ATHE ITE eA Library The Boston Letter from eAthenteum No. 90 SEPTEMBER 1988 ... Into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. AT was certainly where we unhappy Bostonians seemed to have fallen in July and August, along with most of the rest of the country, of course. Even the thick-walled Athenreum, reasonably comfortable in summer seasons past, fell a rapid victim to the torrid invasion of 1988. The staff was heroic, if wilted, and surely deserves our chorus of THANKS! The Print Room became quite a popular resort, seeming almost alpine in comparison to the rest of our building. Perhaps, if sumn1er 1989 confirms that we have indeed entered the era of the "Greenhouse Effect," the Trustees might consider additional air-conditioned areas, say the Read­ ing Room? Well, we trust that by the time this issue of Items reaches you we shall all have cooled down considerably and be experiencing a truly delightful autumn! August ( 1989) Closure This seems the appropriate place to pass on the Director's first (and early) noti­ fication that the Library will be closed for inventory during August 1989, as it has been for several Augusts in the recent past. Specific information will be given in a later notification, but we may assume that Reference Service will be available by telephone, that books may be charged out and returned during certain stated hours, and that the Book Mailing Service \Vill function as usual. We can all agree that these inventories have much improved the condition of our collections and the proper shelving thereof. Trustees It is a pleasure to announce the election of Mr. Bayard Henry, a longtime Propri­ etor of the Athenreum, to the Board of Trustees. Educated at Milton Academy and 2 ~ Princeton University, Mr. Henry was a naval officer from 1954 to 1956. After mili­ tary service he joined the State Street Bank and Trust Company's Credit and Loan Division, becoming Group Vice President in 1968. He is currently Corporate Di­ rector / Trustee/ Consultant of the Transatlantic Capital Corporation and Transat­ lantic Investment Corporation, of which he was President from 1979 to 1985. Mr. Henry serves as Director or Trustee of many companies and institutions and is Presi­ dent of the New England Forestry Foundation. His experience, expertise, and great concern for the Athenreum will be valuable additions to the combined strength of our Trustees as they make the decisions that will affect the future of our institution. We welcome him and wish him well. Trustee Emeritus George Caspar Romans has presented a gift of his latest book, The Witch Hazel: Poems of a Lifetime (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1988). This is a fascinating volume-very personal in nature, it touches upon a vari­ ety of topics with great technical proficiency and considerable lyricism. There are also some elegant translations. Much wit and wisdom is to be found here; we enjoyed particularly the rather quixotic humor of "Seascape with Figures" on page 136. New Postcards If you haven't already purchased a dozen or so, take a moment to look at the very attractive new postcards now available on the display table opposite the Front Desk. Our favorite is the one that depicts the beautifully refurbished second floor. Painting And speaking of refurbished areas, we understand there is HOPE that the delayed restoration and painting of the fifth floor might be undertaken next summer. Nothing, of course, will translate hope into reality faster than new or additional contributions to the Paint Fund, and approximately $200,000 is required. That the fifth floor, perhaps the architecturally most unified and interesting space in our building, should join the second floor in newly revealed and restored splendor is, \Ve think, of great importance to all of us v..·ho appreciate and enjoy the Athe­ nreum. Give generously, and this particular result of your generosity will give plea­ sure and satisfaction for decades. Paint samples are in place and will soon be joined by possible light fixtures to be installed in alcoves. Artists of the Book-1988: A Facet of Modernism 1'his outstanding exhibition of prints, original drawings, plates, artists' books, and fine bindings was a great success tills summer. Copies of th\.! excellent catalogue with Peter \Vick's fine introduction are still available. Originated by the Boston Athenreum with generous support frotn the Travelling Exhibitions Program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, ArtistJ of the Book \vi11 be on view at several n1uscu1ns and cultural centers across the countrv beginning at the American Craft Museun1 (New York City) Novcn1bcr 11, 198S, and ending at the Toledo Museu In of Art (Toledo Ohio) in the fall of 1989. Ogden Codn1an and the Decoration of 11 ouses This exhibition will open at the National Acaden1y of Design in New York City on December 