be stated rigor. In addition to the approximately 225 that his was not a collection assembled with the paintings catalogued separately, there were minia­ fabulous resources of multi-millionaire collectors tures and mosaics, enamels, pottery and such as A. T Stewart, William H. Vanderbilt, or porcelain, marbles, bronzes and other metalwork, J. P. Morgan, or even the more comprehensible woodwork, ivories, carvings of pearl, shell or wealth of midwestern collectors like Frederick horn; cameos, crystals, glass, jade, gems and Layton in Milwaukee, James J. Hill in St. Paul, minerals, woven fabrics, and an intriguing or Liberty and Delia Holden, Hinman Hurlbut, allotment of "Relics and Curios." Within each of and Jeptha Wade in Cleveland. Working within a these classifications are subgroups according to modest teacher's salary, supplemented by a small geographic or national origin. family income, Olney managed to acquire nearly Some details concerning the acquisition of half of the objects in his collection prior to his individual pieces can be gleaned from handwrit­ move to Cleveland in 1887. After his marriage, he ten annotations to this inventory, from the brief was able to enhance his collection considerably, notes on the catalogue cards, and from the with the generous (financial) support of his wife. objects themselves.34 There are frequent allusions But neither his wealth nor his ambition ever to the remote geographic origins of a particular approached the scale of the nation's most 32 piece—emphasizing, according to the priorities notorious collectors. Financial restrictions of the day, Olney's cosmopolitan world travels in notwithstanding, Olney's collection was far more dogged pursuit of the unusual, rare, and than just a fashionable assortment of artifacts, beautiful.35 Olney purchased several items (most­ bric-a-brac and a few paintings. ly paintings) at auction in New York, and a few It was not particularly difficult, in the latter in Europe, sometimes with dealers or agents 36 part of the nineteenth century, to amass a collec­ acting on his behalf. Particularly after his tion of this size and breadth. In post-Civil War marriage to Abigail, Olney traveled extensively, America, increased affluence, greater availability constantly on the prowl for additions to his of the world's material goods through travel and collection. Between 1888 and his death in 1903, he trade, and an "Aesthetic" fashion for filling is known to have visited (and purchased works of domestic interiors with beautiful, artistic, and art or curiosities in) Mexico, London (1900), exotic objects spawned a veritable art industry Atlanta, Bermuda, and Cuba (1898-99,1901), that catered to every kind of collector. Art deal­ Europe and Egypt (1899-1900), and Mackinaw ers, auction houses, decorators, and professional Island (1902), in addition to regular and frequent ciceroni stood ready to assist collectors of every trips to New York. He purchased various works taste and income level; articles and books lauded of art and naturalia at the Centennial Exhibition successful collections and dispensed advice to the in Philadelphia in 1876, the World's Columbian an novice. Exposition in Chicago in r893, d the Pan- American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. Other Unfortunately, Olney himself left almost no works, predominantly small decorative pieces, records which document or comment on the rocks, minerals and other natural specimens, and growth of his collection, apart from an incom­ lesser-valued items in the realm of "Relics and plete card file catalogue. An inventory of the

IO

Curios," were gifts from friends: a Japanese mentions talking with various artists in their lacquer cabinet was "given by a Chinese mission­ studios (George Inness is the only one specifically ary in 1891"; samples of marble were given by named) about their approaches to certain artistic "Mr. Snyder a plumber in Cleveland"; pieces of problems.40 Olney's sister Julia and brother James crocylodite were brought from South Africa by ^833-1900), a lawyer, both resided in Catskill, an English soldier; shells and Bermudan crafts New York, a picturesque area that was home to were gifts from Olney's sister. an established community of landscape painters. Olney also patronized various art and Even after his move to Cleveland in 1887, Olney antique dealers; in Cleveland, he bought most seems to have spent at least part of several consistently from James F. Ryder (Ryder's Art summers in the area, and paid frequent visits to Store), Senesuki Kitani (owner of The Asahi, a local artists' studios. He visited Frederic E. shop dealing in Japanese goods), The Cowell & Church at Olana before 1891 and probably several Hubbard Co., Jewelers, C. A. Seltzer (purveyor times through the 1890s;41 he also acquired paint­ of home decorations, "Artistic Porcelains, Real ings directly from Joseph Jefferson, Robert L. Bronzes..Japanese Goods...[and] Oddities for Pyne, Aaron Draper Shattuck, Benjamin Bellows the Table"), and a Mr. Littwitz, possibly Nathan Grant Stone, and many lesser-known artists of Littwitz, listed variously in city directories of the the Hudson River School. Although the majority period as a salesman and travel agent. Purchases of his acquisitions were by artists based in the made in New York, whether before or after his New York area, he also patronized De Scott move to Cleveland, are more difficult to track. Evans, Frederick C. Gottwald, John Semon, and Olney appears to have been at least loosely asso­ other Cleveland artists. Through membership in ciated with The Old Curiosity Club, a group of the Brush and Palette Club and active participa­ artists and art enthusiasts who shared an interest tion in other local arts organizations, Olney was in a wide range of collecting pursuits.3? Heading certainly acquainted with most of the painters the Club (which was active between 1891 and practicing in the vicinity. 1897) was Robert Fullerton, charismatic propri­ etor of The Old Curiosity Shop, which sold American and European Paintings paintings, antiques, curios, books, and bric-a- and Sculpture in the Olney Collection brac, and was "the haunt and meeting place of Although Olney s Art Gallery was truly encyclo­ the millionaire as well as the struggling artist and pedic in scope, it is his collection of American modest collector."38 Although Olney is never and European paintings (and sculptures, to a specifically mentioned in contemporary accounts slighly lesser degree) that have been the best of either the Shop or the Club, he was friends documented, and of which the highest percent­ with one of the known members (the sculptor age is still retained in the collection of the Allen and collector Frits Kaldenberg), acquired at least 42 Memorial Art Museum. The following section two paintings at Fullerton's shop (by William examines some of these works in greater detail. Hart and Louis Moeller), and owned several Olney s gallery included numerous objects paintings by two artists—Nicholas A. Brooks fashioned from gold, silver, iron, copper, and and Charles Muller—whose works refer explicit­ other metals, but the art and craft of metalwork- ly to both Fullerton and the Old Curiosity Shop ing was presented most thoroughly in a collection (fig. 6).39 The lively and inquisitive tenor of the of 277 American, European, and Asian (mostly Club, and the diverse offerings of Fullerton's Japanese) bronzes. Although there were some shop are, moreover, precisely in tune with historical pieces, the collection was strongest in Olney's own interests and personality as a collec­ nineteenth-century works, mostly small cast tor, making such an association almost sculptures. Japanese Meiji period (1868-1912) inescapable. bronzes included both small decorative items and Like many nineteenth-century collectors of a monumental incense burner in the form of a American art, Olney occasionally acquired paint­ dragon (fig. 7, see also p. 44, fig. 3), which Olney ings directly from the artists, and seems to have considered one of the gems of his collection and been close friends with many of them. In lectures illustrative of "the triumph of the good and the for the Pilgrim Institute Fine Arts Club, he beautiful over evil and ugliness. The dragon of

12 evil is dying and the symbol of light and beauty painters) were commonly represented by smaller rises dominant."43 The dragon, like most of the works, studies, or sketches. As Olney acquired Japanese works in Olney's collection,44 was creat­ many of these pieces prior to his second ed specifically for export to the West and thus marriage, during a time when he was purchasing reflects a nineteenth-century Western aesthetic. art on a schoolteacher's budget, their unpreten­ Among the several European cast bronzes were tious nature may reflect a pragmatic compromise popular works byJean-Baptiste Carpeaux {The between aesthetic and acquisitive aspirations, Echo of the Sea), Charles Jacquot {LAngelus, fig. and financial reality. 8), Raoul Larche, The paintings Claudius Marioton, themselves—mainly and the animaliers American landscape Isadore-Jules Bonheur paintings, genre and Pierre-Jules scenes, and trompe 45 Mene. Sculpture in l'oeil still lifes, other media included nineteenth-century small-scale ivories— European academic The Wandering Minstrel genre and landscapes, was a popular and a smattering favorite—and a few of Old Masters— marble statues and generally reflect a busts of literary, politi­ conservative, tradition­ cal, and military heroes. al taste seen in many There were almost American collections no works on paper in formed during the last Olney's collection, just quarter of the nine­ 48 a handful of drawings teenth century. The and a few watercolors, roughly even mix of and two Japanese American and woodblock prints. European paintings The five drawings were was somewhat unusual clearly acquired for —most collectors specific reasons: two tended to focus on one were adhered as or the other area— decoration to a writing but certainly not desk,46 and three unique; in Olney's case works, copies after Ruisdael and Veronese by the it was certainly the result of his desire for a otherwise unknown Victor von Hecke, were comprehensive overview of both schools of paint­ primarily of interest because the artist had drawn ing. Although Olney often purchased paintings them while imprisoned for forgery.47 The by fledgling artists, there are no "modern" works absence of prints from Olney's collection may in the collection. He apparently regarded reflect the common use of reproductive engrav­ Impressionism as a misguided, and hopefully ings as a tool for learning about the styles of short-lived fad: great artists and icons of artistic achievement There are those, notably of the Impressionist (rather than as works of art in their own right)— School, who would set aside the fundamental a didactic function that by the late nineteenth principles of light and shade, attempt to century had largely been supplanted by the use of portray by bold strokes without gradations photographs and lantern slides. some of the subtle effects of color and light With relatively few exceptions, Olney s collection contained no great "masterworks" of Above: Fig. o. Italian, late iyth century, Mercury Lulling American or European painting. Major artists Argus to Sleep, oil on canvas, 138.r x 113.6 cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.402, Allen Memorial Art Museum, (particularly contemporary American landscape Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

13

and shade which characterize nature. It and landscapes that were sentimental, realistic, cannot be successfully done, and the art direct, and undemanding. This sort of "academic" world will soon rejoice that this school of or "Salon" painting was prized by American painting is a thing of the past.49 collectors of the period not only for its aesthetic As a collector, Olney was, like many of his qualities, but also because of its official sanction contemporaries, self-taught. He also does not by the Parisian art establishment, which offered seem to have consulted with any advisors in quantifiable confirmation of a successful purchase. making his purchases. In Olney s case—as in so Except for a handful of simple devotional scenes, many others—this combination of naivete and representations of historical, mythological, or lack of visual experience resulted in a selection of literary themes did not figure in Olney s collec­ "Old Masters" comprised, with few exceptions, tion. Some of the European painters who enjoyed of inferior copies, modern great popularity at fakes, or works by a mid-century were distant follower of the featured, for example named master. The Leon-Victor Dupre, preponderance of misat- Eugene Verboeckhoven, tributed works and and a putative outright forgeries among Bouguereau (about pre-nineteenth century which more later). European paintings in Representing a slightly America was already more progressive taste recognized as a problem were landscapes by (or by the 1860s, and many attributed to) Barbizon collectors were wary of painters such as Jean purchasing in this area, Baptiste Camille Corot turning instead to more (fig. 10), Narcisse easily authenticated Virgile Diaz de la 50 modern works. Many of Pena, Emile Lambinet, the Old Master paintings George Michel, and from Olney s collection Theodore Rousseau: appear from early names considered photographs to have been de rigeur in fashionable in a poor state of conser­ collections of the r88os. vation as well. Few of Olney owned numer­ these works remain in the ous European genre collection of the Allen paintings, most of which were by competent second-tier artists, Memorial Art Museum today; of those that do, rather than by the pricier and better known Mercury Lulling Argus to Sleep, acquired as a work practitioners of the genre such as Meisonnier or by Salvator Rosa, is presently attributed to an Vibert. There were examples of domestic genre anonymous artist active in the Veneto at the end and peasant themes by minor Salon artists such as of the seventeenth century (fig. 9). Two pendant J. J. M. Damschroeder, Franz von Ejsmond, Julius portraits by the Dutch artist Christiaan Kelder, Geertz, Max Kauffman, Felix Schlesinger, Carl signed and dated 1684, are among the few docu­ d'Unker, and Jaroslav Vesin; and archly anecdotal mented works by this distant follower of Gerard 51 period pieces by Cesare Detti, Enrico Fanfani Ter Borch. (fig. n), Leo Herrmann, Max Scholz, and Emile Olney had slightly better luck with his George Weiss.52 Exotic and Orientalist themes collection of modern European masters, although were represented in paintings by Edouard Dubufe, there were still instances of overly optimistic Mariano Jose Maria Bernardo Fortuny y Carbo, attributions. His selection of paintings and Charles Frere. Olney also owned a few paint­ conformed squarely with conservative taste of the ings by nineteenth-century Belgian and Dutch r870S and 1880s, which preferred figural paintings

15

Left: Fig. 13. Jasper Cropsey, Lake Wawayanda, 1876, oil on canvas, 30.3 x 51.4 cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1187, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

Below: Fig. 16. William Louis Sonntag, Autumn on the Androscoggin, oil on canvas, 23.2 x 33.J cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1003, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

Left: Fig. iy. Benjamin Bellows Grant Stone, Peep of the Hudson at the Home of Cole, ca. 1803, oil on fiberboard, 18.J x 26.J cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1203, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. *7 artists (Johan Mongles Culverhouse, Johannes {Sphinx Rock, fig. 19), Frederick Butman {Lake Rosierese, Petrus van Schendel, and Abraham Tahoe: Alone with Nature}, and Andrew Melrose van Strij) whose paintings recreate the quotidian {Waterfall in Nevada). America's ongoing fascina­ subject matter and meticulous, polished tech­ tion with the mythic landscape of Italy was nique characteristic of Dutch paintings of the represented in picturesque views of ruins by Cole, seventeenth century (fig. 12). Cropsey, and Kensett (front cover and fig. 20). In his selection of American paintings, Most of the American genre paintings Olney showed a predilection for landscapes, collected by Olney were domestic counterparts to particularly works of the Hudson River School. the sentimental and undemanding European In very simplistic terms, the work of these artists works discussed above, although a few works was ultimately inspired by a nationalistic pride in stand out, such as Charles Muller's bric-a-brac the unspoiled natural beauty of the American interiors and Louis Moeller's evocative The Old landscape. A compelling parallel can be drawn Armchair. One of the paintings that would have between Olney s interest in collecting these idyl­ been most familiar to contemporary audiences lic views and his crusading concern for the was Deacon Jones' Experience, a comic depiction of environment. A certain amount of nostalgia household pets disrupting a farmer's earnest probably also affected his choice, as he was a prayers by the Ohio painter Archibald Willard frequent visitor to the Hudson River/Catskill (fig. 21). The painting had been owned by James area and many of the artists and the scenes they F. Ryder, a photographer and art dealer in represented would have been familiar to him. Cleveland, who published a chromolithograph of The majority of Hudson River School landscapes the composition in 1874. To avoid offending a in his collection were by contemporary (living) potential audience that might have deemed the artists, although the acquisition of works by subject sacrilegious, Ryder had commissioned a Thomas Cole (including Lake with Dead Trees poem from the popular poet and humorist Bret [Catskill] of 1825, Cole's earliest dated painting) Harte, "who had in many ways shown his ability and Thomas Doughty, acknowledged "founders" to skim over the ice of public opinion in matters of American landscape painting, suggest a of religious sentiment."54 This clever marketing conscious attempt to present a historical survey strategy created an audience eager to buy Ryder's (figs. 13,14). Other artists represented include print; Willard's original painting remained in Frederic E. Church, Jasper Cropsey, George Ryder's possession until it was acquired by Olney Inness, Joseph Jefferson, John F. Kensett, Louis in 1893. Mignot, Edward Moran, Aaron Draper Among the more unusual corners of Olney s Shattuck, William Sonntag, and James Suydam collection were a half dozen trompe l'oeil still (figs. 15,16). Benjamin Stone's grisaille sketch, lifes by Nicholas A. Brooks, Victor Dubreuil, and Peep at the Hudson at the Home of Cole (fig. 17), (attributed to) Frederic E. Church, representing introduces a historiographic and self-reflexive papers, currency, or coins seemingly fixed to a element to this group of paintings.53 Landscapes vertical surface (figs. 6, 22 and 23). This curious by the brothers James M. Hart and William focus on an isolated theme within such an Hart were very likely favored because they omnivorous collection (eschewing even one elegiacally record the area of rural Connecticut "straight" still life composition) demands some where Olney grew up; he owned a total of seven attempt at an explanation. Paul Staiti has shown paintings by the brothers, and one by their sister, that trompe l'oeil pieces appealed to nineteenth- Julie Hart Beers. The largest painting in Olney's 55 century American audiences on several levels. collection, in fact (and the artist's chef d'oeuvre), Viewers appreciated the technical skills necessary is James Hart's Peaceful Homes, completed in to achieve a successful illusion, and at the same 1868, a panoramic view of the pleasant, pastoral time were amused and entertained by the artist's landscape of the Farmington Valley of clever trickery; the same fascination encouraged Connecticut (fig. 18). more public spectacles like con games and slight- In addition to examples of Adirondack and of-hand. It is hard to say just what appeal the New England scenery, Olney's collection also paintings had for Olney. He may have been featured a few Western views by Albert Bierstadt intrigued in exploring the shifting boundaries

