Ingalls Library & Museum Archives

One of the many joys found in the new East Wing is the establishment of the Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries. For those of us keenly interested in the history of photography, as well as lovers of the contemporary photography scene, these three galleries provide a perfect venue. Currently on exhibit is France at the Dawn of Photography,” photographs taken contemporaneously with the life of Paul Gauguin, the subject of our current main exhibition. Curator Tom Hinson writes in our Members Magazine, “France at the Dawn of Photography is a snapshot record of France during the Second Empire: the grandeur of its capital city, the beauty of its natural resources, and the vitality of its population.”

Camille Dollard, "Self Portrait" 1997.56

The galleries beckon the viewer with portraits of celebrated French artists. The first image is a large daguerreotype, a self-portrait of artist Camille Dollard. He is, not surprisingly, posed with easel and brush but right next to him is a giant hookah! Oh, Orientalist man of romance and pleasure – what’s not to love? Pierre Petit’s Gustave Doré , looking sexy and cosmopolitan, leans toward the viewer with a bold stare. We see captured images of Paris before the “Haussmannization” of the city’s medieval streets in Charles Marville’s untitled cloud study. Here the distant dome of Les Invalides towers over the city, under a race of clouds that pattern light and gray. A rare snow scene in the forest by Eugène Cuvelier is a study of entwined winter branches creating an almost web-like image. And Behind the Troglodyte Barn – a title so intriguing that this viewer had to read the label before looking deep into the image (“troglodyte” is a medieval term used to describe political activists who found their way around property taxes by living in caves) is a stone arch and structure built into a rock formation. Tools litter the ground but no figures are present. Caves? I need more to this story.

Lastly, this viewer’s favorite photograph and the one that graces November’s Member’s Magazine cover: Courtyard with Painters, by an unidentified photographer. Tom Hinson describes it as, “a captured wealth of detail in an intimate slice of 19th century village life in northern France.”

And is it ever! Amid Normandy barns and coops, laundresses deal with overflowing baskets of laundry. Two artists are painting – one hugging a little girl with woman reading her letters at his side, and another working under bright umbrellas, his clay pipe clamped in his teeth. His canvas reveals a woman bent over her sewing. And to the right of our scene is the innkeeper with his fancy vest and bushy muttonchops. He looks like a character right out of Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart novels. He faces the photographer, seeming to say: “Soyez le bienvenue! Qu’est-ce que vous voulez a boire?”

Yellow paper, yellow-back books, yellow prints. We are experiencing a tsunami of yellow for the opening of our exhibition, Gauguin: Paris 1889. The catalogue that curator Heather Lemonedes and Conservator Moyna Stanton labored over for years is finally here in the library! Their hard work has paid off handsomely, with groundbreaking scholarship and amazing loans from illustrious collections. The exhibition is beautiful – our museum staff is so talented.

The recreation of the exhibition installed in Monsieur Volpini’s Café des Arts, held on the grounds of the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris is brilliant. Dr. Lemonedes tells us that the Volpini prints on canary yellow paper were available for sale, to be viewed upon request (none sold), but here, we have them all framed on view together. One may ask, why is this so important? For the museum visitor, it is an opportunity of a lifetime to see works of art on paper — our complete Volpini Suite (never before on public view) and compare them to other Volpini Suite prints and paintings from museum collections that live most of the time in temperature and light controlled security. Look at the hand colored version of “Dramas of the Sea” (Van Gogh Museum) — what exquisite detail! Below a calm blue sea, dangerous waves churn around a fisherman and his red boat, all constrained in its finite fan-shaped print. One has to see it in person to understand the effect Gauguin sought to convey. There is so much to discover here, so many works of art that the visitor might not see again. As our Chief Curator, Griff Mann says: “Don’t miss it — this is the only U.S. venue.”

The Ingalls Library had an opportunity to assist in procuring various works on paper in the exhibition: maps, books, and the rare poster announcing the Volpini exhibition. We found a 1901 treatise examining yellow dyes in paper pulp that was so helpful to our paper conservator. A gift book from the Butkin estate provides illustrated highlights of the 1889 Expo. And we used our antique postcards from France to add introductory images to the gallery walls. It was an opportunity to feel like an active, integral part of The Cleveland Museum of Art team.

