Exhibition marks art museum's 125th anniversary

By Staff on March 27, 2008, noon

Edgar Degas' "Dancers" is part of the exhibition celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Princeton University Art Museum. The pastel with charcoal on tracing paper also graces the cover of the museum's new handbook, which serves as a guide to its encyclopedic collection. "An Educated Eye: Princeton University Art Museum Collections" runs through Sunday, June 15.

Charles Willson Peale's 1784 portrait of "George Washington at the Battle of Princeton" was commissioned by Princeton to fit inside a frame that once held a portrait of King George II that, according to contemporary sources, "was torn away by a ball from the American artillery in the battle of Princeton."     Above left: "Headdress" is an elaborate work by the Efut peoples of Nigeria. The head is sculpted from a single block of wood, as are each of its swirls of hair.     Below right: Claude Monet's oil on canvas "Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge" represents two of his greatest achievements, according to the new handbook: his gardens at Giverny and the paintings they inspired.     Images: Courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum Photos: Bruce M. White    

The Princeton University Art Museum is celebrating its 125th anniversary with an exhibition that brings together many of the most important works from all areas of its collection. On view through Sunday, June 15, "An Educated Eye: Princeton University Art Museum Collections" also marks the publication of the museum's new handbook, which serves as a guide to its encyclopedic collection.

"The Princeton University Art Museum is one of our greatest treasures," said President Shirley M. Tilghman. "As we prepare to celebrate the museum's 125th anniversary, I am delighted that its curators have built an exhibition around the finest works in its collections and that these and many other masterpieces can now be 'taken home' in the form of a superbly illustrated handbook."

This academic year marks the 125th anniversary of the museum's founding in 1882. The Princeton museum is notable among university museums for the quality and breadth of its holdings, not only in Western European and American art but also in the fields of ancient Mediterranean, Asian and pre-Columbian art.

For this exhibition, curators from each of the museum's departments have selected masterpieces from the collection of more than 68,000 objects spanning ancient to contemporary art. While all works were chosen for their quality, some were also selected for their rarity, or because they represent a critical turning point within the continuum of art history.

Notable works include:

  • An extremely rare and well-preserved first-century Roman silver cup. Pliny the Elder, who died in A.D. 79, wrote that even poor examples of similar cups were very highly valued because the craft of creating them had declined dramatically.
  • "Winter Landscape," an early 12th-century painting that is the only known surviving work from the Northern Song dynasty artist Li Gongnian. In the 1930s, it was sent on loan to the landmark International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London. The exhibition tags from London's Burlington House still hang from the scroll's rollers.
  • A unique bound set of Albrecht Durer's "Engraved Passion," with its original cover that bears the coat of arms of the artist's first patron, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. As a fascinating hybrid of handwritten text and printed illustrations, this devotional book represents the momentous cultural transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in early 16th-century Europe.
  • Charles Willson Peale's 1784 portrait of "George Washington at the Battle of Princeton." The painting was commissioned by the College of New Jersey, as Princeton was formerly known, to fit inside a frame that once held a portrait of King George II that, according to contemporary sources, "was torn away by a ball from the American artillery in the battle of Princeton." Troops, probably led by Alexander Hamilton, were firing upon British soldiers who had sequestered themselves in Nassau Hall, where the royal portrait was on view. Peale's commission was partially supported by funds bestowed by Washington himself as a gesture of his regard for the institution, and it eventually was displayed in the restored Nassau Hall.
  • Edouard Manet's mysterious "Gypsy With a Cigarette." Left in Manet's studio at his death in 1883 and never publicly exhibited in his lifetime, the painting has been a topic of scholarly debate, with some believing the source of the subject to be Prosper Mérimée's novel "Carmen." Its date is unknown, and even whether the artist considered it a finished work is unclear.

Also on view will be works that are among the most beloved by visitors to the museum, including Edgar Degas' "Dancers," the elaborate "Headdress" by the Efut peoples of Nigeria, a distinctive Olmec shaman and Claude Monet's "Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge."

The new handbook is the first overview of the museum's collection since 1986. The 364-page work includes entries on more than 400 works written by the museum's curatorial staff and guest authors.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Related Stories

'Inner Sanctum' exhibition illuminates Princeton's history .

An exhibition currently on display inside the Faculty Room at Nassau Hall is less about the works of art than it is about the art of the space. Running through Oct. 30, "Inner Sanctum: Memory and Meaning in Princeton's Faculty Room at Nassau Hall" is meant to showcase the room as the center of the University's history, while also reflecting American society's evolution.

Video feature: 'Portraits of a President' .

Karl Kusserow, the John Wilmerding Curator of American Art at the Princeton University Art Museum, explains the unique history of a pair of portraits of U.S. President George Washington painted by Charles Willson Peale and held in the museum's collection.

'Cézanne and the Modern' on view at Princeton University Art Museum .

The Princeton University Art Museum is highlighting iconic works of European art in the exhibition "Cézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection," from Sept. 19 through Jan. 3, 2016.

A broader palette: Steward pictures an art museum that 'sets the standard' .

On a warm Thursday night in September, crowds of students, staff and community members filled the Princeton University Art Museum. In all 2,400 people visited the museum that evening to celebrate the new extended hours on Thursdays, delighting James Steward, the new director of the museum.

July 4 is milestone in America's — and Princeton's — history .

Even as July 4 is recognized nationwide for the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the date has additional significance for the town of Princeton, which made history on that same date seven years later. On July 4, 1783, the town received a letter from the president of the Continental Congress confirming that Princeton would be the home of the U.S. government in the waning months of the American Revolutionary War. 

Wilmerding to leave a legacy of Pop art to Princeton .

Renowned curator, collector, art historian and professor of American art John Wilmerding revealed May 4 at a reception and dinner in honor of his retirement that he is the individual who has promised a major gift of Pop art to the Princeton University Art Museum. 

Donation brings first Picasso painting to art museum .

The Princeton University Art Museum has acquired Pablo Picasso's 1964 painting "Tête d'homme et nu assis" ("Man's Head and Seated Nude") through a donation by 1957 alumnus and noted collector Gregory Callimanopulos. The gift marks the museum's most significant single donation in recent years and the first painting by Picasso to enter its collection.