18 Above: Fig. 18. James McDoitgal Hart, Peaceful Homes, 1868, oil on canvas, 120.3 x 237-5 cm> Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1100, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

Right: Fig. 10. Albert Bierstadt, Sphinx Rock, oil on canvas, 13 x 14.6 cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1181, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College,

Below: Fig. 20. John Frederick Kensett, Temple of Neptune, 1847, oil on canvas, 23.8 x 36.3 cm Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.432, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Above: Fig. 21. Archibald Willard, Deacon Jones's Experience, ca. 1873, oil on canvas, 40.6 x 38.4 cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1220, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

c /^-'^/

/

Above: Fig. 22. Frederic E. Church, The Letter Revenge, oil on canvas, 21 x 26 cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.371), Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

Left: Fig. 23. Victor Dubreuil, Is It Real?, ca. 1801, oil on canvas, 30.8x33.cz cm, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1213, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

20 between reality and illusion expressed in these works; carefully recorded on a catalogue file card (possibly by Olney himself) is the statement that Church's Letter Revenge (fig. 22) was "painted to deceive a friend who had made the statement that A work of art is meritorious only as it may be mistaken for the original.'" Olney may have been amused by the multi­ ple visual and verbal puns inherent in the images and their titles: the title of Dubreuil's Is it Real? f0 (fig. 23) refers not only to the artist's illusionistic image of paper currency, but also to the many different types of currency—some more reliable than others—issued by the United States govern­ ment during the 1870s and 1880s.56 Or, given the fact that most of the paintings represent U.S. coins and currency, Olney may have been inter­ ested in the somewhat related notion of forgery; Above: Fig. 24. DeScott Evans the drawings done by Victor von Hecke while he (after W. A. Bouguereau), The Apple of Discord (War: The was imprisoned for monetary forgery can also be First Discord), ca. i8yj-yo, oil or, cited in this regard. Probably not coincidentally, canvas, 83.7 x 106 cm, Gift of Olney also collected a large number of Greek and

Memorial Art Museum, Oberli Roman coins, and examples of money from many College, Oberlin, Ohio. different countries. Adding still another dimen­ sion to the many levels of deception embodied in these paintings, it should be mentioned that members of The Old Curiosity Club in New York—with which Olney may have been associ­ ated, and which counted among its members that master of illusionistic painting, William M. Harnett—delighted in passing off their own "frightful daubs" as works by famous artists.57 A more elaborate tromperie was perpetrated on Olney himself by De Scott Evans, a painter active in Ohio and New York who was noted for his playful trompe l'oeil still lifes.i8 According to the minimal documentation that survives, Olney purchased War: The First Discord from Evans in 1892 for $1200, as a work by William Adolphe Bouguereau (fig. 24). It became one of the high­ lights of his collection, regularly praised in descriptions of the Art Gallery and featured prominently in his lectures: "The flesh tints are, in my judgment, perfect; The textures are true to nature; The qualities are all that [the] heart could wish... rarely has the Great Artist smiled upon a lovelier work."59 Although the painting is signed "Bouguereau," it is in fact a copy by Evans, prob­ ably done while he was studying with the French artist in 1877-79. There is nothing to suggest that Olney was aware that the painting "was anything other than an original Bouguereau; the earliest quaint, or historical object in marble, bronze, notice of Evans as the author of the work is a ivory, wood or other substance, representing handwritten note on the inventory of the collec­ the various art industries of the world.... I also tion (ca. 1908): "This was not painted by bequeath to Oberlin College Ten Thousand Bougereau [sic] but by his pupil Evans of Dollars, to be invested in good securities...and Cleveland while studying with Bougereau."60 the income applied to the care, maintenance, As in other areas of the collection (although repair and improvement of the Olney perhaps to a lesser degree), the American and Collection in its new home.61 European paintings gathered by Olney represent­ Olney's choice of Oberlin College as the final ed an attempt to offer a comprehensive survey of destination for his art collection is not an immedi­ a particular art from the Renaissance through the ately obvious one, although both Olney and his nineteenth cenrury. His efforts were truly laud­ wife had ties to the College. Lillian Estelle able, if hampered somewhat by financial Holbrook (later Mrs. Charles W. Burrows; d. 1881), restrictions, the variable quality of the works a cherished niece of Abigail Bradley Lamson, was available to him, and his lack of sophisticated a student at Oberlin from about 1873 to 1875. visual training. One must also, of course, take Olney himself was greatly attracted to Oberlin, in into account reversals in prevailing taste, present­ part because of the College's religious convictions ly directed away from the sentimentality that and its renowned musical environment. In a letter guided much of the art produced during mid- to written in 1902 to the president of Oberlin late nineteenth-century. The group of American College, Olney remarked, "From a boy Oberlin has paintings is by far the strongest portion of the been one of the greatest inspirations of my life, for collection, including an intriguing body of it has rightly stood for the loftiest ideals in human trompe l'oeil pictures and exquisite pieces by character."62 A contemporary journalist later many of the acknowledged masters of American commented, landscape painting. The intimate nature of the Doubtless his decision to give to Oberlin smaller landscape paintings and sketches is College the art collection which he prized so particularly appealing to modern sensibilities. highly was largely influenced by his life-long Olney's collection of art and objets was interest in education and his appreciation of specifically devised to provoke curiosity, elicit the value of the high ideals of music and art. wonder, and inspire introspection about the He believed that in Oberlin, with its succes­ creations of art and nature. In establishing the sive generations of young people, his art Olney Art Gallery for "not merely pleasure, but collection could be most useful in its influence educational value as well," Olney ensured that upon life and character.63 visitors came to learn not only about issues of There were, however, other more pragmatic aesthetics and connoisseurship, but also about the considerations at play in the transference of the production of art, the role of art in society, and collection to Oberlin College. Olney, a member of its history in various cultures; about the beauties the Cleveland Museum of Art Board of Trustees of nature and the talents of man. As a collection from early 1900, had originally wanted his collec­ designed by an educator, it was a most appropri­ tion to become the nucleus of the future Cleveland ate gift to Oberlin College. Museum. But the other board members felt other­ wise, and apparently rejected his offer: The Olney Collection at Oberlin A number of the board members...said they Upon the deaths of Charles Olney and Abigail did not want the collection. They all said the Bradley Olney, which occurred just six months paintings could not be accepted for a high apart (July 18,1903 and January 18,1904, class art gallery, such as Cleveland is to have... respectively), Oberlin College received Olney's One of the members said, "We are determined bequest of to make the Cleveland Gallery one of the very the contents of the art gallery... [which] may best, from the standpoint of art, and we shall be understood to embrace the rugs and all have to announce that no gift collections will the paintings therein, all the cabinets and be accepted as a whole, and that none will be their contents, and every other beautiful, accepted, except by selection."64

23 Popular opinion was not wholly in agree­ This collection will serve to stimulate a love ment with this decision; after details of the for the beautiful on the part of both students bequest to Oberlin had been made public, several and townspeople alike which will be of the visitors to the Olney Art Gallery voiced their utmost importance.... [It] will stand as a disappointment that the collection would not nucleus around which, in the future, other remain in Cleveland. In August 1904, one visitor donations along this same line will gather, stated passionately (if somewhat obscurely), and Oberlin may well hope to have at some "Homer was allowed to beg his bread in his date not far distant, an art collection of native city— History repeats itself, and which any institution might well be proud.68 Cleveland to its shame allows this magnificent Steps were taken to further develop this collection to beg its way to an obscure resting "nucleus" almost immediately after the collection place."65 arrived at Oberlin in 1908. The relative strengths The collection remained in place at the and weaknesses of Olney's collection, now consid­ Olney Art Gallery on Jennings Avenue in ered within an academic context as a tool for Cleveland, and opened to the public Tuesday teaching the comprehensive history of art, made afternoons and some evenings, until arrange­ painfully clear the need to augment and refine the ments could be made to house the pieces at collection, and to provide a more suitable place to Oberlin College. The collection was transported display it. Even as the collection was being to Oberlin and installed in rather cramped installed in the converted stacks of Carnegie quarters in the newly-built Carnegie Library by Library, it was noted that "The early need of a June 1908, in time for the seventy-fifth Reunion commodious art building is most manifest; and at of the College. Limited space (a single room that time it is to be hoped that this collection measuring about 40 x 50 feet) meant that Olney s may be supplemented by a valuable collection of rather unwieldy collection had to be judiciously casts of the best statuary... few things would add 69 edited for exhibition (figs. 25, 26). Seventy-three more to the value of art courses." The Allen paintings—about a third of the collection—were Memorial Art Museum, designed by Cass selected for display, interspersed with cases Gilbert, was eventually opened in 1917. But even housing ceramics, glass, enamels, cameos, before this "commodious" space was made avail­ bronzes, minerals and semi-precious stones, and able, the Committee on Art Interests at Oberlin large freestanding Japanese and Chinese vases. College was arguing for the continued growth of Additional bronzes were placed along the collection through gifts and purchases, always the windowsills of the room.66 The gallery was with an eye to the teaching of art. regularly opened Tuesday through Saturday As in most academic and public museums of afternoons. By the following year (1909) the the day, casts and reproductions were deemed an installation had been reorganized, a custodian essential (and financially viable) means of study­ appointed, and a guide to the exhibited works ing significant developments in the history of art: had been printed and could be purchased for five 6 "If there should be a difference of opinion as to cents. 7 The exhibited works seem to be fairly the practicability of a scheme involving the acqui­ representative of the scope of Olney's collection, sition of originals, there can scarcely be any such although it is interesting to note that—in accor­ difference as to the desirability of a large collec­ dance with the priorities of the day—the tion of reproductions."7° Apart from a need to majority of the paintings singled out in the acquire reproductions of famous works of art catalogue as "worthy of more careful attention" from antiquity and the Renaissance, the earliest were European rather than American, both stated priorities for developing the art collection contemporary works and putative Old Masters. at Oberlin were, somewhat surprisingly, in the The initial efforts made to integrate Olney s field of Asian art. Prof. Frederick O. Grover, chair generous bequest into the program and curricu­ of the Committee on Art Interests, noted in his lum of Oberlin College attest to an awareness of annual report for 1908-09: "I cannot close this the long-term implications of housing an art report without calling your attention again to the collection on campus: great need of even a small amount [of money]... for the purchase of Japanese and Chinese works

24 of art, especially paintings and wood prints, of which the collection has no representatives."71 It was continually stressed by representatives of the College that the Olney Collection was to function as an encyclopedic resource for the teaching of art. The early history of the teaching of art at Oberlin College has been discussed else­ where/2 but the bequest of the Olney Collection became a powerful catalyst for the establishment of an art department at the College, and the presence of an art collection on the campus inspired grand thoughts about the importance of the fine arts in a liberal education: "The time may come in the United States when no one will be graduated from college without some knowledge of the fine arts. We may confidently expect that, possibly in the not too distant future, the fine arts will assume a position of respect and importance that they have not hitherto held."73 Charles Olney would certainly have concurred.

Marjorie E. Wieseman, Curator of Western Art before 1850 Allen Memorial Art Museum

25 Notes

For their varied assistance in the the displays of art and international 9. "Art Reception at the Olney research and writing of this article, I culture at the Philadelphia Centennial Residence," The Evening Post would like to thank Lucretia M. Exposition of 1876. (Cleveland), December 14,1893, p. 5. Baskin; Roland Bauman and his staff at the Oberlin College Archives; 4. In the memorial sermon delivered 10. Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin Raymond Beecher, Librarian, Vedder after Olney s death {In Loving Memory College. The register runs from Memorial Research Library, Coxsackie, of Charles Fayette Olney, 1831-1)03 September 1,1894 through the fall of N.Y.; Bruce Chambers; Alan Chong ([Cleveland, 1903], p. 24), the Rev. 1904. and David Steinberg at the Cleveland Charles Mills eulogized Olney's Museum of Art; John Davis, Associate prescient concern for the environment: 11. Olney Art Gallery Guest Register, p. Professor of Art, Smith College; Ann He was never satisfied that we 60 (October 4,1895); Oberlin College K. Sindelar, Western Reserve Historical could defend our smoke-laden Archives, Oberlin College. Society; the staff of the Cuyahoga atmosphere on the ground of County Archives; and Christine Mack, commercial necessity. To him it 12. See Doreen Bolger Burke, "Painters Charles Q^ Mason, Anne F. Moore, seemed a waste and shame that and Sculptors in a Decorative Age," in Jenny Squires Wilker, and other trees should perish and plants exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan colleagues at the Allen Memorial Art shrivel under the clouds from our Museum of Art, In Pursuit of Beauty: Museum. furnaces. He could not believe Americans and the Aesthetic Movement that we should rest until the air (1986-87), p. 322. Compare also the i. The major sources for biographical was free from the pollution that photographs of private art galleries information on Olney are his obituary makes dingy our noblest architec­ reproduced in [George W. Sheldon], in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 19, ture and wastes each year the Artistic Houses: Being a Series of Interior 1903, pp. 1, 5; In Loving Memory of fabrics of our homes; and for years Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful Charles Fayette Olney, 1831-1)03 he fought well-nigh single-hand­ and Celebrated Homes in the United (Cleveland, 1903), containing a ed, and not seldom enduring jibes States (New York, 1883-84), esp. vol. 1, biographical sketch written by his sister, for what seemed to cruder souls opposite pp. 15 and 16 ("Mrs. A. T Ellen Olney Kirke, and the Rev. his over-sensitive nature. Some Stewart's Picture Gallery"); vol. 2, Charles S. Mills, as well as a memorial day Cleveland will look back with opposite pp. 119,120 ("Mr. W. H. sermon by Mills; and The National horror on these days of darkness, Vanderbilt's Picture Gallery") and 135 Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. 6 and he will be found to have been ("Mr. Charles Stewart Smith's Picture (New York, 1929), pp. 512-513. a prophet of that better day in Gallery"). Other galleries described and Additional information about Olney, advance of his own age. photographed in Artistic Houses did his collection, and his activities in the include a more eclectic group of objects; arts, is found in Nancy Coe, "The 5. Catalogue of the Cleveland Art Loan compare the collection of Mrs. Robert History of the Collecting of European Exhibition (January 1894). L. Stewart in New York, which Paintings and Drawings in the City of displayed rocks, minerals, archaeological Cleveland" (MA. thesis, Oberlin 6. On the group plan, and specifically fragments, and prints; or that of John T College, 1955), vol. 1, pp. xvi-xvii, and Olney's role in it, see Walter C. Leedy, Martin in Brooklyn, which included a vol. 2, pp. 190-96; and Jeannine Love, Jr., "Cleveland's Struggle for Self- selection of decorative items and sculp­ "Patronage and Public Art in Identity: Aesthetics, Economics, and tures both small and large. Cleveland, Ohio 1890-1930" (M.A. Politics," in Richard Guy Wilson and thesis, Oberlin College, 1982), pp. 90-93. Sidney K. Robinson, eds., Modern 13. Kenneth Ames, "The Decorative Architecture in America: Visions and Arts in the Gilded Age," in exh. cat. 2. The catalogue of the Olney collection Revisions (Ames, Iowa, 1991), pp. 74-105, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum, at Oberlin (published ca. 1909-10) esp. pp. 78, 83-84, and 87. 1888: Frederick Layton and his World mentions a Lowestoft porcelain vase (1988), p. 156. See also Arnold Lewis, "presented to Captain Jeremiah 7. Walter C. Leedy, Jr., Cleveland Builds James Turner, and Steven McQuillin, Olney..by George Washington at an Art Museum: Patronage, Politics, and The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: Mount Vernon"; this vase was also Architecture 1884-1)16 (Cleveland, 1991), All 203 Photographs from "Artistic Houses" exhibited at the Cleveland Art Loan pp. 13-14. (New York, 1987), p. 20. Exhibition in 1894, but was described there as a gift from Washington to 8. Hollenden Gallery, the private art 14. Edward Strahan [Earl Shinn], The Stephen Olney. Possibly identical to the gallery and library built by Liberty E. Art Treasures of America (Philadelphia, Lowestoft Vase Decorated with Medallions and Delia Holden at Loch Hame, their 1879), vol. 1, p. 119 (collection of Miss and Butterflies, ace. no. 04.456. estate in Bratenahl (Cleveland), Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, New York). predates the Olney Art Gallery by 3. Ellen Olney Kirke, in In Loving about a decade, but was not so readily 15. Frederic E. Church to Olney, letter Memory of Charles Fayette Olney, 1831- accessible to the public. See Coe 1955 dated November 30,1896. Original 1003 (Cleveland, 1903), p. 7. Perhaps (as in note 1), vol. 1, p. xiv and vol. 2, pp. letter in the Oberlin College Archives, coincidentally, many Americans became 78-79; and Hand Book for Visitors to the Oberlin College. actively interested in collecting at Hollenden Gallery of Old Masters (with precisely this time, inspired in part by introduction by James Jackson Jarves; Cleveland, 1884).