Finally, mention should be made of the accompanying photography show in the East Building, “France at the Dawn of Photography.” Drawn mostly from The Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection of photographs, one has an opportunity to view three packed galleries with images taken during the lifetime of Paul Gauguin. And the admission is free! A follow-up post about the photography show will be forthcoming.

This index is the type of reference text that librarians and researchers rejoice over.  The A.C.I. was compiled and realized by Noelle Corboz and Cécile de Pebeyre under the direction of Marc Blondeau and Thierry Meaudre.  The subtitle defines it succinctly, “Catalogues Raisonnés & Critical Catalogues of Artists 1780-2008,” and further, “Painting, Sculpture, Works on Paper, Prints, Contemporary Media.”  Entries are alphabetical by artist name, with place and date for birth and death.  Bibliography proceeds chronologically from date of publication, with separation for genre.  Details of publication are included, as well as ISBN number.  A thoughtful introduction tracing the history and evolution of the catalogue raisonné written by Rainer Michael Mason is also presented.  An author index follows, linking to the corresponding artist.  Prior to the release of this volume, art reference librarians relied on the Wolfgang M. Freitag text Art Books: A Basic Bibliography of Monographs on Artists, published in 1997.  This more up to date volume will indeed be a boon to research.  The A.C.I. will be shelved behind the reference desk for ease of access.

Some times a book is more than a book. That is the case with one of the latest acquisitions of the Ingalls Library, Papermaking at Hayle Mill 1808 – 1987. The impressive clamshell cased publication is an historical archive and treasure trove of papermaking history. Hayle Mill, near Maidstone, Kent, was the last industrial handmade-paper mill in commercial operation in Britain. The mill went through several owners until it was bought by John Green in 1817. It was operated continuously by the Green family until its closure in 1987.

Opening the clamshell case you find a hand-bound book chronicling the history of the mill. Next you see a reproduction of an 1856 map of the mills that operated in the Loose Valley in Kent. Unfolding the map you see that 12 mills operated in the two mile area between Tovil and Loose Village. Underneath the map is a folded paper portfolio containing 12 original paper samples with names such as Renaissance, Egyptian Vellum and Bodleian Light Toned. These are the papers used by some of the greatest English artists known, including John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. At the bottom one finds the paper portfolio containing a diagram of the mill and 19 reproduction photographs. Most interestingly, the author puts names to the faces in the pictures. In photo 4, the Rag House in 1921, where Mrs. Brislee and Miss Harrison sort rags. Photo 8 shows us that Arthur Whatmore, with his big bushy moustache, worked as vatman in 1933.

Hayle Mill closed in July 1987, a victim of economic recession. Ironically the last paper made by the mill was called Finale. And it is on this paper that the author chose to print the book. The Mill worked for 179 years to produce papers of the highest quality and Papermaking at Hayle Mill 1808 – 1987 is a fitting accolade to this achievement in word, photographs, paper samples, and construction.  TS1096.H38 G44 2008.

Researching the history of the Cleveland Museum of Art collection became easier recently with the addition of two serial publications to the JStor collection.  The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art ran from1914 to 1994, serving as the primary publication for announcements regarding exhibitions, collections, and all things about the Museum.  With JStor’s full text searching, researching museum objects is certainly easier.  Searching within the publication by accession number, dropping the first two digits of the year, reveals numerous relevant articles.  Notable authors, such as Henry Hawley, can be tracked similarly.  As well, caption searching returns images of objects not included in the Ingalls Library Publication Index.  This latter search can be especially helpful with May Show artists, as the objects of First Prize and Special Award winners are often pictured, as in this caption search for Schreckengost.  This information is not available via the Ingalls Library’s May Show database.

While Cleveland Studies in the History of Art picks up in 1995, it is not a typical successor to the Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Rather, this annual publication produced more academic scholarship on the Museum’s collection.  Because the journal spans nine years, through 2000, accession number searches are useful in both two digit and four digit year number searches.  Though a scan of the table of contents would be equally useful.  Caption searching produces color images, suitable for presentation, as in this search for the Museums 14th Century table fountain.

