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John Singer Sargent, Rio di Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, 1905. Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Introduction

From Dürer to Van Gogh

Gifts from Eliza Greene Radeke and Helen Metcalf Danforth
June 5 - October 26, 2008

The inaugural exhibition in the Museum’s new Vincent and Linda Buonanno Works on Paper Gallery celebrates the remarkable contributions of two women, Eliza Greene Radeke (née Metcalf, 1854–1931) and her niece Helen Metcalf Danforth (1887–1984), to the Museum collection. Both were instrumental to the formation and growth of the Rhode Island School of Design as a whole and to increasing the institution’s prestige. Eliza Radeke served as President of the Board of Trustees from 1913 until her death in 1931. Helen Danforth succeeded her aunt as President and Chair from 1931 until 1965. Exhibited here are highlights from their numerous gifts, many of which are now the Museum’s best loved and most notable works.

Founded in 1877, RISD’s stated purpose was to educate artists in drawing, painting, modeling, and design for the benefit of industry and art, and to educate the public so that they could appreciate and support art and design. The creation of a museum collection was inseparable from those objectives. In that spirit, both Eliza Radeke (the daughter of one of RISD’s founders, Helen A. Metcalf) and Helen Danforth made extraordinary donations to all departments of the Museum, especially to drawings, prints, ancient art, textiles, American furniture and decorative arts, and European and American painting. Drawings and prints were essential to the overall educational goals they set, as well as being personal passions for both women. Between them, they presented over 1,300 prints and drawings to the Museum. The number of works of art that they found on the market, recommended for purchase, or gave anonymously is much greater than this figure.

Although both women had wide-ranging tastes and purchased exceptional drawings of all types, a few broad generalizations may be made about the kinds of drawings they sought and favored. Eliza Radeke was inspired by works on paper as germinations of artistic ideas, seeing in them instructive potential. Sketches, including figure studies, animal studies, landscapes, and portraits all fit this ideal. She often selected a notable subject or exquisite technical example over a well-known artistic name. Helen Danforth’s gifts reflect her interest in acquiring works by the most important artists and thereby increasing the prestige of RISD and its Museum. She enhanced the holdings with many finished presentation drawings by the greatest names in the history of art. Both approaches have enriched the collection in innumerable ways, and both may be observed in this gallery.

Mrs. Radeke’s brothers, Stephen O. Metcalf and Senator Jesse H. Metcalf, funded this building and dedicated it to her in 1926. The current exhibition presents many drawings that hung in the original Radeke Building installation and during the following years. The breadth of the Museum’s holdings is unthinkable without the philanthropy of the Metcalf family, especially its female members. The legacy of Eliza Radeke and Helen Danforth to RISD and to all of Southeastern New England is one of the finest and most diverse collections of drawings and prints in the United States.

Selected Objects

Samuel Prout

Frankfurt on the Rhine, before 1833

John Flaxman

Pernicious Dream, ca. 1792-1793

Eugène Delacroix

Turk Resting, Watched by His Horse, 1824

Jessie Willcox Smith

The Picture Book, ca. 1906

Edgar Degas

Before the Race, ca. 1885

Ottavio Leoni

Portrait of the Signora Licinia Leni, Marchesa Martinenghi, 1626

Vincent van Gogh

View of Arles, 1888

Abbott Handerson Thayer

Portrait Head of a Young Girl (Gladys Thayer at 11), 1897

Edgar Degas

Dancer with a Bouquet, ca. 1877-1880

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon

Study of a Nude Youth, ca. 1800-1817

Abraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck

Study for the Death of Hercules, 1630s

Mary Cassatt

Mother Pulling on Baby's Stocking, ca. 1890

Thomas Gainsborough

Coastal Scene with Figures, Ships and Buildings, ca. 1775-1780

Constantin Guys

A Grisette, ca. 1859

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Glencoe, 1831-1834

Édouard Manet

Mlle. Victorine in the Costume of an Espada (Victorine Meurent), 1862

Edgar Degas

Horse, ca. 1865

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Portrait of Lady Sophia Dalrymple, ca. 1858-1862

John La Farge

Japanese Crackle Pottery with Camellias, 1879

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Circus: Bareback, 1899

Thomas Lawrence

Mrs. Wolff, ca. 1815

Francesco Mazzuoli, called II Parmigianino

Study of an Antique Head of Julius Caesar, ca. 1530–1535

Edme Bouchardon

Portrait of the Painter Giuseppe Amedeo Aliberti, 1732

Honoré Daumier

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, 1865-1867

William Blake

St. Paul Preaching at Athens, 1803

Wilhelm von Kobell

Man on Horseback with Another Saddled Horse Beside Him, ca. 1823

Follower of Benedetto Luti

God Cursing Cain after the Murder of Abel, early 1700s

Charles Mellin

The Annunciation, ca. 1630

Pablo Picasso

Standing Nude, 1906

Adolph von Menzel

Artist in Studio, 1896

Georges Seurat

At the Gaîté Rochechouart (Café-concert), ca. 1887-1888

Leon Bakst

Design for the costume of the Fiancé in Le Dieu bleu, 1911

William Orpen

The Bath, 1904

Edgar Degas

Ballet Girl, ca. 1886-1888

Attributed to Jean-Antoine Houdon

Sorrow Consoled by Justice Who Points to Fame (Project for the Tomb of Monsieur Guillard), 1774

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Female Bather, ca. 1886-1887

Attributed to Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Head of a Boy, before 1780

John Singer Sargent

Rio di Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, 1905

Thomas Rowlandson

A Meeting of Cognoscenti (After Dinner), ca. 1790-1800

Anthony van Dyck

Study for Malchus, ca. 1618-1620

Albrecht Dürer, printmaker

The Large Horse, 1505

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Yvette Guilbert Taking a Curtain Call, 1894

Paul Signac

View of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, ca. 1904

Paul Signac

Canal Scene in Venice, ca. 1904

Théodore Chassériau

Portrait of Léopold Burthe, 1846

Henri Matisse

Four Studies of a Nude, ca. 1910

Paul Cézanne

The Card Player, ca. 1890-1892

Augustus John

Portrait of a Woman (possibly Dorelia McNeil), ca. 1903-1906

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

From Dürer to Van Gogh : Gifts from Eliza Greene Radeke and Helen Metcalf Danforth

June 5 - October 26, 2008
View Checklist PDF

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