Exhibition | Slavery: Ten True Stories
Exhibition trailer by Boomerang Motion.
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From the press release for the exhibition now on view (an initial notice appeared here at Enfilade in September 2019, but here’s the full, updated information, including links for terrific online components). . .
Slavery: Ten True Stories
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 5 June — 29 August 2021
United Nations Headquarters Visitors’ Lobby, New York, 26 February — 30 March 2023
Curated by Eveline Sint Nicolaas and Valika Smuelders
The Rijksmuseum, the national museum of arts and history of the Netherlands, presents its first ever major exhibition dedicated to the subject of slavery this summer. Slavery is inextricably bound up with Dutch history. This is the first time stories of slave trade across the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans are told together in one exhibition in the Netherlands. The exhibition presents ten true stories. Ten personal stories about enslaved people and slave owners, people who resisted, and people who were brought to the Netherlands in slavery. What were their lives like? What was their attitude to the system of slavery? Were they able to make their own decisions?
The exhibition includes objects from national and international museums, archives, and private collections—including the Nationaal Museum voor Wereldculturen, British Museum, National Gallery of Denmark, Iziko Museums of South Africa, St Eustatius Historical Foundation, National Archeological Antropological Memory Management (NAAM) in Curaçao, the National Archives of South Africa, Indonesia and the Netherlands, and private collections in Sint Eustatius, Suriname, and the Netherlands.
Valika Smeulders, head of History Rijksmuseum: “By focusing on ten true personal stories, Slavery gives an insight into how individuals dealt with legalized injustice.”
Taco Dibbits, General Director Rijksmuseum: “The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of art and history. Slavery is an integral part of our history. By delving into it, we can form a more complete picture of our history and a better understanding of today’s society.”
Ten True Stories
During the 250-year colonial period, people were made into property and objects to be recorded in accounts. The exhibition highlights the lives of ten people who lived at the time. They each tell their own story: about living in slavery or taking advantage of it, about resistance, and—ultimately—freedom. They include enslaved people and slaveholders, as well as individuals who broke the shackles of slavery, an African servant in the Netherlands, and an Amsterdam sugar industrialist. An audio tour leads visitors through these widely differing lives. Among the narrators are Joy Delima, Remy Bonjasky and Anastacia Larmonie, who each have a connection with one of the ten people through their own background.
The exhibition includes objects, paintings, and unique archival documents. Visitors also will hear oral sources, poems, and music. To tell a more complete story, there will be exhibits that have never been shown in the Rijksmuseum before, such as objects that were cherished by people in slavery and tools that were used on plantations.
The Dutch Colonial Period on Four Continents
Alexander de Lavaux, Map of Suriname, 1737, silk, 187 × 216 cm (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum).
The exhibition spans the Dutch colonial period from the 17th to the 19th century. It features the trans-Atlantic slavery in Suriname, Brazil, and the Caribbean, along with the part played by the Dutch West India Company (WIC) and Dutch colonial slavery in South Africa and Asia, where the Dutch East India Company (VOC) operated. The effects of the system in the Netherlands during the period are also highlighted. As a whole, it offers a geographically broad and at the same time specifically Dutch view that has never been seen before in a national museum.
Look at Me Now
The stories in the exhibition—about João, Wally, Oopjen, Paulus, Dirk, Lokhay, Van Bengalen, Surapati, Sapali and Tula—stand for millions of other stories about the slavery past of the Netherlands and its continued effects. At the end of the exhibition, the artists David Bade (Curacao, 1970) and Tirzo Martha (Curacao, 1965), both from Curacao’s Instituto Buena Bista, invite visitors to give expression to their own stories through the ten new artworks making up the Look at Me Now project. Visitors can follow the progress of this project via the website.
Online Exhibition
The Rijksmuseum is also presenting the ten stories in an online exhibition that features video and audio clips, animations, an overview of the exhibition galleries, and objects that can be viewed in exceptional detail. Visitors to the website will be able to see the Slavery exhibition in ten episodes, whenever and wherever it suits them.
Symposium
The Rijksmuseum partnered with the National Library of the Netherlands and the National Archive of the Netherlands to present an English-language online symposium on 23 April 2021, focusing on what it means to increase inclusivity in source usage by museums, archives, and libraries. What sources are available to people making presentations and conducting research on the subjects of slavery and the slave trade? Click here to view a recording of the symposium.