26 i6. Olney Art Gallery Guest Register, 24. See Janet A. Headley, "Public Art ca. 1904] Mrs. Guernsey was in charge p. 241 (November 2,1900); Oberlin and the Private Collector: William T. of the gallery and collection..." The College Archives, Oberlin College. Walters and the Peabody Institute Art collection was re-catalogued during the Gallery," Archives of American Art summer of 1908, after it was installed at 17. On the growth of collecting in Journal 32 (1992), p. 3. Oberlin. America during the post-Civil War era, and the motivating factors for it, see 25. O'Sullivan, in exh. cat. St. Paul 1991, 34. More specific information on the most recently Jane H. Hancock, pp. 56-57. paintings in the collection is provided "Academic and Barbizon Painting in in the Appendix below. The inventories American Collecting: 1870S-1890S," in 26. Undated newspaper clipping, from and cards which formed the basis of exh. cat. St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Cleveland Institute of Art scrapbook #1, this study are in the Allen Memorial Society, Homecoming: The Art Collection p. 30. Gerome's painting, now lost, was Art Museum, Oberlin College. of James J. Hill (catalogue by Jane H. exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1868, Hancock et al., 1991), esp. pp. 1-5, with subsequently entered an American 35. Compare Arnold Lewis, James further references. collection, and was last recorded in a Turner, and Steven McQuillin, The sale in Paris in 1910 (oil on canvas, 63.5 Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: All 18. Hancock, in exh. cat. St. Paul 1991, x 98 cm [25 x 38 1/2 in.]; Gerald M. 203 Photographs from Artistic Houses" PP- 4-5- Ackerman, The Life and Work of Jean- (New York, 1987), p. 19. Leon Ge'rome [London, 1986], pp. 19. On this phenomenon, see Joy 220-21, no. 169). 36. Frederick O. Grover ("Olney Art Kenseth et al., in exh. cat. Hanover, N. Collection," Annual Reports for i)oy-o8, H, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth 27. Typescripts of several of these p. 26) cites a letter from Thomas E. College, The Age of the Marvelous (1991), lectures are in the Oberlin College Kirby, of the American Art Association esp. pp. 25-59 and 81-101. Archives, Oberlin College. in New York, stating that "a majority of Mr. Olney's collection is purchased at 20. Neil Harris, "Museums: The 28. Lecture delivered to the Pilgrim their sales." Olney's name does not Hidden Agenda," Midwestern Museum Institute Fine Arts Club, Cleveland, appear in the index to the sales records News 46 (1987), p. 17. November 18,1897. of the American Art Association from this period (Archives of American Art). 21. James Jackson Jarves, "American 29. Address given at the Cleveland Museums of Art," Scribner's Monthly School of Art Midterm Exhibition, 37. On the Old Curiosity Club and its Magazine 18 (July 1879), p. 406. Cleveland, ca. 1892-93; typescript at members, see Bruce Chambers, in exh. Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin cat. New York, Berry-Hill Galleries, 22. Kenseth, "A World in One Closet College; printed brochure inserted in Inc., Old Money: American Trompe I'Oeil Shut," in exh. cat. Hanover 1991, p. 95. the Cleveland Institute of Art scrap- Images of Currency (1988), pp. 60-67. book # 1, p. 17. 23. On Johnson, see Frederick 38. Obituary of Fullerton in The New Baekeland, "Collectors of American 30. As noted by Lillian B. Miller, "The York Herald, March 22,1904; cited by Painting 1813 to 1913," American Art Milwaukee Art Museum's Founding Chambers in exh. cat. New York 1988, Review 3 (1976), pp. 138-141; on the Father: Frederick Layton (1827-1919) p. 62. terms governing Vanderbilt's gallery, and His Collection," in exh. cat. Thomas O'Sullivan, "Showcase and Milwaukee 1988, pp. 22-23. 39. Ibid., pp. 60-62, and entries on the Stronghold: The Art Gallery of the individual paintings in the Appendix James J. Hill House," in exh. cat. St. 31. "Olney Art Collection," in Annual below. One author has suggested that Paul 1991, p. 57. Earlier nineteenth- Reports of the President and the Treasurer Fullerton and Brooks were the same century art galleries that were opened of Oberlin College for 1)07-08 (1908), pp. person; see E. Jane Connell, in exh. cat. to the public on at least a limited basis 25-26. Columbus, Columbus Museum of Art, include (but are not limited to) Luman More than Meets the Eye: The Art of Reed's gallery in New York, which was 32. The total cash assets distributed Trompe I'Oeil (1985-86), p. 78, note 3. open one day a week during the mid- according to the will of Abigail Lamson 18305 (see Ella M. Foshay, Mr. Luman Olney (as heir also of Charles Olney s 40. Olney's lecture on "Perspective and Reed's Picture Gallery: A Pioneer estate) was $117,500, in addition to the Atmosphere" (delivered to the Pilgrim Collection of American Art [New York, art collection, personal property, real Institute Fine Arts Club, Cleveland, 1990], esp. pp. 37-55), and Thomas estate, and an undisclosed amount of November 18, 1897) mentions Inness, an Jefferson Bryant's gallery of Old Master stock. Both Olney wills were drawn up unnamed New York landscape painter, paintings (eventually given to the New- in March 1902, and are on file at the and another artist referred to only in York Historical Society), which was in Cuyahoga County Archives, Cleveland. passing. operation during the 1850s and 60s. In Washington D. C, William Corcoran's 33. Frederick O. Grover ("Olney Art 41. Letters from Church to Olney, private art gallery was open to public Collection," Annual Reports for 1)07-08, dated March 27,1891 and November 30, two days a week from the 1850s; in 1874, p. 23), states: "For fifteen years before 1896; Oberlin College Archives, he established a public art gallery to the death of Mr. and Mrs. Olney [i.e., Oberlin College. display his works.

27 42. Of the approximately 7920 objects 51. Stechow, Catalogue of European and 62. Letter excerpted in "The Olney listed in the original inventory, 634 American Paintings (as in note 42), Legacy," The Oberlin News, January 29, remain in the museum as accessioned pp. 86, 90-91, respectively. 1904, p. 1. objects. Of European and American paintings, seventy-one remain from an 52. On the collecting of anecdotal genre 63. Ibid. original 220 or so, with an additional six painting in America, see Eric M. as unaccessioned, and thirty-one unlo- Zafran, in exh. cat. Cincinnati, Taft 64. "An Art Gallery Almost in Sight," cated, possibly sold. For additional Museum, Cavaliers and Cardinals: The Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 29, information on the works discussed, see Nineteenth-Century French Anecdotal 1904, p. 12. the Appendix below, and Wolfgang Paintings (1992), pp. 23-26. Stechow, Catalogue of European and 65. Olney Art Gallery Guest Register, American Paintings and Sculpture in the 53. Stone was a great admirer of Cole's p. 398 (August 30,1904); Oberlin Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin and rented his Catskill studio for a College Archives, Oberlin College. College (Oberlin, 1967). time. See Catherine Campbell, "Benjamin Bellows Grant Stone: A 66. "The remainder of the art objects 43. Cited in Jeannette Hart, "The Forgotten American Artist," New-York are stored in an adjoining closet, while Contents of the Collection," The Historical Society Quarterly 5 (January the rest of the paintings are, with a few Oberlin Review 31, no. 18 (February n, !978). PP- 22"42, esp. p. 23. exceptions, hung in the halls and semi­ 1904), P- 369- nar and public rooms of the library." 54. James F Ryder, Voigtlander and I: In Annual Reports for 1)07-08 (Oberlin, 44. On Olney's collection of Asian art, Pursuit of Shadow Catching (Cleveland, 1908), p. 23. see the article by Charles Q^ Mason in 1902), p. 220. this Bulletin. 67. The Olney Collection (Oberlin, n.d. 55. Paul Staiti, "Illusionism, Trompe [ca. 1908-09]). 45. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, The Echo of I'Oeil, and the Perils of Viewership," in the Sea {Neapolitan Fisherboy), 1857 (ace. exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan 68. The Oberlin Review 31 (February 11, no. 04.1141); Charles Jacquot, The Museum of Art, William M. Harnett 1904) p. 368. Angelus, 1888 (ace. no. 04.492); Francois (1992-93), pp. 31-47. Raoul Larche, Head of Christ, Claudius 69. Frederick O. Grover, "Olney Art Marioton, Diogenes in Search of an 56. Chambers, in exh. cat. New York Collection," Annual Reports for 1)07-08 Honest Man, 1883 (ace. no. 04.494); 1988, pp. 13-14. (Oberlin, 1908), p. 28. Isadore-Jules Bonheur, Lioness (ace. no. 04.1285); and Pierre Jules Mene, Fox and 57. Ibid., p. 66. 70. Charles B. Martin, in Annual Hounds, 1849, Hunting Party, and Dog Reports for i)0)-io (Oberlin, 1910), with Dead Game. 58. On Evans, see exh. cat. Columbus p. 135. Museum of Art, A New Variety, 46. Caspar Scheuren, ace. nos. 04.1214, Try One: De Scott Evans or S. S. David 71. Frederick O. Grover, in Annual 04.1228; see Wolfgang Stechow, (1985)- Reports for 1)08-0) (Oberlin, 1909), Catalogue of Drawings and Watercolors in p. 244. the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin 59. Lecture on "How to Read a Picture: College (Oberlin, 1976), pp. 63-64. Textures and Qualities," delivered to 72. Laurine Mack Bongiorno, the Pilgrim Institute Fine Arts Club, "The Fine Arts in Oberlin, 1836-1918," 47. Ibid., p. 36. Cleveland, March 7,1895. Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 15 (Spring 1958), pp. 101-115. 48. Compare the collections catalogued 60. On the painting, see most recently and described in Edward Strahan [Earl David Steinberg, "Fine Art in an 73. Charles B. Martin, in Annual Shinn], The Art Treasures of America, 2 Industrial Age," in exh. cat. Cleveland Reports for i)0)-io (Oberlin, 1910), vols. (Philadelphia, 1879). Museum of Art, Transformations in p. 135. Cleveland Art 17)6-1)46 (1996), esp. note 49. Lecture delivered to the Pilgrim 30 (p. 67). Bouguereau's original (84 x Institute Fine Arts Club, February 28, 104 cm [33 x 41 in.], signed and dated 1895. 1864) was in the sale New York (Sotheby's), January 25,1980, lot 270. 50. See Lillian B. Miller, "The Milwaukee Art Museum's Founding 61. Last Will and Testament of Charles Father: Frederick Layton (1827-1919) Fayette Olney, March 12,1902. and His Collection," exh. cat. Cuyahoga County Archives, Cleveland. Milwaukee 1988, p. 25. A contemporary The identical clause appears in Abigail phenomena in England is described in Bradley Lamson Olney's will, also Dianne Sachko Macleod, "Art dated March 12,1902. Collecting and Victorian Middle-Class Taste," Art History 10 (1987), pp. 328-50.

28 Appendix

Checklist of American and European Paintings Balestra, Antonio (Italian, 1666-1740) in the Olney Collection Nativity canvas, 62.2 x 73.7 cm (24 1/2 x 29 in.) The attributions and titles are those given in the handlist of Olney no. 106 / (04.423) Bought 1891, New York, paintings in the Olney collection compiled in ca. 1907-08, as by Correggio; sold 1947 as "Italian, 18th and in the inventory of 1908; the present attribution or title century." is added in brackets if differing significantly. The only exception is De Scott Evans's copy after Bouguereau, which Barconi is listed as his own work rather than as a work by Devotion Bouguereau, as it was during Olney's lifetime. The list does canvas, 14.6 x 11.4 cm (5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.) not include paintings on porcelain, pictures etched on ivory, Olney no. 95 / (04.609) Acquired before 1887; or made from feathers, wood marquetry, or other such sold 1947. materials. Each painting is identified by Olney number and Allen Beaulieu, Emile F. (American, active 1852-73) Memorial Art Museum accession number (if it was acces­ By the Riverside, 1873 sioned into the collection); parentheses indicate that a work canvas, 45.1 x 62 cm (17 3/4 x 24 7/16 in.) is no longer in the collection. If a painting was deacces- Olney no. 2 / 04.1286 Bought 1889. sioned from the collection, the date of the sale is noted; works for which there is no record of how or when they La Seine may have left the collection after coming to Oberlin College medium, dimensions unknown are described as "unlocated." Olney no. 123 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated; "Acquired before 1887" indicates those works marked possibly identical to the painting listed above? "had" in handwritten annotations (made by Mrs. Louise Guernsey?) on the list of ca. 1907-08, assuming those works Beers, Julie Hart (American, 1835-1913) were in Olney's collection prior to his move to Cleveland in Landscape 1887. Dates of acquisition noted on this list are not always canvas, 16.5 x 31.1 cm (6 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.) reliable, but have been retained here unless proven inaccu­ Olney no. 90 / 04.1098 Acquired before 1887. rate. "Exh. 1894" denotes those paintings and sculptures included in the Cleveland Art Loan Exhibition of January Bierstadt, Albert (American, 1830-1902) 1894. The brief comments that are appended are for the Sphinx Rock most part compiled from information on Olney's original canvas, 13 x 14.6 cm (5 1/8 x 5 3/4 in.) catalogue cards, as well as handwritten comments on the Olney no. 261 / 04.1181 Bought 1888. original list of paintings (ca. 1907-08) and the slightly revised inventory compiled during the summer of 1908. Blackmail, Walter (American, 1847-1928) Additional information on many of the works can be found Autumn on the Beaverkill in published catalogues of the Allen Memorial Art panel, 18.4 x 26.7 cm (7 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.) Museum. Olney no. 177 / 04.1211 Bought 1889; exh. 1894, suppl. no. G, as "Autumn on the Beaver Hill."

Altheinter, Josef (German, 1860-1913) Blakelock, Ralph A. (American, 1847-1919) Death of the First Communicant California Ranch medium, dimensions unknown canvas, 30.5 x 25.4 cm (12 x 10 in.) Olney no. 161 Bought by Mr. Seltzer at an exhibi­ Olney no. 29 / 04.412 Acquired before 1887. tion in Europe in 1899 for Mr. Olney, for $800. Unlocated. Braith, Anton (German, 1836-1905) The Pool at the Foot of the Hill, 1889 Baker, Charles (American, 1844-1906) panel, 22.9 x 27.9 cm (9 x 11 in.) The Storm at Sea Olney no. 176 Bought 1889; sold 1947. canvas, 15.2 x 27.9 cm (6 x 11 in.) Olney no. 119 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Brooks, Nicholas A. (American, 1849-after 1904) Bill, Coupon, Postage Stamp &? Clipping Baker, E. Taylor (American, 19th century) panel, 17.8 x 22.9 cm (7x9 in.) Gardener's Bay, L. I. Olney no. 59 / (04.619) "Ten dollar bill, a coupon canvas, 26 x 50.8 cm (10 1/4 x 20 in.) for a seat at the opera house, a two-cent postage Olney no. 72 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. stamp & a clipping from a newspaper"; bought 18901; sold 1947. Baldovinetti, Alessio (Italian, ca. 1425-1499) [attributed to] Adoration of the Virgin Handbill [Still Life with Handbill], 1893 medium, dimensions unknown panel, 56.8 x 39.7 cm (22 3/8 x 15 5/18 in.) Olney no. 107 Later, poor quality. Unlocated, Olney no. 57 / 04.593 Bought 1893. probably sold.

29 Brouwer, Adriaen (Dutch, 1606-1638) [attributed to] The Flute Player The Lame Sculptor medium, dimensions unknown canvas, 45.7 x 64,8 cm (18 x 25 1/2 in.) Not on Olney list; exhibited at Ryder's Art Store, Olney no. 53 Acquired before 1887. Subsequently Cleveland, 1892. Unlocated. reattributed to Cornells Bega. Sold 1947 as "Flemish, late 17th century, after David Teniers". Champney, James Wells (American, 1843-1903) Moonlight Scene Brown, William Mason (American, 1830-1898) medium, dimensions unknown The Lone Fisherman Olney no. 16 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. canvas, 25.4 x 35.6 cm (10 x 14 in.) Olney no. 9 / (04.1182) Acquired before 1887; sold 1953. Chapin, Charles H. (American, 19th century) Adirondack Lake Landscape [River Valley] canvas, 27.9 x 11.4 cm (11 x 4 1/2 in.) panel (academy board), 24.8 x 20.3 cm (9 3/4 x 8 in.) Olney no. 136 / (04.1207) Acquired before 1887; Olney no. 162 / 04.1097 Acquired before 1887. sold 1947.

