New paintings add interest to Columbia museum’s collection

By JEFFREY DAY - jday@thestate.com

'Far From Home' by William Bouguereau, is one of the paintings on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is displayed next to Columbia Museum of Art's Monet landscape.

The permanent collection galleries in nearly any museum can go for a long time, sometimes decades, without changing much. That can be a problem, especially for smaller museums.

During the past two years, the Columbia Museum of Art has changed its galleries with the addition of new pieces. A handful are purchases or gifts; several are on loan from the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh.

A new batch of five paintings, all by well-known artists, just arrived here from Puerto Rico. The 18th- and 19th-century paintings are from the Museo de Arte de Ponce and will be on display until the end of 2009.

“This is part of keeping the museum active and alive,” said Todd Herman, chief curator. “Many times the audience can get a bit complacent and think the museum remains stagnant.”

The pieces from Ponce are:

• An 1874 mountain landscape by Gustave Courbet, considered the founder of realism

• A 1785 portrait by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee Le Brun, one of the few successful women painters of the 18th century and a court artist for Marie Antoinette

• A large, highly finished 1867 painting of two Italian beggar girls who look remarkably healthy, clean and well fed, by William Bouguereau

• A 1675 portrait by Nicolaes Maes, who studied with Rembrandt and was a leading portrait painter for 35 years

• “The Glass Blowers” by Charles Frederick Ulrich is an American painting from 1883 that was admired by Vincent van Gogh. Ulrich was a colleague of the American expatriates John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.

The three French paintings help fill gaps in the museum collection, which doesn’t have a strong group of French paintings.

The intimate portrait by Le Brun is very typical of the period, full of life and fun. That Le Brun was a woman also makes it useful for educational purposes, Herman said.

When the queen lost her head in the French revolution, Le Brun lost her job, but she moved on and found great supporters elsewhere.

“There’s a lot you can talk about standing in front of that painting,” Herman said.

The Bouguereau painting, which Herman calls “just gorgeous,” is displayed next to the museum’s landscape painting by Claude Monet.

Bouguereau’s style was the officially approved way to approach art in France, and, for a time, he was one of the most famous artists in the world.

Monet and other young artists changed that. Bouguereau was nearly forgotten for decades.

If you want to compare the Bouguereau and the Monet, do it before February. That month, the Monet and two other French paintings that belong to the Columbia museum are being sent to the Ponce museum for a show.

The Columbia Museum of Art is at Main and Hampton streets. Call (803) 799-2810 or go online to columbiamuseum.org.

Reach Day at (803) 771-8518.