Rijksmuseum & Slavery
For the coming year, more than 70 objects in the permanent collection will have a second museum label that explores and highlights what has been, until now, an invisible relationship between the object and slavery. Subjects covered range from former rulers to the presence of people of colour and the way they are portrayed. Rijksmuseum & Slavery takes place concurrently with the Slavery exhibition, but it is not part of the exhibition.
Collaboration
The exhibition and accompanying events and activities are the result of collaboration with a wide variety of external experts, including historians, heritage experts, cultural entrepreneurs, artists, theatre practitioners, and performers.
Narrative advisor:
Jörgen Tjon A Fong
Think tank:
Reggie Baay, Raul Balai, Aspha Bijnaar, Mitchell Esajas, Karwan Fatah-Black, Martine Gosselink, Dienke Hondius, Wayne Modest, Ellen Neslo, Matthias van Rossum, Maurice San A Jong, Alex van Stipriaan, Jennifer Tosch, Urwin Vyent, Simone Zeefuik, and Suze Zijlstra
The exhibition design is by AFARAI, the agency led by architect Afaina de Jong. The graphic design of the exhibition and the book are by Irma Boom Office.
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Eveline Sint Nicolaas and Valika Smeulders, eds., Slavery: The Story of João, Wally, Oopjen, Paulus, Van Bengalen, Surapati, Sapali, Tula, Dirk, Lohkay (Amsterdam: Atlas Contact, 2021), 352 pages, ISBN: 978-9045044279, €28. (Also available in Dutch).
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Note (added 27 March 2023) — The posting has been updated to include the UN as a venue for a version of the exhibition.
Exhibition | Rijksmuseum & Slavery
Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, The Trading Post of the Dutch East India Company in Hooghly, Bengal, 1665, oil on canvas, 203 × 316cm
(Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)
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This project, aimed at reconsidering objects in the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum, coincides with the major exhibition Slavery: Ten True Stories:
Rijksmuseum & Slavery: New Light on the Permanent Collection
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 18 May 2021 — February 2022
Many of the works in the Rijksmuseum’s permanent collection have links with the Netherlands’ slavery past. It’s a relationship you probably won’t notice at first glance and one you won’t typically read about on a museum label next to an object: from the nutmeg harvested by enslaved people, to an enslaved woman shipped off to the Netherlands; from the image of a dance party on a Surinamese plantation that hides critical messages about the slaveholder, to the pulpit from which an 18th-century legal philosopher made the case for abolishing slavery.
Rijksmuseum & Slavery is adding 77 museum labels to paintings and objects in the permanent collection. The new labels will remain in place for a year, until February 2022. All of them focus on the colonial power of the Netherlands, which from the 17th century onwards was inextricably bound up with a system that included slavery. Some of the labels tell the stories of people who, under Dutch rule, were enslaved and put to work, and had their status reduced to that of objects, while others highlight people who profited from slavery, or spoke out against it.
When the Slavery exhibition and Rijksmuseum & Slavery have ended, the museum will evaluate both the pre-existing labels and the new ones. Wherever possible, the new information will be integrated into the museum in order to do greater justice to the Netherlands’ complicated history. The labels are collected in a booklet available free of charge in the museum. The booklet can also be downloaded here. In addition, all the labelled works are available online as a collection in Rijksstudio (in two parts: 1500–1650 and 1650–1960).
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Hendrik Keun, The Garden and Coach House of 524 Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, 1772, oil on panel (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum).
From the booklet: first the original label and then the newly added one:
Nicolaas Doekscheer, who lived at 524 Keizersgracht, built a grand, Rococo coach house on the Kerkstraat, which adjoined the back of his garden. He is here depicted conversing with the gardener, while his wife speaks to a maidservant. The two young men are Doekscheer’s nephews and heirs. The painting is still in its original Rococo frame.
The 18th-century Dutch elite benefitted greatly from the slavery-based plantation economy.[1] So did Nicolaas Doekscheer and his associate Hendrik Steenbergen, both depicted here in a garden. They financed no less than fifteen plantations in Berbice, Demerary, and Essequebo (all three part of present-day Guyana, South America).[2] Thanks to these loans, plantation owners were able to set up their coffee, cotton, and sugar plantations, while in Amsterdam Doekscheer and Steenbergen made a substantial profit from the interest.[3] See booklet for the footnotes.