3, 1988, and will be on view at the Athenreum frotn February 13 to April 15, 1989, before its final appearance at The Octagon in Wa5hington D.C.. from May 1 to June 30. In conjunction with the travelling exhibition, the Athenreum, in association \Vith David R. Godinc, is publishing a collection of scholarly essays exarnining the role of Ogden Codn1an as an influential architect and decorator. This publication will be a 224-page hardbound book with 177 black-and-white illustrations, 26 color plates, a chronology, a complete list of commissions, and a selected bibliography. Harpsichord Recently, longtime friend and benefactor Ariel (Mrs. Frederick G.) Hall most generously gave a harpsichord to the Boston Athenreum. This splendid instrument was built in 197 5 by the noted harpsichordist Carl Fudge, who has been building keyboard instruments for the past 25 years. Comn1issioned by Mrs. Hall, his Opus 21 was copied after the 1620s Ruckers harpsichord in the Yale collection of key­ board instruments. The case decorations by Sheridan Gern1ann were copied from the 18th-century Pascal Taskin harpsichord, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museun1, London. Mrs. Hall has supported many events here in recent years. Interested in the history of England, she has given a series of lectures on Englishwomen of the 18th century. The titles of these three talks were: "Blue Stockings and Black Sheep" on Mrs. Hes­ ter Thrale Piozzi and Fanny Burney; ''The Strange Lives of Three Duchesses" on Harriet Mellon, Duchess of St. Albans, Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, and Georgiana, Fifth Duchess of Devonshire; "Love's Labour's Lost: Wives out of Wedlock" on Mrs. Dorothea Jordan, the Ladies of Llangollen, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, Lady Emma Hamilton, Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert, and Queen Caroline of Bruns\vick. Mrs. Hall sponsored a talk by Rosamond Bernier, \vho spoke on her friendship \vith Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henry Moore. She also helped make possible the appearances at the Athenreum of Jessica Mitford, Helene Hanff, and of Robert Fizdale, who spoke on Misia Sert. Mrc;. Hall ha gi\·en etchings and bookplates done by her husband, the artist Frederick G. Hall. 4 ~ Among other concerts, she recently sponsored one devoted to vocal music of the Baroque and Rococo. Ariel Hall has played the harp since childhood. She \Yas \Vith the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the San Antonio Symphony for many years. Her generosity to the Boston Athenreum is greatly appreciated, and in recog­ nition of this it has been decided that the Summer Musical Evening series next year ( 1989) will be devoted to the music of the harpsichord. Concerts \Vill be held on Tuesdays: May 2, June 6, and July 11. Artists and programs are to be announced later. Tea That very popular event, Wednesday Afternoon Tea (3: 30-5: 30) at the Athe­ nreum, will begin for the Season on October 5, 1988, and continue through May 31, 1989. There will be a contribution of $5.00 per person. * * * * * Michael Wentworth, our Curator of Painting and Sculpture, has written an article which we are pleased to include here. The Savoyard Boy When Thomas H. P. Whitney gave the handsome picture of a boy seated on a wall that now hangs in the first floor reading room at the Athenreum, both the name of the artist and the subject of the painting had been forgotten. A note in a nineteenth century hand attached to the back of the canvas supplied a useful provenance and at least suggested a point of departure, saying that the picture was the replica of a work painted for the King of Portugal in the 1850s, had been commissioned from the artist for Mrs. Abram Clark Bell of New York, and was then the property of Sophie Hurlbert Dumaresq, Mrs. Bell's niece (and later Mr. Whitney's grandmother), but it was silent about the artist. The style of the picture, a relaxed and painterly brand of realism more typical of the Low Countries or Dusseldorf than of mid­ century Paris, also suggested a direction for study, although any clues about the ori­ gin of the materials themselves had been obliterated sometime in the past when the canvas was relined and remounted on stretchers of American manufacture \Vhich can only be said to post date their patent in 1884. It would be imprecise to say that the name of the artist had been lost, since the picture is signed with a perfectly obvious if grandly illegible flourish and dated 1859 in the lower left corner. The signature had long been hesitantly deciphered as Magel­ stein, a name unrecorded in any biographical dictionary, but a deductive trip through C41~ 5 the alphabet with a copy of the Thieme-Beeker KUnstler-Lexikon has established the M to be an Hand the artist to be the Danish painter, Paul Hagelstcin ( 1825-1868).