Brueghel, Peter the Younger (Flemish, 1564-1638) [Flemish Cheauverie School, 17th century] The Shepherdess The Siege of Troy medium, dimensions unknown copper, 44.5 x 57.8 cm (17 1/2 x 22 3/4 in.) Olney no. 88 "A view near Fontainebleau...once Olney no. 64 Acquired before 1887. owned by Louis Napoleon."4 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Brugner [Dutch School, 18th century] On the Scheldt Chowley, D. A. panel, 22.9 x 29.8 cm (9 x 11 3/4 in.) The Passing Regiment, 1880 Olney no. 11 / (04.418) Acquired before 1887; sold watercolor, 24.1 x 34.3 cm (9 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.) (framed as a 1947- triptych) Olney no. 35 / (04.617) Acquired before 1887; sold Butman, Frederick A. (American, active ca. 1859-1871) 1947- Lake Tahoe {Alone with Nature) canvas, in.8 x 177.8 cm (44 x 70 in.) Church, Frederic E. (American, 1826-1910) [attributed to] Olney no. 149 / (04.1206) Acquired before 1887, The Letter Revenge sold 1953. canvas, 21 x 26 cm (8 1/4 x 10 1/4 in.) Olney no. 173 / 04.579 "Painted to deceive a friend Cameron, Samuel who had made the statement that A work of art is Rembrandt's Portrait meritorious only as it may be mistaken for the medium unknown, 39.4 x 31.8 cm (15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.) original.'"5 Bought in New York, 1892. Olney no. in Acquired before 1887; inventory of 1908 has (later) handwriten note: "destroyed no Beside the Brook in Autumn value." medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 238 Handwritten note on inventory list: Cano, Alonzo (Spanish, 1601-1667) [attributed to] "In Mr. Judd's house.6 Did not come." Unlocated. St. Anthony and the Charity Child canvas, 78.7 x 61 cm (31 x 24 in.) The Bridge Olney no. 105 / (04.589) Bought 1891; exh. 1894, medium, dimensions unknown no. 22 as by Cano; described in 1909 appraisal as Olney no. 239 Handwritten note on inventory list: "repainted."2 Sold 1947 as "Spanish School." "In Mr. Judd's house. Did not come." Unlocated.

Carr, Samuel S. (American, 1837-1908) Ciafferi, Pietro (Italian, 17th century) Coming Storm Ruins on the Arno, 1654 canvas, 15.9 x 26.7 cm (6 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.) panel, 22.2 cm (8 3/4 in.) diameter Olney no. 185 / (04.438) Acquired before 1887; sold Olney no. 102 / (04.848) Acquired before 1887. !947- Discarded 1958.

Casanova y Estorach, Antonio (Spanish, 1846-1896) Cole, Thomas (American, 1801-1848) The Cardinal's Embroidery Lesson Catskill Lake {Lake with Dead Trees (CatskillJ] canvas, 25.4 x 33 cm (10 x 13 in.) canvas, 68.6 x 86.4 cm (27 x 34 in.) Olney no. 211 / (04.443) Exhibited in Paris, 1889; Olney no. 126 / 04.1183 Acquired before 1887. purchased by Olney in Cleveland by 1892;3 exhib­ ited at Ryder's Art Store, Cleveland, 1892 (as The Ruins entitled "No you don't"). Handwritten note on canvas, 13.3 x 17.1 cm (5 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.) inventory: "May have been one of the pictures Olney no. 3 / 04.1184 Acquired before 1887. that came to Mr. Olney for the loan of the $1000 to "; sold 1945.

30 Sunset across the Waters DeHaven, Franklin B. (American, 1856-1934) canvas (glued to panel), 16.5 x 24 cm (6 1/2 x 9 7/16 in.) Twilight Olney no. 21 / 04.1185 Acquired before 1887. medium unknown; 36.8 x 51.4 cm (14 1/2 x 20 1/4 in.) Olney no. 84 / 04.1099 Acquired before 1887. Colman, Thomas [Samuel] (American, 1832-1920) Unlocated. Mt. Washington medium, dimensions unkown Detti, Cesare (Italian, 1847-1914) Olney no. 100 Bought 1890; exh. 1894, no. 34, as The Lost Game, 1889? by Samuel Colman. Unlocated. canvas, 60.3 x J2 cm (23 3/4 x 28 3/4 in.) Olney no. 135 / 04.1227 Exh. 1894, no. 28 Colsoulle, Georges de (as "The Game's Off"). The Last Hurdle canvas, 69.9 x 68.6 cm (27 1/2 x 27 in.) Deventer.T. [J. F.] van (Belgian, 1822-1866) Olney no. 147 Bought 1891; sold 1947. Holland Landscape panel, 10.2 x 12.7 cm (4x5 in.) Cornwall, Rev. N. E. (American, active late 19th century) Olney no. 55 / (04.434) Acquired before 1887; sold Glimpse ofMt. Everett, 1890 1947. academy board, 16.3 x 11.3 cm (6 7/16 x 4 7/16 in.) Olney no. 40 / 04.448 Given to Olney by the Diaz de la Pena, Narcisse Virgille (French, 1808-1876) artist in 1892. [copy after] Edge of the Stream Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille (French, 1796-1875) panel, 15.2 cm (6 in.) diameter [attributed to] Olney no. 142 / (04.429) Acquired before 1887; sold Morning at Fontainbleau, 1865 1953- canvas, 66 x 91.4 cm (26 x 36 in.) Olney no. 81 Bought 1893; S°W 1947 as "French, Dou, Gerard (Dutch, 1613-1675) 19th century." The Duet (The Singer) panel, 22.9 x 26.7 cm (9 x 10 1/2 in.) Costa, Oreste (Italian, b. 1852) Olney no. 5 Bought 1888; exh. 1894, no. 27; sold Scarpani {Mountain Landscape) 1947 as "Dutch 17th century, after Caravaggio." panel, 21.6 x 17.1 cm (8 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.) Olney no. 258 / (04.618) Sold 1947. Doughty, Thomas (American, 1793-1856) White Mountains [Tuckerman's Ravine] Crane, Bruce (American, 1857-1937) canvas, 48.3 x 68.6 cm (19 x 27 in.) Gleam of Sunlight in June Not on Olney list / 04.1208 canvas, 35.6 x 40.6 cm (14 x 16 in.) Olney no. 137 / (04.440) Purchased at the Pan- Drooghsloot, Joost Cornells (Dutch, 1580-1666) American Exhibition, Buffalo, 1901; sold 1947. A Merry Party canvas, 73.7 x 49.5 cm (29 x 19 1/2 in.) Cropsey, Jasper (American, 1823-1900) Olney no. 151 Bought 1889; sold 1947 as "Dutch Lake Wawayanda, 1876 School, early 18th century". canvas, 30.5 x 51.4 cm (12 x 20 1/4 in.) Olney no. 201 / 04.1187 Acquired before 1887; exh. Dubreuil, Victor (American, active ca. 1886-after 1900) 1894, no. 29. Are They Real? canvas, 25.4 x 30.5 cm (10 x 12 in.) Paestum [Temple of the Sibyl, Tivoli], 1876 Olney no. 56 / (04.446) "United States Coins of canvas, 23.2 x 30.8 cm (9 1/8 x 12 1/8 in.) various denominations," bought 1890; sold 1947. Olney no. 8 / 04.1186 Acquired before 1887. Is It Real?, ca. 18918 Culverhouse,JohannMongles (American [born canvas, 31.1 x 35.9 cm (12 1/8 x 14 1/8 in.) Netherlands], 1825-1895) Olney no. 180 / 04.1213 "Seven bills in United Fruit Vendor by Lamplight, 1866 States currency and two silver half dollars pinned canvas, 35.6 x 30.5 cm (14 x 12 in.) upon a board"; as bought in 1890. One of the Olney no. 69 / (04.1212) Acquired before 1887; sold above paintings exh. 1894, suppl. no. A. 1947. Take One Damschroeder,J.J. M. (German, active 1850-1909) canvas, 25.4 x 30.5 cm (10 x 12 in.) The Child's Inquiry, 1877 Olney no. 188 / 04.442 Alternate title, "Purse for panel, 34.3 x 25.4 cm (13 1/2 x 10 in.) the Sprinters," written in pencil on the stretcher. Olney no. 196 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Annotation on handlist of paintings (ca. 1907-08): "bought [crossed out: at Ryder's] in 1890."

31 Dubufe, Edouard (French, 1819-1883) Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano Jose Maria Bernardo (Spanish, The Sultan's Favorite 1838-1895) oil on metal, 21 x 17.1 cm (8 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.) The Alhambra [Scene in Morocco] Olney no. 4 / (04.430) Acquired before 1887; sold watercolor, 90 x 51 mm (31/2x2 in.) 1947, as "Portrait of a Turkish Lady." Olney no. 31 / 04.1177 "This sketch, one of three, was bought by S. P. Avery of New York City and The First of the Vintage afterward sold to G. A. Harper"10; acquired before canvas, 16.5 x 21.6 cm (6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.) 1887. Olney no. 10 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano Jose Maria Bernardo [attributed Dupre, Leon Victor (French, 1848-1879) to] Landscape Sketch of a Lady in Black canvas, 17.1 x 29.8 cm (6 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.) medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 94 / (04.406) Acquired before 1887; exh. Olney no. 194 / (04.416) Bought 1893; sold 1947. 1894, suppl. no. F; sold 1947. Frere, Charles Theodore (French, 1814-1888) Dyck, Anthony van (Flemish, 1599-1641) [copy after] In the Desert [The Caravan] The Kiss of Judas panel, 33 x 24.8 cm (13 x 9 3/4 in.) copper, 77.5 x 59.7 cm (30 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.) Olney no. 85 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Olney no. 109 Acquired before 1887; exh. 1894, no. 23; sold 1947 as "Flemish, late 17th century School Fuseli, John Henry (Swiss, 1741-1825) [attributed to] of Rubens." Is a copy after Anthony van Dyck, The Apotheosis of Art Taking of Christ (Museo del Prado, Madrid). oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 42.2 x 49.8 cm (16 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.) Ejsmond, Franz von (Polish, b. 1859) Olney no. 50 / 04.586 Acquired before 1887. Come to Papa panel, 19.1 x 13.3 cm (7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.o Furlong, Atherton (American, active Michigan, 1890s) Olney no. 131 Bought about 1 3; sold 1947. Moonlight on the Waters canvas, 7.6 x 10.2 cm (3x4 in.) Ellminger, Ignatius (Ignatz) (Austrian, 1843-1894) Olney no. 199 / (04.612) Acquired before 1887; Scene in Morocco [Farmyard], 1884 sold 1947. watercolor, 144 x 177 mm (5 5/8 x 7 in.) Olney no. 28 / 04.611 Acquired before 1887. Gay, Edward (American, 1837-1928) By the Brookside, 1875 Evans, DeScott (American, 1847-1898), after W. A. panel, 32.1 x 24 cm (12 5/8 x 9 7/16 in.) Bouguereau Olney no. 226 / 04.1189 Acquired before 1887. The Apple of Discord [ War: The First Discord, ca. 1877-79] canvas, 85.7 x 106 cm (33 3/4 x 41 3/4 in.) Geertz, Julius (German, b. 1837) Olney no. 158 / 04.404 Falsely signed and dated Signing the Order of Arrest "W. Bouguereau 1864" on tree trunk at upper panel, 14 x 10.8 cm (51/2x41/4 in.) right; bought from the artist in Cleveland, 1892, Olney no. 140 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. for $1200, as by Bouguereau. Gennari, Cesare Falconer,John M. (American, 1820-1903) Mother and Child On the River Elbe medium, dimensions unknown panel, 16.5 x 20.3 cm (6 1/2 x 8 in.) Olney no. no Bought 1888, New York. Unlocated. Olney no. 36 Acquired before 18879; sold 1947. Gesne, Albert de (French, d. 1903) Fanfani, Enrico (Italian, active late 19th century) Trio of Fox-Hounds Carlo Goldoni, the Shakespeare of Italy canvas, 45.7 x 38.1 cm (18 x 15 in.) canvas, ca. 102.9 x :46-i cm (4° d% x 57 1/2 in.) Olney no. 74 Bought 1892, New York; sold 1947. Olney no. 160 Purchased in New York. Giordano, Luca (Italian, 1632-1705) [attributed to] Fitch,John Lee (American, 1836-1895) The Binding of Christ The Brook canvas, 43.2 x 22.2 cm (17 x 8 3/4 in.) canvas, 29.2 x 24.1 cm (11 1/2x9 ^2 in.) Olney no. 103 / (04.581) Bought 1889 New York; Olney no. 217 / (04.1188) Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. sold 1947. Christ Bound Fliigge, Henny (German, active from 1875) canvas, 24.1 x 18.4 cm (91/2x7 1/4 in.) Prosperity and Adversity No Olney number / (04.582) Acquired before 1887; medium, dimensions unknown sold 1947. Olney no. 83 Bought 1893, New York; exh. 1894, no. 31. Unlocated.

32 Goodwin, Harry (English, active 1867-1902; d. 1932) Art Store, Cleveland, 1892, as "The Fop." Sunrise on a Misty Morning, 1887 Described in 1909 appraisal as "copy." Unlocated.'4 canvas, 20.3 x 36.2 cm (8 x 14 1/4 in.) Olney no. 22 / 04.1287 Acquired before 1887. 't Hoen, Cornelis Petrus (Dutch, 1814-1880) The Landing, 1851 Sunset Across the Waters, 1871 panel, 31.8 x 45.7 cm (12 1/2 x 18 in.) canvas, 23.5 x 31.1 cm (9 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.) Olney no. 178 / 04.420 "From the Samuel J. Tilden Olney no. 164 / (04.590) Acquired before 1887; collection"15; bought 1891; sold 1947. sold 1947. Hurlbut [possibly Gertrude Hurlbut, d. 1909] Gottwald, Frederick Carl (American, 1860-1941) Bringing in the Yule Log The First Born, before 1897 wash drawing, dimensions unknown canvas, 61 x 81.3 cm (24 x 32 in.) No Olney number. "Exhibited at the Convention Olney no. 170 / (04.401) Bought from the artist of American Illustrators in Cleveland"; purchased (in Cleveland), 1897; sold 1947. for $30.00. Unlocated.

Hammer,JohnJ. (American, 1838 or 1842-1906) Huston, Thomas [William] (American, active late 19th Mount Washington century) canvas, 18.1 x 29.7 cm (7 1/8 x 11 11/16 in.) A Quiet Stream [River Scene with Cows] Olney no. 98 / 04.1216 Acquired before 1887. canvas, 30.5 x 63.5 cm (12 x 25 in.) Olney no. 125 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Hart,James McDougal (American, 1828-1901) Peaceful Homes, 1868 Inness, George (American, 1825-1894) canvas, 129.5 x 237.5 cm (51 x 93 1/2 in.) Afternoon near Montclair, N.J. Olney no. 159 / 04.1190 Bought 1891 or 1892; canvas, 77.5 x 115.6 cm (30 1/2 x 45 1/2 in.) exhibited at Ryder's Art Store, Cleveland, 1892." Olney no. 168 / (04.410) Bought 1893; sold 1953.

Homeward Path, 1882 Insley, Albert (American, 1842-1937) canvas, 38.1 x 26 cm (15 x 10 1/8 in.) On the Saco River Olney no. 167 / 04.1191 Acquired before 1887. canvas, 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in.) Olney no. 179 / (04.1092) Acquired before 1887; Landscape with Cattle, Evening, 1869 sold 1947. canvas mounted on board, arched top, 17.6 x 10 cm (6 15/16 x 3 15/16 in.) A Showery Day Olney no. 189 / 04.1224 Acquired before 1887. canvas, 36.8 x 52.1 cm (14 1/2 x 20 1/2 in.) Olney no. 203 / (04.592) "Scene near Elizabeth Hart, William (American, 1823-1894)12 New Jersey." Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Coming Storm, Lake Cayuaga (N.Y.J canvas, 17.8 x 31.1 cm (7 x 12 1/4 in.) Ives, Miss M. E. (American) Olney no. 93 / 04.620 "This picture was sold to Into the Shadow Mr. Olney by Shattuck to whom Hart had given medium, dimensions unknown it in exchange for one painted by Shattuck"13; Not on Olney list. Exh. 1894, no. 36. Unlocated. acquired before 1887. Jefferson, Joseph (American, 1829-1905) Beside the Brook Old Mill by the Sea, 1895 canvas, 14 x 26 cm (5 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.) canvas, 34.9 x 54.6 cm (13 3/4 x 21 1/2 in.) Olney no. 174 / 04.1192 Acquired before 1887. Olney no. 80 / 04.411 Given to Olney by the artist, 1897. There is another landscape view paint­ Farmington Valley, Connecticut, 1866 ed on the reverse of the canvas. canvas, 22.2 x 41.6 cm (8 3/4 x 16 3/8 in.) Olney no. 73 / 04.1193 Acquired before 1887. Rip van Winkle's Nook in the Catskills canvas, 25.1 x 40.6 cm (9 7/8 x 16 in.) Bit of Nature Olney no. 46 / 04.1194 Acquired before 1887. canvas, 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Olney no. 186 / 04.425 Acquired 1892; back of Johnson, David (American, 1827-1908) canvas stamped "Robt Fullerton Art Dealer / Landscape Goupil & Co. Artists Colourmen Broadway New panel, 12.7 x 19.7 cm (5x7 3/4 in.) York." Olney no. 120 / (04.584) Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Herrmann, Leo (French, b. 1853) The Cynical Beau Alone [Sheep Resting] medium, dimensions unknown canvas, 8.9 x 14 cm (31/2x5 1/2 in.) Olney no. 44 Purchased 1890; exhibited at Ryder's Olney no. 24 / (04.591) Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. 33 Kauffman, Max (German, b. 1846) Levere, Eugene (French, 19th century) The Religious Student Landscape with figure of Woman in Foreground [Country Road] panel, 27.3 x 21 cm (10 3/4 x 8 1/4 in.) canvas, 25.4 x 35.6 cm (10 x 14 in.) Olney no. 209 Bought 1897; s0^ x947- Olney no. 134 / 04.403 Bought 1890.