Original copies of both publications will continue to be held in the Ingalls Library reference room.

The earliest known American-made patchwork quilt is a handscreen, a type of small fire screen. That this little quilt still exists is incredible, author Lynne Zacek Bassett calls it, “merely a battered ghost.” It was stitched by Deborah Clark, wife of Parson Clark of Salem Village sometime between 1730 and 1750, in a community still wracked by sorcery. She placed at the center of her patchwork star a square of silver brocade — this tiny patch of brilliance must have held significance for our Calvinist parson’s wife, perhaps part of an inherited costume? Who cares…one might ask. That textiles were the most valued possessions women owned, either imported or created by an individual or group, is a significant part of New England’s history. Needlework schools and quilting groups produced valued wives, the proof often on display for wife-seeking husbands to admire. Recently acquired, Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth is a most unusual catalog of the history of this needlework, from the exhibition of the same name at the New England Quilt Museum. We learn more about the owners and their communities of such objects, rather than their patterns. My recent visit to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA, revealed the power of cloth. The textiles are lovely, but the machines are genius. Recently renovated, this museum has charming period rooms and deafening mill machines. And lastly, both the book and the museum remind this reader of the complicated history between the textile industry and slavery, conjuring up ghosts that haunt us still.

Recently added to the Ingalls Library, via the continuing generosity of John C. Bonebrake, is this volume, Buckminster Fuller to Children of Earth, by noted architect, designer, and thinker, R. Buckminster Fuller, with photographs by Cam Smith.   Written in a matter of fact tone, the book juxtaposes Fuller’s folksy truisms against black and white photography.  It is at the least an historical document of early seventies environmentalism.  And while some of the writing is far less enlightening than Fuller’s seminal works, it is hard not to take some wisdom from lines like, “Nature has no weeks.  There is no Monday, Tuesday, Friday in nature.”  PS3511.U6617 B8 1972

The Museum Archives is pleased to announce an exciting new website feature.

Over the years the museum has grown and changed its physical footprint with three additions (1958, 1983, 1971) and the current expansion project. To illustrate these changes the Museum Archives has created three interactive maps that include both current and historic gallery information. The maps can be found here, or on the library website, under Search Collections.

Additional maps will be added as new sections of the complex open. Images of galleries over time, both the permanent collection and special exhibitions, are available in the Museum Archives.

Steadfastly modernist architect Charles Gwathmey died Monday in New York City.  He is best known in the art world as the architect responsible for the renovation and addition to the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Guggenheim Museum in 1992.  Other notable museum buildings in his portfolio include the American Museum of the Moving Image, the International Center of Photography, as well as an addition to the Fogg Museum, among numerous others.  His firm, Gwathmey Siegel also worked for numerous celebrity clients, building residences, in addition to his commercial work.  The Ingalls Library holds several volumes on his work.

The East Wing’s decorative arts gallery glitters with silver and gold, glass and porcelain. Without a doubt, the star is the vase Bertin, a magnificent Sèvres porcelain likely to have been exhibited at the 1855 Exposition Universelle (Paris).  Léopold-Jules Gély, sculptor-modeler and decorator at the Sèvres Porcelain Factory, applied pâte-sur-pâte technique, an incredibly labor intensive decoration.

Look closely — an aquatic world carved in white enameled slip is caught in fishing nets and ropes. A fierce-looking lobster and a skate hang with ropes of mussels and an array of crabs and cockle shells, all surrounded by floating ribbons of seaweed.  Oddly, there is a frog hanging by his front foot – what is the artist thinking here, putting this fresh-water fellow into the salty sea? The delicate celadon color of the vase echoes that of sea foam, a color that helped win the manufactory a gold medal at the Exposition.

Curator Stephen Harrison reminds me that the Museum also owns an 1855 Louis-Rémy Robert photograph of the companion piece to the vase, this one decorated with land creatures.  And surprise!  Published in London’s 1855 volume of Art Journal is an engraving based on that photograph.  Go team!