BENTONVILLE : Museum adds 3 more classic paintings
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
BENTONVILLE — A painting that sold for $ 3. 6 million in 2005 at a New York auction house will be included in the permanent collection at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes was painted in 1908 by Robert Henri. The oilon-canvas is 77 by 38 inches. It was sold at auction in May 2005 at Christie’s.
Chris Crosman, chief curator for the museum, confirmed it owned the painting at a community lecture Tuesday night at the Bentonville Public Library where he discussed Crystal Bridges’ collection.
Also announced were Fairfield Porter’s October Interior and John Mix Stanley’s The Buffalo Hunt.
Porter’s 56-by-72 inch oil appeared last year in a high-definition rendering of Crystal Bridges that no longer is posted on the museum’s Web site, www. crystalbridges. org. Crystal Bridges hadn’t confirmed it owned October Interior until Tuesday, and it now is on the site in the Collections section. The Porter piece, painted in 1963, last sold at Sotheby’s in December 2004 for $ 988, 000.
Price information for Buffalo Hunt, a 29. 75-by-39 inch oil painted in 1855, wasn’t available Tuesday. Of the three works announced, Crosman said that the Henri is his favorite.
“Jessica Penn was an independent woman. She was a Ziegfeld Follies girl and quite noted as a dancer,” he said. “This is not a society portrait. This is a portrait — and I hate to say it — of a quote-unquote working girl.”
Henri was counted among the leaders of the Ashcan school, which focused on scenes of everyday urban life in the early 20 th century.
“Jessica Penn is his greatest portrait if not one of his finest,” Crosman said.
Sandy Edwards, assistant director of Crystal Bridges, said officials decided to unveil the paintings Tuesday because they were being attributed to the museum while they’re out on loan.
Both Jessica Penn and Buffalo Hunt are on loan to the Seattle Art Museum.
Crosman also announced that Crystal Bridges will host an exhibit from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., in early 2009 at its temporary gallery space at the Massey building off the Bentonville Square. The museum itself is estimated to open in 2010. Crosman said the exhibit will comprise works of black American artists, many of whom had taught at Fisk.
The exhibit is not taken from the Alfred Stieglitz Collection, a 101-piece group that a Tennessee court barred Crystal Bridges from buying a half-ownership in last year. The university is appealing the court ’ s decision.
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