Kelder, Christiaan (Dutch, active late i7th-early 18th Lucas, Horatio Joseph (English, 1839-1873) century) The Last Match Portrait of a Man, 1684 canvas, 48.3 x 61 cm (19 x 24 in.) canvas, 74.3 x 60.3 cm (29 1/4 x 23 3/4 in.) Olney no. 144 Bought 1891; sold 1947. Olney no. 212 / 04.1219 Bought 1890 in New York. Maes, H. (active late 19th century) Portrait of a Woman, 1684 Morning on the Coast canvas, 74.3 x 60.3 cm (29 1/4 x 23 3/4 in.) panel, 22.9 x 32.4 cm (9 x 12 3/4 in.) Olney no. 213 / 04.1220 Bought 1890 in New York. Olney no. 13 / 04.616 Acquired before 1887.

Keller, Henry G. (American, 1870-1949) Martinotti, Evangelisto (Italian, 1694-1734) Head of Mozart, after Munkacsy Rest by the Wayside canvas, 56.2 x 45.7 cm (22 1/8 x 18 in.) canvas, 22.9 x 36.8 cm (9 x 14 1/2 in.) Olney no. 215 / 04.1215 Partial copy after Mihaly Olney no. 114 / (04.437) Bought 1889; sold 1947. de Munkacsy's painting, The Last Moments of Mozart. Given to Olney in 1894 by Art Loan Massari, Lucio (Italian, 1569-1633) [attributed to] Exhibition Committee. Christian Martyrs copper, 19.7 x 24.1 cm (7 3/4 x 9 1/2 in.) Kelly, William (American, 19th century) Olney no. 113 / 04.427 Acquired before 1887. Tally Ho! [Delaware Water Gap] oil on panel, 4.8 x 11.3 cm (1 7/8 x 4 7/16 in.) Massaro, Nicolo (Italian, d. 1706) Olney no. 220 / 04.1217 Acquired before 1887. Flight into Egypt medium unknown, 31.1 x 58.4 cm (12 1/4 x 23 in.) Kensett, John Frederick (American, 1816-1872) Olney no. 112 / 04.594 Bought 1889. Unlocated. Temple of Neptune, 1847 canvas, 23.8 x 36.3 cm (9 3/8 x 14 5/16 in.) McCord, George Herbert (American, 1848-1909) Olney no. 6 / 04.432 Acquired before 1887. Sunset panel, 17.8 x 26 cm (7 x 10 1/4 in.) King, Helen Elizabeth (American, active late 19th century) Olney no. 182 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Close of A Winter Day canvas, 41 x 62 cm (16 1/8 x 24 7/16 in.) Landscape Olney no. 15 / 04.1298 Bought in 1888. canvas, 50.8 x 35.6 cm (20 x 14 in.) Olney no. 192 Acquired before 1887; sold 1953. Kittell, Nicholas Biddle (American, 1822-1894) Artist's Brook Mcllhenney, Charles M. (American, 1858-1904) canvas, 40.6 x 29.2 cm (16 x 111/2 in.) The Crystal Pool [Cattle Drinking] Olney no. 122 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. canvas, 21 x 40.6 cm (8 1/4 x 16 in.o Olney no. 71 / (04.447) Acquired before 1887; sold Artist's Falls 1947- canvas, 41.3 x 30.5 cm (16 1/4 x 12 in.) Olney no. 146 "Painted to order by the artist" ; Meixner, Ludwig (German, 1828-1885) acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Moonlight on the Spree panel, 14.6 x 26 cm (5 3/4 x 10 1/4 in.) Lambinet, Emile (French, 1815-1878) Olney no. 175 / (04.587) Acquired before 1887; sold Landscape [Summertime] 1947- canvas, 30.5 x 46.4 cm (12 x 18 1/4 in.) Olney no. 153 / (04.408) Acquired before 1887; sold Melrose, Andrew (American, 1836-1901) 1947- Tellulah Chasm, Georgia canvas, 104.8 x 58.4 cm (41 1/4 x 23 in.) Lessing, Karl Frederick (German, 1808-1880) Olney no. 148 / (04.1195) Acquired before 1887; View of the Rhine sold 1953. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 157 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Waterfall in Nevada canvas, 106.7 x 61 cm (42 x 24 in.) Leutze, Emmanuel (American, 1816-1868) Olney no. 124 / (04.1196) Acquired before 1887; The Faggot Gatherer sold 1947. canvas, 29.2 x 21 cm (111/2 x 8 1/8 in.) Olney no. 156 Acquired before 1887.

34 Mendl,Julius (American, 19th century) A Good Smoke Tyrolean Maid, 1890 medium, dimensions unknown panel, 27.9 x 21.6 cm (11 x 8 1/2 in.) Olney no. 67 Bought 1891, New York; sold 1947. Olney no. 133 / (04.445) Bought 1890; sold 1947. Murillo, Bartolome Esteban (Spanish, 1617/18-1682) Michel, George (French, 1763-1848) [attributed to] [Italian, mid-tyth century, after Trevisiani] Windmill Christ Bound [The Crowning with Thorns] canvas, 39.4 x 57.2 cm (15 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.) canvas, 75 x 62.5 cm (29 9/16 x 24 5/8 in.) Olney no. 82 / (04.414) Probably acquired before Olney no. 104 / 04.424 Acquired before 1887; exh. 1887; sold 1953. 1894, no. 19, as by Murillo. On inventory of 1908, Murillo's name is crossed out and replaced by Millais, Sir John Everett (English, 1829-1896) "Spanish School." The Macaroni Eater canvas, 36.8 x 24.8 cm (14 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.) Parker, John Adams (American, 1827-ca. 1905) Olney no. 163 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. In the Wood canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.) Mignot, Louis Remy (American, 1831-1870) Olney no. 75 / (04.621) Acquired before 1887; Evening on the Santee, S.C. sold 1947. canvas, 40.6 x 59.7 cm (16 x 23 1/2 in.) Olney no. 54 Bought 189517; sold 1947. Twilight in the Adirondack^ medium, dimensions unknown Moeller, Louis Charles (American, 1855-1930) Olney no. 193 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. The Old Armchair canvas, 44.5 x 50.8 cm (17 1/2 x 20 in.) Parton, Arthur (American, 1842-1914) Olney no. 63 / 04.583 Reverse of canvas stamped Autumn on the Ausable River, 1871 "Rob't Fullerton / Art Dealer"; bought 1891, canvas, 20.6 x 30.5 cm (8 1/8 x 12 in.) New York. Olney no. 181 / 04.1197 Acquired before 1887; exh. 1894, suppl. list D. Monds,John (American, 19th century) Autumn on the Housatonic Parvaan, T. canvas, 12.7 x 20.3 cm (5x8 in.) Ships at Sea Olney no. 91 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 45 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Moran, Edward (American, 1829-1901) Ruins of Aspinwall Castle Pasmore, John F. (English, active 1841-1866) board, 11.7 x 10.2 cm (4 9/16 x 4 in.) Dispensing Birthday Sunshine Olney no. 206 / 04.428 Acquired before 1887. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 145 / (04.421) Acquired before 1887; exh. Mortimer, John Hamilton (English, 1741-1779) 1894, no. 33; sold 1945. The Attack [Battle Scene in a Forest] panel, 57.2 x 81.3 cm (22 1/2 x 32 in.) Perkins, A. [poss. Alexander Graves Perkins, American, Olney no. 127 Acquired before 1887; sold 1953. active early 20th century] Marine Sketch Muller, Carl (Charles) (German/American, b. 1861) canvas, 29.2 x 49.8 cm (11 1/2 x 19 5/8 in.) The Antiquarian, 1893 Olney no. 191 Acquired before 1887. canvas, 30.5 x 14.2 cm (12 1/2 x 5 9/16 in.) Olney no. 68 / 04.261 Inscribed on back of Pope.John (American, 1820-1880) canvas: "Painted / by / Chas. Muller / 1893"18; View near Great Barrington, Mass. bought in New York. oil on board, 25.9 x 41.1 cm (10 3/16 x 16 3/16 in.) Olney no. 155 / 04.1091 Acquired before 1887; bears The Seer, 1893 [auction] label on back of frame: "250. Pope, N. canvas, 12.7 x 21.6 cm (5x81/2 in.) (dec'd.) View near Great Barrington, Mass." Olney no. 118 / (04.407) Bought in New York about 1893-95; sold r947- Pyne, Robert Lorraine (American, active 1856-1897) On the Bronx The Old Curiosity Shop canvas, 35.6 x 51.1 cm (14 x 20 1/8 in.) panel, 17.8 x 12.7 cm (7x5 in.) Olney no. 169 / 04.1198 Acquired before 1887, from Olney no. 49 Possibly identical to the painting the artist (according to label on back of frame). with this title exhibited at the National Academy of Design, 1885, no. 240 ($250.00).I9 Acquired Reh, Theodore (German, 19th century) before 1887; sold 1947. Gathering Flowers panel, 17.8 x 12.7 cm (7x5 in.) Olney no. 223 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947.

35 Rembrandt van Rijn, Paul [Spanish, 17th century] Rousseau, Pierre Etienne Theodore (French, 1812-1867) Look Not Upon the Wine When it is Red [Flemish unknown] canvas, 76.8 x 64.1 cm (30 1/4 x 25 1/4 in.) Landscape Olney no. 108 / (04.441) Acquired before 1887, as medium, dimensions unknown by Rembrandt. On inventory of 1908, Olney no. 143 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Rembrandt's name is crossed out and replaced by "Spanish School." Sold 1953 as Spanish, 17th Ryder, Piatt Powell (American, 1821-1896) century, "Portrait of a Man." Sabbath Morning canvas, 36.8 x 27.9 cm (14 1/2 x 11 in.) Reninger,A. (English, 19th century) Olney no. 208 / (04.436) Acquired before 1887; Banishment of the Princes by Richard TIL, 1852 sold 1947. oil on canvas, 64.8 x 49.5 cm (25 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.) Olney no. 65 / (04.422) Bought from Mr. Schelver, Victor (German, active 19th century) Beottincher for $500; sold 1947. Grandfather's Pet panel, 35.6 x 25.4 cm (14 x 10 in.) Ricci, Sebastiano (Italian, 1659-1734) [attributed to] Olney no. 47 Acquired before 1887; exh. 1894, The Lovers suppl. list C (as "Grandfather's Pipe"); sold 1947. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 51 Bought in New York, 1887; hand­ Schendel, Petrus van (Dutch, 1806-1870) written note on 1908 inventory: "destroyed no Market Scene value." medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 139 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated, Richards, Thomas Addison (American, 1820-1900) probably sold. Winooski Valley, Vermont canvas, 30.5 x 51.4 cm (12 x 20 1/4 in.) Schlesinger, Felix (German, 1833-1910) Olney no. 99 / (04.1199) Acquired before 1887; Have a Bite? sold 1947. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 42 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Rohde, Carl (German, 1840-1891) Sparrows Schneider, C. (Belgian) canvas, 39.4 x 48.9 cm (15 1/2 x 19 1/4 in.) The Source of the Brook No Olney number / (04.580) Sold 1947. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 218 "An oil painting representing a Romani, Juana (Italian, 1869-1924) scratching on wood"20; acquired before 1887. Judith, 1891 Unlocated. panel, 41.9 x 33 cm (16 1/2 x 13 in.) Olney no. 87 Bought in 1893; exh. Paris Salon Schneider, Heinrich-Justus (German, 1811-1884) 1891; exh. 1894, no. yj; sold 1947. The Forest Depths panel, 21 x 16.5 cm (8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.) Rosa, Salvator (Italian, 1615-1673) [Italian School, late 17th Olney no. 121 Bought 1890; sold 1947. century] Mercury Lulling Argus to Sleep Schonfeldt,Johann L. (German, 1609-1682/3) [after] canvas, 158.1 x 115.6 cm (62 1/4 x 45 1/2 in.) Lightning Fires from the Village [Thunderstorm in a Village], Olney no. 58 / 04.402 Acquired before 1887. 1660 canvas, 39.1 x 47 cm (15 3/8 x 18 1/2 in.) The Dancers Olney no. 61 / 04.444 Bought in 1899 for Mr. medium, dimensions unknown Olney by Mr. Littwitz, $125. Olney no. 190 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Scholz, Max (German, 1855-1906) Rosierse, Johannes (Dutch, 1818-1901) A Clerical Joke The Bird's Nest canvas, 48.3 x 61 cm (19 x 24 in.) canvas, 36.2 x 27.6 cm (14 1/4 x 10 7/8 in.) Olney no. 154 / (04.419) Acquired 1892; sold 1945. Olney no. 165 / 04.1225 Certificate of authenticity (made out by the artist, in Dordrecht) attached to Schuster the back of the stretcher. Acquired before 1887; Madonna and Child, 1785 exh. 1894, suppl. list H. ivory, 11.7 x 9.2 cm (4 5/8 x 3 5/8 in.) Olney no. 92 / 04.610 Acquired before 1887. Rossiter, Thomas P. (American, 1818-1871) Unlocated. The Lnlet [On the Hudson], after i860 canvas, 22.9 x 30.8 cm (9 x 12 1/8 in.) Schuster, Heinrich Rudolphe (German, b. 1848) Olney no. 30 / 04.1200 Acquired before 1887; bears Ave Maria paper label on back of frame: "'83 / Rossiter, T. P. canvas, 66 x 53.3 cm (26 x 21 in.) (dec'd.)...Ofl the Hudson." Olney no. 259 / (04.431) Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. 36 Jungfrau Stone, Benjamin Bellows Grant (American, 1829-1906) canvas, 51.4 x 61 cm (20 1/4 x 24 in.) Peep of the Hudson at the Home of Cole, ca. 1895 Olney no. 260 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. fiberboard, 18.7 x 26.7 cm (7 3/8 x 10 1/2 in.) Olney no. 187 / 04.1205 Given to Olney by his Semon,John (American, 1852-1917) brother, Mr. James Olney, 1896. The artist's diary The Wheat Field entry for December 22, 1895 reads: "J. B. Olney $15 canvas, 39.4 x 62.2 cm (15 1/2 x 24 1/2 in.) for 6 x ? picture sent to Olney Gallery, Cleveland, Olney no. 195 / 04.585 Bought 1896. O."22

Setteck Fire in the Kaaterskill Clove, before 1897 Moonlight medium, dimensions unknown etching Olney no. 197 Annotation on list of paintings (ca. Olney no. 25 Bought 1901. Unlocated. 1907-08): "bought in New York 1895 of Mr. Stone, a friend; Mr. Stone was a dear friend of Mr. Severdonck, Frans van (Belgian, 1809-1899) Olney's brother in Catskill NY. & Mr. Olney Sheep beside the Pool used to visit Mr. Stone in his studio there." medium, dimensions unknown However, Stone's diary entry for April 14,1897 Olney no. 171 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. notes: "Sent picture of'Forest Fire in Kaaterskill Clove' to Mr. Olney, Cleveland, Ohio by Express." Shattuck, Aaron Draper (American, 1832-1928) Unlocated. The Hudson River canvas, 15.6 x 30.5 cm (6 1/8 x 12 in.) Stradevine, A. Olney no. 141 / 04.588 Acquired before 1887. Sunset medium, dimensions unknown Going Down for a Drink Olney no. 12 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. canvas, 31.8 x 47 cm (12 1/2 x 18 1/2 in.) Olney no. 79 / (04.1201) Acquired before 1887; Strij, Abraham van (Dutch, 1753-1826) sold 1953. The Old Monks {Elderly Couple), 1810 panel, 22.9 x 17.8 cm (9x7 in.) Smith, Rufus Way (American, 1840-1900) Olney no. 115 / (04.433) Acquired before 1887; Noontide Rest, 1884 sold 1947. canvas, 62.2 x 101.6 cm (24 1/2 x 40 in.) Olney no. 76 / (04.409) Belonged to Mrs. Lamson Suydam, James A. (American, 1817-1865) before 1887, purchased for $400; sold 1947. Sunset in the Valley medium unknown, oval, 17.8 x 14 cm (7x51/2 in.) Death of Bruin in the Forest Depths, 1884 Olney no. 18 / (04.1203) Acquired before 1887; canvas, 61 x 101.6 cm (24 x 40 in.) sold 1947. Olney no. 200 Belonged to Mrs. Lamson before 1887, purchased for $350; sold 1947. Teniers, David the Elder (Flemish, 1582-1649) Temptation of St. Anthony Smith, Thomas Lochlan (American, 1835-1884) panel, 26.7 x 22.5 cm (10 1/2 x 8 7/8 in.) Landscape: Twilight in the Mountains, 1885 [sic]21 Olney no. 116 / (04.400) Acquired before 1887; canvas, 37.5 x 27.9 cm (14 3/4 x 11 in.) exh. 1894, no. 18; sold 1953. Olney no. 78 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Teniers, David (Flemish, 1610-1690) Sonntag, William Louis (American, 1822-1900) Beware of the Cup Coming Storm in the Adirondacks medium, dimensions unknown canvas, 41 x 61.5 cm (16 1/8 x 24 3/16 in.) Olney no. 117 Acquired before 1887; exh. 1894, Olney no. 101 / 04.1202 Acquired before 1887. no. 19. Appraisal of 1909 describes as "copy, in bad condition."23 Unlocated, probably sold. Autumn on the Androscoggin canvas, 23.2 x 35.7 cm (9 1/8 x 14 1/16 in.) Tensfeld,John (American, active late 19th century) Olney no. 77 / 04.1093 Acquired before 1887. Sunset Scene [View on the Delaware], 1879 oil on paperboard, 20.3 x 30.8 cm (8 x 12 1/8 in.) Spohler, Jacob Jan Coenraad (Dutch, 1837-1923) Olney no. 1 / 04.1218 On the Rhine panel, 7.6 x 14 cm (3x5 1/2 in.) Throssell, Miss Alice (American) Olney no. 225 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. The Rural Home medium, dimensions unknown Staveren,Johan Adriaenszvan (Dutch, 1613/4-1669) Olney no. 19 Bought 1888. Unlocated. The Hermit panel, 15.2 x 21.6 cm (6x8 1/2 in.) Olney no. 97 Bought 1887; sold 1947.

