Collecting for the public : works that made a difference : essays for Peter Hecht / edited by Bart Cornelis, Ger Luijten, Louis van Tilborgh & Tim Zeedijk ; translation by Michael Hoyle.
"Published in association with Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris and Vereniging Rembrandt, The Hague"--Colophon. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: Museum acquisition: Peter Hecht / Neil Macgregor. Of the city, for the city: The case for municipal museums / Peter Hecht -- Paul Mellon: Private collector for the public / Mary Morton -- The concept and presentation of the Stadel Art Institute collection: The early decades / Jochen Sander -- A Night school for the Rijksmuseum / Tim Zeedijk -- The La Caze bequest / Pierre Rosenberg -- Painting views and viewing paintings / Jan Gorm Madsen -- The eventful history of the Trinity Panels by Hugo van der Goes / Lorne Campbell -- The goldfinch's travels: Fact and fiction / Frances Suzman Jowell -- America's first Vermeer: Young woman with a water pitcher in the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Esmee Quodbach -- Hannema, Mondrian, Koch / Carel Blotkamp -- Georg Schmidt as rescuer of degenerate art / Nina Zimmer -- A political decision for art: the Paul Klee collection in Dusseldorf / Anette Kruszynski -- Ger van Elk, The Specific Gravity of the Artistic Imagination I / Jan Van Adrichem -- Sea change: the acquisition of Backhuysen's Ships in distress off a rocky coast at the National Gallery of Art, Washington / Arthur Wheelock -- Hunting The lion hunt: the acquisition of Rubens's sketch for the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, 1994 / Konrad Renger -- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's acquisition of Cornelis van Dalem's Dawn of Civilization / Jeroen Giltaij -- Francis Picabia content / Sjarel Ex -- Recent acquisitions at the Ashmolean / Christopher Brown -- The Portrait of an elderly man by Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis / Frits Duparc -- An early landscape by Degas in the Fitzwilliam Museum / Bart Cornelis -- Three Jordaens portraits / Jan Piet Filedt Kok -- The sculptress who photographed everyone / Gijsbert Van Der Wal -- A Japanese Caillebotte in Amsterdam / Louis Van Tilborgh -- A Baburen for Kassel / Gregor J.M. Weber -- Silent streets in the southern sun: Jongkind and Redon / Ronald De Leeuw -- A Spanish adventure: the rediscovery of a Bruegel and its acquisition by the Prado / Manfred Sellink -- Drawings by Dick Ket for the Rijksprentenkabinet / Peter Schatborn -- Torrigiani's Mater dolorosa in the Rijksmuseum / Frits Scholten -- A proof impression and some doodles / Marijn Schapelhouman -- Oil sketches for the Fondation Custodia / Ger Luijten -- The lesson and the advice / Jan Maarten Boll -- The prospect for museums / Nicholas Penny -- Museum acquisition: Peter Hecht / Neil Macgregor.
Summary:
In this celebration of collecting, in 34 essays, renowned curators and art historians discuss the acquisition of works of art, medieval to modern, by museums in Europe and the United States - acquisitions that have made a difference, crucial acquisitions from a more distant but also the recent past. There was a time when museums might have been regarded as rather forbidding and austere centres of learning, but today they are more likely to position themselves firmly within the tourism and leisure industry with all manner of food, fun and family entertainment on offer. A high-profile museum brand often relies on a fast-changing menu of temporary exhibitions with an attractive programme of activities, cleverly marketed to ever-growing numbers of visitors. Many of these changes have been positive and beneficial but they have not been without risk to the central purpose of museums as repositories for collections that are looked after, researched and displayed with knowledge and sensitivity. The permanent collection should be the heart and soul of any museum. Nurtured and developed with intelligence, a collection can be an endless source of surprise and delight as well as a focus of local and national pride. The museum in this view is a setting for sustained encounters with objects and works of art, somewhere to be visited and revisited over the course of a lifetime, a place that helps to bind communities, with collections that are cared for and shared as a reminder of the past and a source of inspiration for the present.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.