37 Tojetti, Virgilio (Italian, active New York, 1859-1901) Weiss, Emile George (French, b. 1861) Cupid's Games: Before the Dance Reading the Cook's Credentials Cupid's Games: After the Dance canvas, 45.7 x 39.4 cm (18 x 15 in.) panel, 6.4 x 24.8 cm (2 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.) each Olney no. 86 Bought 1891, New York; exh. 1894, Olney no. 128,129 / (04.435) Notation on 1907-08 suppl. list B (as "Applying for a Position"); sold list of paintings: "designed for the Vanderbilts." 1947, as "The New Serving Girl." Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. West,Johannes Hendrickvan (Dutch, 1803-1881) Street in Antwerp Turner, Joseph Mallord William (English, 1775-1851) panel, 15.9 x 21 cm (6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.) [attributed to] Olney no. 26 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Evening View of Wreck ojfYarmouth panel, 33 x 48.3 cm (13 x 19 in.) Wex, Willibald Karlstein (German, 1831-1892) Olney no. 60 Purchased at auction in New York, Sunset Hour 1896; sold 1953. panel, 17.8 x 26.7 cm (7 x 10 1/2 in.) Olney no. 89 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. D'Unker, Carl (German, 1828-1866) The Toast Wiggins, J. Carleton (American, 1848-1932) medium, dimensions unknown Among the Berkshires Olney no. 152 Bought 1888. Unlocated. panel, 11.4 x 17.1 cm (4 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.) Olney no. 172 / (04.426) Acquired before 1887; Verboeckhoven, Eugene Joseph (Belgian, 1799-1881) sold 1947. The Pets panel, 23.5 x 31.8 cm (9 1/4 x 12 1/2 in.) Sunset [Landscape with Cattle] Olney no. 132 / (04.608) Bought 1891; sold 1953. canvas, 17.8 x 29.2 cm (7 x 11 1/2 in.) Olney no. 33 / (04.439) Acquired before 1887; Verriven,J. sold 1947. The Wood Interior medium, dimensions unknown Willard, Archibald (American, 1836-1918) Olney no. 41 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated. Deacon Jones' Experience, ca. 1873 canvas, 40.6 x 58.4 cm (16 x 23 in.) Vesin.JaroslavFr. Julius (Austrian, 1859-1915) Olney no. 43 / 04.1220 Purchased by Olney from Twixt Two Fires James F. Ryder in Cleveland, 1893. medium unknown, 53.3 x 88.9 cm (21 x 35 in.) Olney no. 198 / (04.417) Bought 1888; exh. Munich Woodward, Laura (American, active late 19th century) 1890; exh. 1894 no. 32; sold (n.d.). Beside the Brook in Autumn oil on board, 31.8 x 48.3 cm (12 1/2 x 19 in.) Vittovio (Italian, 19th century) Olney no. 150 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. A Present After the Harvest watercolor, 38.1 x 53.3 cm (15 x 21 in.) Wouwerman, Philips (Dutch, 1619-1684) [school or copy] Olney no. 242 / 04.413 Bought from Littwitz, Preparing for the Chase 1898. Unlocated. medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 210 "This picture was the property of Voit, H. (French, 19th century) Empress Eugenie during her residency at The Cliffs at Dover Chiselhurst, in London. When she left London, oil on board, 14 x 20.3 cm (5 1/2 x 8 in.) this picture with her other effects, was sold."24 Olney no. 96 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. Acquired before 1887. Unlocated.

Lake Lucerne Wyngaert, Anthonie Jacobus van (Dutch, 1808-1887) oil on board, 15.2 x 23.5 cm (6x9 1/4 in.) Shepherdess and her Flock Olney no. 184 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947. panel, 12.1 x 27.3 cm (4 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.) Olney no. 183 / (04.1094) Acquired before 1887; Wall, Alfred S. (American, 1809-1896) sold 1947. An October Landscape oil on board, 31.8 x 45.7 cm (12 1/2 x 18 in.) Ziem, Felix (French, 1821-1911) Olney no. 166 / (04.1204) Acquired before 1887; Grand Canal, Venice sold 1947. panel, 26.7 x 27.3 cm (10 1/2 x 10 3/4 in.) Olney no. 7 / 04.405 Purchased 1890 Watteau.Jean Antoine (French, 1684-1721) [German, 19th century?] Shepherd's Serenade canvas, 73.7 x 61 cm (29 x 24 in.) Olney no. 66 / 04.595 Acquired before 1887.

38 Anonymous (Monogrammed "HB") (German, 19th century) Scene in the Mosel Valley, 1872 canvas, 44.5 x 49.5 cm (17 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.) Not on Olney list / 04.1209 Probably acquired 1887 or later.25 Old label on stretcher: "Partie aus dem Moselthal No. 1830 Litr."; paper label on frame: "1264 / Beers Brothers / Broadway, N. Y."

Anonymous An Indian Princess copper, 17.8 x 14.6 cm (7x5 3/4 in.) Olney no. 20 / 04.613 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated.

Anonymous (French, 19th century) Gardeur [The Guard] panel, 24.1 x 20.3 cm (91/2x8 in.) Olney no. 138 Bought 1887; sold 1947.

Anonymous Bit of Italian Landscape medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 207 Brought back from Rome. Unlocated.

Anonymous (French, ca. 1830) Children's Sports; Boots and Saddles oil on metal, 25.4 x 21.6 cm (10 x 8 1/2 in.) Olney no. 222 Acquired before 1887; sold 1947.

Anonymous Tropical Scene on tin, oval, 7.3 x 12.4 cm (2 7/8 x 4 7/8 in.) Olney no. 27 Acquired before 1887. Unlocated.

Anonymous Mr. Olney and his Brothers medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 39 Unlocated.

Anonymous Portrait of Mr. Olney's Father medium, dimensions unknown Olney no. 263 "Enlarged from photograph." Unlocated.

39 Notes to the Appendix

i. Description of the painting from 12. A painting by William Hart from 23. Appraisal of paintings by Walter Olney's catalogue card (at Allen Olney's collection, entitled "Indian Rowlands, Boston, March 1909. Memorial Art Museum); compare Summer Sunshine," was exhibited at Brooks's Full of Old Curiosities, signed the Art Loan Exhibition in 1894 (no. 24. Olney catalogue card. and dated 1890 (private collection), 35). It is not possible to determine if which has a five dollar bill, orchestra this refers to one of the paintings listed 25. A paper label on the (original) frame ticket stub, and clipping; or the Fifty in the inventory or to another work. identifies the maker as Beers Brothers Dollar Bill on the Bank of Augusta, 1890 framers, at 1264 Broadway; the firm is (private collection), which also includes 13. Olney catalogue card. listed for the first time at this address an orchestra ticket stub and a one-cent in the New York City Directory of stamp (exh. cat. New York 1988, nos. 2 14. Appraisal of paintings by Walter 1887/88. Several other paintings in and 5 respectively). Rowlands, Boston, March 1909. The the Olney collection were also framed painting was still at Oberlin College in by Beers. 2. Appraisal of paintings by Walter 1965. Rowlands, Boston, March 1909. 15. Olney catalogue card. 3. As purchased in 1893, according to notation on list. 16. Olney catalogue card. Kittell was a folk painter of mostly portraits. 4. Olney catalogue card. 17. Possibly the painting with the same 5. Olney catalogue card. title now in the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina. 6. Probably Charles S. Judd, Mrs. Olney's nephew, who inherited the 18. Handwritten note on inventory list Olneys' house on Jennings Avenue. erroneously states that this picture was purchased in New York in 1890. 7. The annotated list of paintings erro­ neously states that this painting was 19. No dimensions are given in the purchased in 1888. catalogue of the National Academy of Design exhibition, so it is not possible 8. Although the annotated list of to determine if the exhibited work was paintings states that this picture was that in the Olney collection. Cf. the purchased in 1890, Bruce Chambers has newspaper clipping included in determined that the treasury signatures Nicholas Brooks's Still Life with on the bills indicate a date for the Handbill (inv. 04.593), which reads in painting of 1891 or later (letter dated part: "When the artist Chas. Muller April 8, 1996). made a sketch of Gen. Robert Fullerton's Old English Curiosity Shop, 9. Possibly the painting exhibited at the and afterwards put on canvas the National Academy of Design (New picture that attracted the eye of York), 1876, no. 419, "On the River millionaire Mitchell of Milwaukee; it Elbe—Austria, $45.00." increased his reputation and put the snug sum of $250. in his pocket." Bruce 10. Olney catalogue card. Chambers (in exh. cat. New York 1988, pp. 60-62) has identified the work 11. An unidentified newspaper clipping referred to by Brooks as this painting in the Cleveland Institute of Art scrap- (formerly) in Olney's collection. book # 1, p. 17, erroneously identifies the painting exhibited at Ryder's as 20. Olney catalogue card. "Farmington Valley." 21. Olney catalogue card as "signed TLS 1888."

22. Information from Stone's diaries cited in this and the following entry were kindly communicated by Mr. Raymond Beecher, Vedder Memorial Research Library, Coxsackie, New York (letter dated June 11,1996).

40

Charles Olney, Charles Freer, and the History of Asian Art Collecting in America

Of the nearly 1300 objects from Charles F. techniques of craftsmanship (often with seeming­ Olney's collection that in 1904 were accessioned ly little regard for aesthetic quality or art into (what would become) the Allen Memorial historical importance), we find that the balance Art Museum, nearly one-half were Asian. of the objects in his collection almost perfectly Consisting primarily of decorative arts, these reflects the dominant trends in Asian art collect­ objects included ceramics, bronzes, ivories, jades, ing in turn of the century America. enamels, and lacquers, as well as smaller numbers Among the better quality Asian objects from of items representing less important crafts. The Olney's collection there is a preponderance of high proportion of Asian objects in the Olney Meiji-period (1868-1912) Japanese decorative arts. bequest poses an interesting question: how did a These include a number of exquisitely decorated schoolteacher from New York and Ohio, who "Satsuma-ware" ceramics (fig. 1), intricately never visited the Far East, come to amass such a carved ivories (fig. 2), superbly cast bronzes (fig. significant collection of Asian art during the last 3), and finely crafted enamels (fig. 4). Olney's quarter of the nineteenth century? To answer this apparent admiration for Meiji decorative arts was question, we must first understand how Olney's a trait shared with many other late nineteenth- collection relates to the historical development century American collectors of Asian art. The of Asian art collecting in America at the turn of reason why Olney and so many other Americans the century. In this regard, it is instructive to at that time so avidly collected contemporary contrast Olney's collection with the one hundred Japanese art can be explained by the confluence pieces of Asian art given to Oberlin College by of the Meiji restoration in Japan with the Charles L. Freer in 1912. The juxtaposition of tremendous popularity of world's fairs and these two nearly contemporaneous, but very expositions in the West from the r870s to the different, collections within the Allen Memorial early 1900s. Art Museum offers an excellent case study for Prior to the 1870s, relatively few Americans examining how American perceptions of Asian collected Asian art, and most of those who did art and culture evolved during the late nineteenth were wealthy men with personal or family and early twentieth centuries. 1 connections to the Far East. However, this situa­ Olney's eye for Asian objects was as unselec- tion changed quickly after 1868, when the newly tive as his taste in Western art, and a substantial restored Meiji imperial government initiated a proportion of his Asian pieces were little better series of efforts to modernize Japan and enhance than souvenirs, trinkets, and curios. However, the nation's standing in the eyes of the Western once these trivial items are discounted as the by­ powers. One way they hoped to accomplish this products of Olney's obsession with collecting was by encouraging, and in some instances subsi­ representative samples of different materials and dizing, Japanese artists to exhibit at the various

43 L^/?.' /7'i^. 2. Japanese, Meiji period, signed Ichiryusai (unidentified), Thatched Cottage ;ures, ivory, 14.3 cm high, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.74, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Decorative ivory sculpture (okimono.) had precedents in traditional Japanese culture, but only developed into an important art form during the Meiji period, primarily in response to the patronage of Western audiences. As the intricate carving on this piece illustrates, ivory is particularly well-suited to the painstaking craftsmanship that late nineteenth-century European and American collectors found so charming in Asian art. The genre subject of this carving—a traditional rural Japanese thatched cottage—is also typical of Meiji okimono made for Western audiences.

Below: Fig. 3. Japanese, Meiji period (1868- 1)12), Dragon-Form Incense Burner, bronze, in. 8 cm high, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.723, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Traditional Japanese metalworkers were especially adversely affected by the dissolution of the samurai class and the decline of Buddhist patronage that followed the Meiji restoration of 1868. Hoping to appeal to new markets in Europe and America, many Meiji metalsmiths turned to making bronze and iron sculptures, a venture that proved to be very successful. ••• Japanese bronzes were among the most popular •; ?:1: j objects exhibited in Vienna in 1873 and •^-?- -^ ~ "-> Philadelphia in 1876. This dragon reveals a Wl combination of traditional Japanese and Western influences, and was probably created for export to one of the late nineteenth century world's fairs or expositions. It originally supported an incense basin that rested on a •j A^JJ J pedestal emerging from the dragon's mouth.

Opposite: Fig. 4. Japanese, Meiji period (1868- 1)12), Decorative Plate with Bird Design, cloisonne'd copper with polychrome enamels, 30.3 cm diam., Gift of Charles F. Olney, 04.1007, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Cloisonne', the technique of decorating metal objects with vitrified enamels, was introduced into Japan around 1600 from China (the Chinese, in turn, had learned the technique from the West via the Islamic world). In • Japan, cloisonne was traditionally used to deco­ rate small functional objects like door-pulls, water droppers, and sword furniture. However, as the popularity of Asian cloisonne increased in the West during the late nine­ teenth century, Meiji craftsmen began making bigger, more decorative pieces with bright colors Br i and vigorous designs. Objects like the plate illustrated here were scorned by most connois­ seurs in Japan, but were very much admired by collectors in Europe and America. world's fairs and expositions that were being held cultural divide between East and West. The every few years in major cities across Europe and combination of Asian and Western influences America at that time. made these objects simultaneously exotic yet The first substantial display of Japanese arts familiar, and they generated tremendous enthusi­ and crafts in the West appeared at the 1873 asm for (if not deep understanding of) Asian art Vienna World's Fair.2 The Japanese contributions and culture among American audiences at that to this event were carefully vetted by the Meiji time. Charles Olney's collection is a perfect illus­ government to highlight the technical skill, inge­ tration of this phenomenon. Although he nuity, and industriousness of Japanese craftsmen. acquired most of his pieces from dealers (with Moreover, the government discouraged displays the exception of several ceramics he bought at of traditional-style Japanese arts and crafts in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in favor of contemporary, Western-oriented objects Chicago), nearly every Asian piece in his collec­ that they believed would appeal to Western tastes tion reflects the type of object that became and make the popular and Westerners more available in the sympathetic toward West as a direct Japan. The Meiji result of the government's strate­ world's fairs in gy worked, and the the late nine­ Japanese displays in teenth century. Vienna were An excellent received with enthu­ example of the siastic acclaim. Their type of Asian art success at the 1873 in Olney's collec­ World's Fair was tion is a Meiji- followed by equally period Japanese well received appear­ bronze incense ances at numerous burner in the subsequent fairs and form of a dragon expositions, includ­ (fig. 3). Its large ing Philadelphia size (almost four in 1876, Paris in 1889 feet tall without and 1900, Chicago the basin), tour- in 1893, and St. de-force display Louis in 1904. As of technical skill, Japan's export art and typically industry flourished, "Oriental" subject the popularity of Japanese art generated enthusi­ are all common characteristics of the Japanese asm for the arts of other Asian countries as well exposition-style objects made for Western 4 (primarily China and Korea), and Asian art audiences at that time. Although there were became increasingly common in American art precedents for bronze sculpture within traditional and antique shops during the waning years of the Japanese culture, the overall effect of this piece is nineteenth century. 3 much more in accord with the late Victorian tastes that dominated European and American The sudden increase in the visibility and culture at that time. Similar qualities may be availability of Japanese and other Asian art observed in most of the other Japanese objects brought about by these fairs greatly impacted the from Olney's collection. Like the dragon, the American public's appreciation of Asian art and "Satsuma-ware" ceramics, ivory carvings, culture. At a time when most Americans still had lacquers, and enamels Olney gave to Oberlin very little experience with and understanding of College all reveal him to be one who collected Asian culture, the Meiji decorative arts popular­ Asian art very much with a Western eye. Even ized by the world's fairs helped bridge the

45 I the non-Japanese Asian art in his collection (figs however, Freer was not content merely to collect 5 and 6) tended to be richly colored or ornately the Asian decorative arts that filled the shops of carved in styles that were compatible with the art dealers in America at that time, and in 1894 rather rococo tastes and fondness for exuberant he embarked on his first trip to Asia to learn decoration Olney shared with many of his about traditional Asian art and culture first hand. contemporaries. Altogether Freer made five journeys to Asia In preferring Asian art that was familiar to between 1894 and 1911. Between his travels, he his own Western tastes, Charles Olney was like continued his close association with Fenollosa, most collectors in America at the turn of the Edward Morse (1838-1925), and many of the other century. However, at approximately the same leading experts on Asian culture of his day. As a time, there emerged a result of these new breed of contacts and his American collectors personal experi­ whose tastes were ences, Charles more sympathetic to Freer became a very the genres of Asian different type of art that were tradi­ Asian art collector tionally appreciated than Charles and collected within Olney. Whereas Asia. One of the Olney collected most important of Eastern art with a these new collectors Western eye, Freer's was Charles Lang tastes were much Freer (1854-1919). more conditioned Charles Freer was by traditional Asian a self-made million­ culture. Whereas aire from Detroit Olney bought who began collecting primarily contem­ art in order to add porary Japanese cultural prestige to decorative arts, his already consider­ Freer made great able wealth.5 efforts to expand Uninterested in the scope of his collection typologically, chronologically, and emulating the European model of collecting Old geographically.7 Thus, Freer's collection gradually Masters, Freer initially collected the work of came to encompass a broad range of Asian contemporary American artists like Thomas objects including paintings, prints, sculpture, Wilmer Dewing, Abbot Thayer, and James bronzes, and other arts from diverse periods in McNeill Whistler. It was through his contacts the histories of Japan, China, Korea, India, and with Whistler that Freer, in about 1890, first Central Asia. Although in hindsight it is easy to developed an interest in Asian art. He soon met see that Freer's connoisseurship of Asian art was Ernest Fenollosa (1853-T908), a philosophy far from infallible, nevertheless he still managed professor whose years of study in Japan (inspired to amass the most important Asian art collection in part by the Japanese displays at the 1876 in America at that time, a collection which still Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia) had by ranks among the most important in the Western the 1890s transformed him into America's fore­ 6 hemisphere today. most authority on Asian art. Under the combined influences of Whistler, Fenollosa, and As Freer's reputation as a collector and the renewed enthusiasm for Japanese art generat­ connoisseur continued to increase during the first ed by the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in decade of this century, he felt a sense of mission Chicago, Freer quickly developed a passion for to share with others some of the pleasure and Asian art. Unlike most of his contemporaries, knowledge he had gained from Asian art. Thus

47 began a series of gifts and subsidized sales of arts collected by Olney, and it reveals why Freer's works from his collection to museums in gift was especially valuable to Oberlin in the Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, context of that time. With the addition of the New York, and of course, Washington, D.C., the Freer objects, Oberlin College in 1912 must have last of which became the nucleus of today's Freer possessed one of the strongest, if not the Gallery of Art. Oberlin College was another strongest, collegiate collections of Asian art in the institution to benefit from Freer's generosity In entire United States. 1910, a representative from Oberlin asked Freer Because Freer's more sophisticated approach to if he would be willing to contribute to the hold­ Asian art has ultimately contributed more than ings of Asian art the college had so recently Charles Olney's to the evolution of modern schol­ 8 received from Charles Olney. Freer responded arship on Asian art, it naturally attracts our positively, and in 1912 he personally selected from sympathies. Yet, although in retrospect Olney may his collection and gave to Oberlin one hundred seem to be the more superficial of the two collec­ Chinese, Japanese, tors, in fact he and Korean paint­ represents an ings, ceramics, and important initial 9 sculptures. This stage in the group included a opening of number of fine land­ Western minds scape paintings (fig. to the possibility 7), Japanese ceramics of enjoying Asian (fig. 8), and art. Indeed, it is Buddhist religious difficult to images (fig. 9) of the imagine that the sort that could not more endogenous be easily acquired in approach to the West at that understanding time. Although not Asian art every object Freer represented by gave to Oberlin was men like Freer could ever have existed or developed had it not of the highest quality (the inventory reveals that been for the collectors of Olney's generation who some of the items were known to be copies and transformed Asian art collecting from a preserve were intended primarily to be study pieces), his of the few into a passion for the many. gift nevertheless added important dimensions to the Oberlin collection which had not been Thus, in addition to containing many fine addressed by the pieces from Olney's bequest. individual works of art, the Olney and Freer A good example of the better-quality Asian collections within the Allen Memorial Art pieces from the Freer collection now in the Allen Museum embody two very different types of Memorial Art Museum is a landscape hanging Asian art collecting from turn of the century scroll by Tani Buncho (fig. 7). Buncho was a late America, and in this respect they reflect an impor­ master of the Nanga school, a name given to tant stage in this country's broader historical those Japanese painters who self-consciously relationship to Asia and Asian culture. Although imitated the painting styles of earlier Chinese in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literati artists. As the Buncho scroll illustrates, America anti-Asian exclusion laws were in effect Nanga paintings are often painted in a flat, unre­ and bigoted acts of racial intolerance and violence alistic style that, together with the traditional were still all too common, the art collections of Chinese subject matter, often requires viewers to men like Charles Olney and Charles Freer possess a substantial knowledge of Chinese and demonstrate that American attitudes toward Japanese culture to appreciate fully. Both aesthet­ Asian culture were gradually changing for the ically and art historically, the Buncho painting is better.10 Admittedly, the growing interest in worlds away from the type of Asian decorative collecting Asian art was not the same as, nor did

49

Notes it immediately lead to, genuine acceptance and 1. A more detailed account of the history of Asian art understanding of Asian cultures and peoples collecting in America may be found in Warren I. Cohen, East Asian Art and American Culture (New among all Americans at that time. Nevertheless, York, ^92). the collections of men like Olney and Freer at least represented a willingness on the part of 2. For more information about Meiji-period Japanese some Americans to look beyond their own art and its connections to Western culture, readers culture, the previous lack of which had been one may consult Frederick Baekeland, in exh. cat. Ithaca, of the most troublesome barriers between East Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Imperial Japan: The Art of the Meiji Era (1868- and West during the nineteenth century. Men 1)12) (1980). like Olney and Freer mark the beginning of the end of American cultural insularity with regard 3. Ibid., pp. 19-22. to Asia, and thus their collections are especially appropriate for Oberlin College, which has a 4. Ibid., p. 18. long-held commitment to building respectful understanding among diverse groups of people.11 5. Freer's life and his importance as a collector of Asian art are detailed in Thomas Lawton and Linda There is a sad postscript to the history of the Merrill, Freer: A Legacy in Art (Washington, D.C., Olney and Freer collections at Oberlin. From the 1993). Also, see Cohen (as in note 1), pp. 49-64. 1940s to the 1960s, the museum sold or otherwise disposed of all but a fraction of Olney's Asian 6. For a more complete biography of Fenollosa, read objects and nearly half of the Freer pieces. It is Lawrence W. Chisholm, Fenollosa: The Far East and heartbreaking to read through the records of the American Culture (New Haven, ^63). Also, Cohen (as in note 1), chapters 1 and 2. Asian objects that left the museum during those decades: signed Meiji-period Japanese ceramics, 7. To be fair to Olney, he too probably tried to acquire ivories, bronzes and enamels, as well as Qing diverse forms of Asian art, but was hampered by his dynasty Chinese porcelains, bronzes and lacquers limited experience with Asian art and by what was from the Olney collection; a number of Japanese available to him in the United States at that time. ceramics and thirty-four Chinese and Japanese 8. The earliest correspondence known to me between paintings from the Freer collection. These deac- Oberlin College and Charles Freer is a letter from cessions occurred at a time when later (especially Charles Williams, Assistant to the President of nineteenth-century) Chinese and Japanese art Oberlin College, to Freer dated April 29,1910. It is was out of favor with most art historians and preserved in the Oberlin College Archives. museum curators in the United States. As tragic as the loss of these objects now seems, it 9. The exact breakdown of objects is as follows: sixty paintings, thirty-seven ceramics, two bronzes, and one represents yet another chapter in the history wood carving. The inventory that accompanied the of Asian art collecting in this country. Thus, gift is preserved in the Oberlin College Archives. even in their diminished forms, the Olney and Freer collections in the Allen Memorial Art 10. For discussions of anti-Asian sentiments and Museum constitute valuable historical evidence actions in America, see Roger Daniels, Asian America: of America's changing perceptions of Asian art Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1830 (Seattle, 1988), and Wu Cheng-tsu, "Chink!"A and culture since the turn of the century. Documentary History of Anti-Chinese Prejudice in America (New York, 1972). Charles Q^ Mason, 12. As the preceding article by Wieseman discusses, Curator of Asian Art Charles Olney left his collection to the college Allen Memorial Art Museum because he had the "highest regard" for Oberlin's prin­ ciples. Although Charles Freer never described his views of the college in such explicit terms, it is clear from the correspondence preceding his gift that he too admired Oberlin's moral reputation and educational

51 Acquisitions Paintings Sculpture Fiscal Year 1994-1995 Du Chen [Du Jianlong, Saul Baizerman, Du Ying], Chinese, American, 1889-1957 active early 20th century September, ^50-57 Rubbing and Painting of Lacquered copper, Zhou Bronze Vessel hammered Hanging scroll, ink and 87.6 cm (34 1/2 in.), color on silk height with base 73.5 x 39.2 cm (28 15/16 x Gift of John N. Stern, 15 7/16 in.) 94.65 Art Museum Gift Fund, 94.40 Ellen Garvens, American, b. 1955 Huang Binhong, St. Sebastian, 1993 Chinese, 1864-1955 Copper tubing with MarkTobeyA Landscape, 1940s photo attachment American, 1890-1976 Hanging scroll, ink and 81.3 x 43.2 x 16.5 cm (32 x The Legend, 1946 color on paper 17 x 6 1/2 in.) Tempera on board 99.1 x 33.7 cm (39 x Horace W. Goldsmith 20.3 x 15.9 cm 13 1/4 in.) (8x6 1/4 in.) Foundation R.T. Miller,Jr. Fund, Gift of Ina Jean Photography Fund, •4 94-10 Kornblith, 94.13 94.14 A-C V Huang Shanshou, Wang Ti, Chinese, Chinese, 1855-1919 1878-1960 Artist Painting a Dragon Fan Hanging scroll, ink and Fan painting, ink on color on silk paper in.1 x 50.8 cm (43 3/4 x 19.1 x 52.1 cm (7 r/2 x 20 in.) 20 1/2 in.) Art Museum Gift Fund, Gift of Karen and Leon 94.50 Wender, 94.r2 James Hyde, American, Wu Changshuo, b. 1958 Chinese, 1844-1927 Set, T993-94 Flowers Fresco painting on Fan painting, ink and styrofoam with metal color on paper support x 2 x : cm 20 x 20.4 cm (7 7/8 x 182.9 74-3 9 -4 8 1/16 in.) Jackie Ferrara, (72 x 108 x 36 in.) Art Museum Gift Fund, American, b. 1929 Gift of Robert J. 94.42 Schiffler, 94.44 Pyryard, i^isi Birch and poplar Xu Shichang, Chinese, Ren Xiong, Chinese, 15 x 88.8 x 38 cm (5 7/8 x 1858-1937 1823-1857 34 15/16 x 14 15/16 in.) Calligraphy Couplet Standing Beauty, 1854 Gift of the Artist, 94.18 Ink on yellow paper (Qing Dynasty) 243.8 x 50.8 cm (96 x Hanging scroll, ink on 20 in.), each Rebecca Horn, German, silk Charles F. Olney Fund, b. 1944 85.1 x 31.7 cm (33 1/2 x 94.11.1-2 Swan Ladder, 1994 12 1/2 in.) Swan's feather in metal Art Museum Gift Fund, frame box, with glass 94-53 funnel, ink, glass windows and mirror 37.1 x 20.7 x 8.3 cm (14 5/8 x 8 1/8 x 3 1/4 in.) Art Museum Gift Fund, 94.41

52 Gerhard Marcks, Graphite and colored Carter Kustera, Sherrie Levine, German, b. 1889 pencil Canadian, b. 1962 American, b. 1947 Nude Holding Braid 431 x 559 mm (16 15/16 x Richard is a father and a Untitled (after Fernand {Zophaltende) 22 in.) drag queen (from Leger), 1983 Bronze Oberlin Friends of Art America's Most Wanting), Watercolor 55.3 cm (21 3/4 in.) high Fund, 94.19 1993 35.6 x 28 cm (14 x 11 in.) Gift of John N. Stern, Flashe and pencil Transferred from the 95.22 Eva Hesse, American, 762 x 508 mm (30 x Rental Collection to the 1936-1970 20 in.) permanent collection via Claudia Matzko, Untitled, ca. 1963 Roush Fund for the R.T. Miller, Jr. American, b. 1956 Watercolor, gouache, Contemporary Art, Fund, 94.37 Untitled, 1994 and pencil on notebook 94.16.1 531 acrylic modules, paper Andy Warhol, silicone 280 x 355 mm Carter Kustera, American, i928?-i987 H3-5 x 335.5 cm (56 1/2 x (11 x 14 in.) Canadian, b. 1962 I Dream offeannie with 132 in.) Gift of the Eva Hesse August raises family as the Light Brown Shoes, Roush Fund for Estate to the Rental racists (from America's 1955 (from the portfolio Contemporary Art, Collection; transferred Most Wanting), 1993 A la recherche du shoe 94.38 to the permanent collec­ Flashe and pencil perdu) tion via the R. T. Miller, 762 x 508 mm (30 x Watercolor Jr. Fund, 94.33 20 in.) 248 x 348 mm (9 3/4 x Drawings Roush Fund for 13 11/16 in.) Eva Hesse, American, Contemporary Art, Transferred from the Ross Bleckner, 1936-1970 94.16.2 Rental Collection to the American, b. 1949 Untitled, ca. 1963 permanent collection via Untitled, 1993 Watercolor, gouache, Carter Kustera, the R.T. Miller, Jr. Watercolor, inks, and and pencil Canadian, b. 1962 Fund, 94.31 wax on paper, in painted 227 x 328 mm (8 15/16 x Carrie says parents should wooden frame 9 in.) let teens have sex at home Taiso Yoshitoshi, 29 x 23 cm (11 7/16 x Gift of the Eva Hesse (from America's Most Japanese, 1839-1892 9 i/r6 in.) Estate to the Rental Wanting), 1993 Two Sketches: Shoeseller Art Museum Gift Fund, Collection; transferred Flashe and pencil with Family, ca. 1880 94.60 to the permanent collec­ 762 x 508 mm (30 x Red and black ink tion via the R. T. Miller, 20 in.) 350 x 250 mm (13 3/4 x Richard Diebenkorn, Jr. Fund, 94.34 Roush Fund for 9 13/16 in.) American, 1922-1993 Contemporary Art, Art Museum Gift Fund, Untitled, 1954 Eva Hesse, American, 94.16.3 94-55 Watercolor, crayon, and 1936-1970 colored pencil Untitled, ca. 1961 Carter Kustera, Taiso Yoshitoshi, 36.8 x 29 cm (14 1/2 x Inks with wash Canadian, b. 1962 Japanese, 1839-1892 11 7/16 in.) ri5 x 153 mm (4 1/2 x Karen addicted to men Three Sketches: Standing Transferred from the 6 in.) (from America's Most Figure with Umbrella and Rental Collection to the Gift of the Eva Hesse Wanting), 1993 Lantern, ca. 1880 permanent collection via Estate to the Rental Flashe and pencil Red and black ink the R.T. Miller,Jr. Collection; transferred 762 x 508 mm (30 x 330 x 245 mm (13 x Fund, 94.27 to the permanent collec­ 20 in.) 9 5/8 in.) tion via the R. T. Miller, Roush Fund for Oberlin Friends of Art Sharon Ellis, American, Jr. Fund, 94.35 Contemporary Art, Fund, 94.56 b. 1955 94.16.4 Untitled, 1994 Eva Hesse, American, Taiso Yoshitoshi, Colored pencil on hand­ 1936-1970 Carter Kustera, Japanese, 1839-1892 made greeting card Untitled, ca. 1963 Canadian, b. 1962 Man and Woman with 212 x 214 mm (8 3/8 x Wash, ink, and gouache Cliff expects death to be Cat, ca. 1880 8 7/16 in.) 277 x 346 mm (10 7/8 x peaceful (from America's Red and black ink Gift of the Artist, 94.17 13 5/8 in.) Most Wanting), 1993 173 x 245 mm (6 13/16 x Gift of the Eva Hesse Flashe and pencil 9 5/8 in.) Jackie Ferrara, Estate to the Rental 762 x 508 mm (30 x Art Museum Gift Fund, American, b.1929 Collection; transferred 20 in.) 94-57 Drawing for Red Sands, to the permanent collec­ Roush Fund for 1994 tion via the R. T. Miller, Contemporary Art, Jr. Fund, 94.36 94.16.5 53 Taiso Yoshitoshi, Boetius Bolswert, Felix Bracquemond, Paul Cezanne, French, Japanese, 1839-1892 Dutch, 1580-1633, after French, 1833-1914 1839-1906 Four Sketches: Woman at David Vinckboons, Portrait ofEdmond de Portrait of Guillaumin, a Shrine, ca. 1880 Flemish, 1567-ca. 1632 Goncourt, 1882 1873 Red and black ink Exchange of Arrows Etching Etching 330 x 245 mm (13 x between Cupid and Death 510 x 337 mm (20 1/16 x 154 x 120 mm (6 1/16 x 9 5/8 in.) Engraving 13 1/4 in.) 4 3/4 in.) Charles F. Olney Fund, 275 x 363 mm (10 13/16 x Richard Lee Ripin Transferred from the 94.58 14 15/16 in.) Fund, 94.22 W Rental Collection to the Richard Lee Ripin permanent collection via Fund, 95.5 the R.T. Miller, Jr. Prints Fund, 94.25 Pierre Bonnard, French, Hans Sebald Beham, 1867-1947 Fran£ois Philippe German, 1500-1550 La Revue Blanche, 1894 Charpentier, French, Hercules Harries Troy Color lithograph 1734-1817, after Jean- with Many Wars, 1545 80.2 x 62 cm (31 9/16 x Honore Fragonard, (from The Labors of 24 7/16 in.) French, 1732-1806 Hercules, 1542-45) Transferred from the La Culbute (The Engraving Rental Collection to the Tumble) 51 x 78 mm permanent collection via Aquatint (2x3 1/16 in.) the R.T. Miller, Jr. 294 x 410 mm (11 9/16 x Richard Lee Ripin Print Fund, 94.26 16 1/8 in.) Fund, 94.51 Oberlin Friends of Art Abraham Bosse, French, Fund, 95.6 Claes Pietersz Berchem, 1602-1676 Marcus de Bye, Dutch, Dutch, 1620-1683 The Printing of 1639-after 1688, after Francesco Clemente, Two Sheep Engravings, 1642 Paulus Potter, Dutch, Italian, b. 1952 Etching Engraving 1625-1654 Sorrow, 1994 96 x 125 mm (3 3/4 x 4 259 x 322 mm (10 3/16 x Cow Chewing its Cud Photo-etching on hand­ 15/16 in.) 12 11/16 in.) Etching made vellum Gift of Frances Spence Art Museum Gift Fund, 109 x 143 mm (4 5/16 x 5 295 x 210 mm (11 5/8 x Hasse, 94.43.6 94-39 5/8 in.) 8 1/4 in.) Gift of Frances Spence Art Museum Gift Fund, Claes Pietersz Berchem, Louise Bourgeois, Hasse, 94.43.10 94-47 Dutch, 1620-1683 American, b. 1911 Animalia (series of six Ste. Sebastienne, 1992 Cornells Cort, prints) Drypoint Netherlandish, ca. 1533- Etching 120.6 x 94 cm (47 1/2 x 1578, after Girolamo 122 x 147 mm (4 13/16 x 37 in-) Muziano, Italian, 1528- 5 13/16 in.) each Art Museum Gift 1592 Gift of Frances Spence Fund, 94.63 ^ St. Eustace, 1573 Hasse, 94.43.7A-F Engraving 520 x 385 mm (20 1/2 x Claes Pietersz Berchem, 15 3/16 in.) Dutch, 1620-1683 Richard Lee Ripin Head of a Goat Fund, 94.48 Etching 85 x 72 mm (3 3/8 x Honore Daumier, 2 13/16 in.) French, 1808-1879 Gift of Frances Spence Nadar, e'levant la Hasse, 94.43.8 Photographic a la hauteur de TArt, from Souvenirs d Artistes Lithograph 270 x 225 mm (10 5/8 x 8 7/8 in.) R.T.Miller,Jr. Fund, 95-4

54 Sam Francis, American, John Pearson, American, Ernest H. Roth, Adriaen van de Velde, 1923-1994 b. 1940 American, 1879-1964 Dutch, 1636-1672 Untitled (Four Stones), Circle-Section Series/ Two Palaces, Venice, 1907 Two Recumbent Sheep, 1959-68 Invert PC, 1984 Etching 1670 Lithograph Screenprint 265 x 197 mm (10 7/16 x Etching 728 x 555 mm (28 11/16 x 484 x 635 mm (19 1/16 x 7 3/4 in-) 75 x 100 mm (2 15/16 x 21 7/8 in.) 25 in.) Gift of Frances Spence 3 15/16 in.) Gift of Frances Spence Gift of Frances Spence Hasse, 1994, 94-43-1 Gift of Frances Spence Hasse, 94.43.12 Hasse, 94.43.13 Hasse, 94.43.9 Edward Ruscha, Jacques Hnizdovsky, Pablo Picasso, Spanish, American, b. 1937 Claude Vignon, French, American, 1915-1985 1881-1973 Swarm of Red Ants (from 1593-1670 Ear of Corn, 1967 Au Cirque, 1905 the series Insects) La Predication de St. Jean Woodcut Drypoint Silkscreen (The Preaching of John 316 x 422 mm (12 7/16 x 220 x 140 mm (8 11/16 x 508 x 685 mm (20 x the Baptist) 16 5/8 in.) 5 1/2 in.) 26 15/16 in.) Etching Gift of Frances Spence Transferred from the Transferred from the 35 x 229 mm (12 13/16 Hasse, 94.43.2 Rental Collection to the Rental Collection to the x 9 in.) permanent collection via permanent collection via Richard Lee Ripin Wolfgang Laib, the R.T. Miller,Jr. the R.T. Miller,Jr. Fund, 95.7 German, b. 1950 Fund, 94.24 Fund, 94.32 A Wax Room for a Johannes (Joris) van Mountain, 1994 Robert Rauschenberg, John Sloan, American, Vliet, Dutch, active ca. Silkscreen and oilstick American, b. 1925 1871-1951 1628-1637 493 x 410 mm (19 7/16 x Stunt Man II, 1962 Copyist at the Two Amorous Couples 16 1/8 in.) Lithograph Metropolitan Museum of in an Inn Art Museum Gift Fund, 575 x 450 mm (22 5/8 x Art, 1908-10 Etching 94.61 17 11/16 in.) Etching 215 x 290 mm (8 7/16 x Transferred from the 188 x 225 mm (7 3/8 x 11 7/16 in.) Bruce Nauman, Rental Collection to the 8 7/8 in.) Richard Lee Ripin American, b. 1941 permanent collection via Oberlin Friends of Art Fund, 94.52 Untitled {Man Holding the R.T. Miller,Jr. Fund, 94.49 Mouth Open With Fund, 94.28 Andy Warhol, Fingers), 1970 William Strang, American, i928?-i987 Photolithographic offset Gerhard Richter, Scottish, 1859-1921 Liz Taylor, 1965 print German, b. 1932 My Lord the Elephant Silkscreen 515 x 666 mm (20 1/2 x Sulandschaft, 1971 Etching and aquatint 585 x 587 mm (23 1/16 x 26 in.) Etching and aquatint 151 x 200 mm (5 15/16 x 23 1/8 in.) Transferred from the 230 x 219 mm (9 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.) Transferred from the Rental Collection to the 8 5/8 in.) Gift of Frances Spence Rental Collection to the permanent collection via Transferred from the Hasse, 94-43-3 Permanent Collection the R.T. Miller,Jr. Rental Collection to the via the R.T. Miller,Jr. Fund, 94.30 permanent collection via William Strang, Fund, 94.29 the R.T. Miller, Jr. Scottish, 1859-1921 Claes Oldenburg, Fund, 95.1 Portrait of Robert James Abbot McNeill American, b. 1929 Bridges, 1898 Whistler, American, Standing Mitt with Ball, Joseph Roos, German, Etching 1834-1903 r973 18th century 252 x 175 mm (9 15/16 x Alderney Street, Color lithograph Sheep and Goats (suite of 6 7/8 in.) ca. 1880-81 495 x 545 mm (19 1/2 x twelve etchings), 1754 Gift of Frances Spence Etching and drypoint 21 7/16 in.) Etching Hasse, 94.43.4 178 x 114 mm Gift of Frances Spence 120 x 183 mm (4 3/4 x (7x41/2 in.) Hasse, 94.43.11 7 3/16 in.) Heinrich Tischler, Charles F. Olney Fund, Gift of Frances Spence Polish, 1892-1938 94-23 Hasse, 1994, 94.43.5A-L Einsame {Lonely) Drypoint 236 x 127 mm (9 5/16 x 5 in.) Art Museum Gift Fund, 94.46

55 Photographs Textiles

Robert Adamson, Persian; Baluchi Scottish, 1821-1848, and Timuri Prayer Rug, 1869 David Octavius Hill, Wool Scottish, 1802-1870 127 x 91.4 cm Mark Napier, 17 May (50 x 36 in.) 1845 Gift of Ernest H. Calotype on original Roberts, 94.64.1 mount 200 x 145 mm (7 7/8 x Turkoman (Saryk) 5 11/16 in.) Storage Bag, ca. 1825 Horace W. Goldsmith Wool Foundation 119.4 x 50.8 cm Photography Fund, 94.2 (47 x 20 in.) T Gift of Ernest H. Roberts, 94.64.2

Decorative Arts

Chinese; Zheijiang (Yue) Province Water Dropper in the Shape of a Frog, 4th century Molded stoneware (proto-Yue) 4.2 cm (1 5/8 in.) high; 7.5 cm (2 15/16 in.) diameter Art Museum Gift Fund, 94.59

David Hammons, Ottoman American, b. 1943 Isnik Ware Tile (from Money Tree, 1992 Court Bath, Enrueb and Sepia-toned photograph Ensari, Constantinople), 416 x 277 mm (16 3/8 x 1574 10 7/8 in.) Glazed ceramic Oberlin Friends of Art 33.4 x 33.4 cm (13 1/8 x Fund, 94.45 13 1/8 in.) Gift of Ernest H. Carleton Watkins, Roberts, 94.64.3 American, 1829-1916 Yosemite Valley: Vernal Tiffany Studios, and Nevada Falls from American Glacier Point, 1865 Bud Vase with Pineapple- (printed ca. 1870) Shaped Base, before 1918 Albumen print from wet Favrile glass, bronze collodion glass negative base on original mount 30.5 cm (12 in.) high 414 x 525 mm (16 5/16 x Gift of Mr. and Mrs. 20 11/16 in.) Paul B. Arnold, 94.62 Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Photography Fund, 94.20

56 Loans 1. Yayoi Kusama, Baby 7. Rona Pondick, Baby Fiscal Year 1994-1995 Carriage, metal baby Blue, 1990, mixed media carriage, cloth, paint. sculpture, Roush Fund Gift of Mr. and Mrs. for Contemporary Art, Harry L. Tepper, 74.78. 91.13. To: "Yayoi Kusama," To: "New Art 4: Rona Akron Art Museum, Pondick," Cincinnati Akron, Ohio, July 2- Art Museum, October 2,1994 Cincinnati, Ohio, April 6-July 16,1995. 2-5. Julio Gonzalez, Untitled, ca. 1935, etch­ 8. Guy Pene du Bois, ing, Gift of Katherine In the Wings, 1921, oil on Kuh, 78.38; Paul Klee, panel, Gift of Mrs. Dynamischer-statischer Malcolm L. McBride, Conflict, 1925, ink on 48.44. paper, Gift of Katherine To: "Guy Pene du Bois: Kuh in honor of Ellen The Twenties at Home Johnson, 75.6; Man Ray, and Abroad," Sordoni Bird from Nowhere, 1934, Art Gallery, Wilkes oil on canvas, Gift of Barre, Pennsylvania, Katherine Kuh, 63.25; May 21-August 13,1995; and Mark Rothko, Westmoreland Museum Untitled, 1962, oil on of Art, Greensburg, paper mounted on Pennsylvania, September wood, Gift of Katherine 10-November 5,1995. Kuh in honor of Richard Spear, 82.114. To: "Katherine Kuh: Interpreting the New," Archives of American Art, New York Regional Center Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, New York, December 13, 1994-March 13,1995; The Gibson Gallery, State University of New York, Potsdam, New York, March 24-April 16,1995 (Klee [75.6] lent to first venue only).

6. Oskar Kokoschka, Nude Youth, ca. 1907, pencil and wash on tan- colored paper, Elizabeth Lotte Franzos Bequest, 58.61. To: "Modern Hieroglyphics: Gestural Drawing and the European Vanguard, 1900-1918," Wellesley College Museum, Wellesley, Massachusetts, February 10-April 2,1995.

57

Staff Visiting Committee Bulletin

Anne F. Moore, Director Robert Bergman Members of the faculty Editor: Leslie Miller, Parks Campbell of Oberlin College's Marjorie E. Wieseman Assistant to the Director (B.A., 1952; M.A., 1972) Department of Art also act Copy Editor: Beatrice M. Clapp, Ralph T. Coe (B.A., 1953) as advisors to the Museum Jenny Squires Wilker Administrative Assistant Joan Danforth in their areas of expertise, Marjorie E. Wieseman, James Elesh (B.A., 1964) and along with the staff The AMAM Bulletin Curator of Western Art Andre Emmerich of the Clarence Ward Art welcomes scholarly contri­ before 1830 (B.A., 1944) Library, assist the butions on topics pertinent Amy Kurlander, Allan Frumkin Museum's work in many to the Museum's collection. Curator of Modern and Richard Hunt ways. Manuscripts submitted for Contemporary Art Robert M. Light publication should be sent Charles Q^ Mason, (B.A., 1950), co-chairman to the Editor, accompanied Curator of Asian Art Robert Menschel Publications by a list of illustrations Christine Mack, Registrar Jan Keene Muhlert and photocopies of the (through May 6, i))6) (M.A., 1967) illustrations. Wendy E. Brisbine, Jane Nord Allen Memorial Art Museum Assistant Registrar Edmund P. Pillsbury Bulletin, Vols. I-XLIX, Photographic Credits: Kimberlie Gumz Fixx, Victoire Rankin 1944-1996. Issues are $15.00 All photographs by Assistant Registrar (on leave) Reynold Sachs (B.A., 1961) each. Some issues are out John Seyfried, with the Jenny Squires Wilker, David Steadman of print. Indexes available exception of: Catalogue Editor John N. Stern (B.A., 1939) through Vol. XXX at $1.00. Wieseman: figs. 1, 2, 5, and Eliza Hatch, Coordinator Evan H. Turner, 7, courtesy the Western of Education (through co-chairman Catalogue of European and Reserve Historical Society, May 31, i))6) Sylvia Hill Williams+ American Paintings and Cleveland, Ohio. Megan Burness, (B.A., 1955) Sculpture, Wolfgang Education Intern Nancy Coe Wixom Stechow, 1967, 359 pp., 278 Michael Holubar, (M.A., 1955) illus., $10.00. Preparator Design: Melissa O'Hara, t(de cd) Catalogue of Drawings and Christopher Hoot Assistant Preparator, p.t. Watercolors, Wolfgang HootDesign Elsie E. Phillips, Stechow, 1976, 295 pp., 104 Housekeeper Collection Committee illus., $12.50. Marjorie E. Burton, Security Supervisor From Studio to Studiolo: Gary Comstock, Anne F. Moore, Director Florentine Draftsmanship Security Officer, p. t. Marjorie E. Wieseman, under the first Medici Grand Christine Diewald, Curator of Western Art Dukes, Larry J. Feinberg, Security Officer before 1830 1991, 212 pp., 104 illus., Timothy Diewald, Amy Kurlander, $25.00. Security Officer,p.t. Curator of Modern Brent Flood, and Contemporary Art Robert Mangold: The Security Officer,p.t. Charles Q^ Mason, Oberlin Window, Geoffrey Michael Gilbert, Curator of Asian Art Blodgett and Elizabeth A. Security Officer Jeffrey Hamburger, Brown, 1992,31 pp., 20 Mitch Manthey, Security Officer,p.t. Irvin E. Houck Associate illus., $15.00. Professor of Art Robert Harrist, Associate Photographs, postcards, Professor of Art notecards, numerous exhi­ Patricia Mathews, Chair, bition catalogues and slides Art Department of works in the collection John Pearson, Eva and John are also available. Young-Hunter Professor of Studio Art Evan H. Turner, Director Emeritus, Cleveland Museum of Art

59

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