Exhibition | By Her Hand, Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800
From the press release (30 July 2021) for the exhibition:
By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 30 September 2021 — 9 January 2022
Detroit Institute of Arts, 6 February — 29 May 2022
Curated by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and Oliver Tostmann
The first exhibition solely dedicated to Italian women artists at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800 explores how women succeeded in the male-dominated art world of the time. From the group of eighteen artists presented, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1654 or later), takes center stage with outstanding portraits and images of heroines. This exhibition recognizes and celebrates the vital contributions of women to the history of art in Italy through rarely seen works, recent scholarship, and introductions to virtually unknown artists.
“Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Rosalba Carriera, among others, created pathbreaking works of art, simultaneously subverting expectations and challenging norms,” said Oliver Tostmann, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art at the Wadsworth. “Their works and careers are often distinguished by alternative choices and idiosyncratic methods employed within the context of the male dominated art world of the time. By Her Hand brings together a wide spectrum of works by these artists—many on view for the first time—inviting visitors to explore, reassess, and celebrate the achievements of Italian women artists.”
The exhibition features a wide array of paintings, miniatures, and works on paper from institutional and private collections in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The artists take on a range of subjects from portraiture and still life, to historical and religious stories. Many works are being shown publicly for the first time or are making their U.S. debut such as Artemisia Gentileschi’s ravishing Mary Magdalene. By Her Hand reweaves history by examining women artists’ work and careers from the 1550s to the 1750s. Despite the fundamental differences and challenges women artists faced, some achieved notable success in their lifetime. The accomplishments of this diverse and dynamic group are introduced, discussed, and reassessed. Until recently, many of these Italian women artists were overlooked by critics, scholars, collectors, and institutions alike.
Artemisia Gentileschi is arguably the best-known artist included in the exhibition. Gentileschi’s talents were widely recognized by her contemporaries, many elite patrons of her day knew of and desired her work. Important works by Gentileschi highlight her innovative ideas, use of sensuous colors, and command of the brush. The Wadsworth’s Self-Portrait as a Lute Player is compared with the recently discovered Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria from the National Gallery, London, as well as Portrait of Saint Catherine from the Uffizi Galleries, Florence. This will be the first opportunity to see these three celebrated paintings side by side in the United States. Additional examples of Gentileschi’s pioneering depictions of strong women, such as Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes from the Detroit Institute of Arts, will also be on view.
The compelling works of art on view in By Her Hand coupled with stories of their pioneering makers reveals a nuanced picture of the role Italian women artists played from the Renaissance to the Rococo. By Her Hand celebrates their long-overlooked contributions, and aims to inspire continued reexaminations of the role women artists have played throughout the history of art.
“Never before in its long history has the Wadsworth devoted an exhibition to the work of professional women artists in sixteenth through eighteenth-century Italy, despite the fame of our Italian Baroque painting collection” said Jeffrey N. Brown, Interim Director & CEO of the Wadsworth Atheneum. “By Her Hand is the first exhibition in any encyclopedic museum in the United States to focus on this subject. This ground-breaking exhibition provides our audiences with a chance to encounter the outstanding art produced by these women artists in early modern Italy and to appreciate the far-reaching consequences of Artemisia Gentileschi’s illustrious career.”
By Her Hand is a collaboration between the Wadsworth and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Curated by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer former curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts now Curator and Head of Italian and Spanish paintings at The National Gallery of Art, Washington and Oliver Tostmann, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art at the Wadsworth. After its debut at the Wadsworth, it will travel to Detroit where it will be on view February 6–May 29, 2022.
Rosalba Carriera, Allegory of Grammar, ca. 1715, pastel on paper (Private Collection).
Artists in the exhibition
Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1535–1625)
Diana Scultori (c. 1547–1612)
Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614)
Fede Galizia (c. 1574–c. 1630)
Isabella Catanea Parasole (active 1585–1625)
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1654 or later)
Orsola Maddalena Caccia (1596–1676)
Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670)
Virginia da Vezzo (1600–1638)*
Anna Maria Vaiani (1604–1655)
Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665)
Ginevra Cantofoli (1618–1672)
Caterina de Julianis (c. 1670–c. 1742)
Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757)
Marianna Carlevarijs (1703–after 1750)
Maria Felice Tibaldi (1707–1770)*
Veronica Stern Telli (1717–1801)
Anna Bacherini Piattoli (1720–1788)
* Virginia da Vezzo and Maria Felice Tibaldi are represented in portraits painted by their husbands Simon Vouet (1590–1649) and Pierre Subleyras (1699–1749).
Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and Oliver Tostmann, with contributions by Sheila Barker, Babette Bohn, C. D. Dickerson, Jamie Gabbarelli, Hilliard T. Goldfarb, Joaneath Spicer, and Lara Roney, By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021), 192 pages, ISBN: 978-0300256369, $40.
Exhibition | Fan Leaves: Between Europe and Japan
From the press release for the exhibition:
Feuilles d’éventail entre Europe et Japon
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 1 October 2021 — 30 January 2022 (extended until 29 May 2022)
Curated by Bénédicte De Donker
Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川 春章, Ippitsusai Bunchō 一筆斎 文調, Kariganeya Ihei 雁金屋 伊兵衛, The Actor Onoe Kikugorō, also called Kobaikō, 1770, woodblock print (Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, Inv. E 2013-0032). In 1770, Katsukawa Shunshō and Ippitsusai Bunchō published an illustrated book, in three volumes, of actors’ portraits on fans, introducing a new genre of portraiture known as nigao-e.
Cet automne, l’éventail est au cœur d’une présentation inédite déployée dans les trois cabinets consacrés aux arts graphiques au deuxième étage du musée. Accessoire de mode apparu dès l’Antiquité dont l’usage se retrouve de par le monde, l’éventail a également intéressé les artistes qui se sont plu à le représenter dans leurs œuvres, voire à réaliser des feuilles pour l’habiller. Feuilles d’éventails, entre Europe et Japon fait écho à la grande exposition proposée au même moment dans les salles palatines, Pour la galerie: Mode et portrait.
Cette présentation revient sur les influences croisées de l’art de l’éventail entre Europe et Asie, qui atteint son apogée au XIXe siècle avant son déclin irrémédiable. Elle témoigne surtout de l’engouement européen pour cet accessoire, dont les formes les plus répandues (brisé et plié) proviennent d’Extrême-Orient. Certains exemplaires, par le choix de matières précieuses ainsi que par la finesse et la qualité de leur travail sont de véritables œuvres d’art. Car au-delà de son utilité, un éventail présente également une dimension artistique, et même parfois politique, selon ses créateurs et les sujets représentés. Sans surprise, il rejoint le panthéon des objets avec lesquels l’on aime—et doit—se montrer. Accessoire de mode, il arbore des formes variées (brisé, plié, ballon, plein vol…) et des matériaux divers, au gré des tendances (plumes, dentelle, parchemin…).
Feuilles d’éventails, entre Europe et Japon puise sa sélection dans le fonds d’arts graphiques du MAH, ainsi que dans sa collection d’arts appliqués. Autour de quelques splendides éventails, se déploie une sélection de feuilles d’éventails provenant elles aussi d’Europe et du Japon. Dessinées ou gravées, celles-ci étaient destinées à être montées ou à servir de modèle. Cet ensemble inclut une série exceptionnelle de huit feuilles peintes au XVIIIe siècle, dévoilée pour la première fois au public. Enfin, une quinzaine de représentations de leur usage en Europe, du XVIe à l’aube du XXe siècle, côtoie des gravures japonaises mettant en scène des personnages hauts en couleurs munis d’éventails.
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Coordinating with the exhibition To Play to the Gallery: Fashion and Portrait, the Prints and Drawings Department has chosen to focus on a fashion accessory that is both an artistic medium and the subject of numerous representations: the fan. The three cabinets on the first floor show fan mounts, drawn or engraved, to be mounted or used as models, representations of their use in Europe from the 16th to the early 20th century, as well as a collection of Japanese engravings and fans. This presentation includes an exceptional series of eight sheets painted in the 18th century, unveiled to the public for the first time.
The full press release is available here»
Exhibition | To Play to the Gallery: Fashion and Portrait
Opening this fall at the MAH in Geneva:
Pour la Galerie: Mode et Portrait
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 17 September — 14 November 2021
Longtemps réservé à l’élite, aujourd’hui à portée de téléphone mobile, le portrait est le lieu de la projection et de la fabrication de l’image de soi par excellence. Le vêtement, des somptueux drapés des portraits d’apparat à la variété du vestiaire contemporain, en constitue un élément clé : il est un moyen de distinction, entre conformisme et quête d’originalité. Et au-delà de tout ce qui caractérise une époque, les codes traversent les modes comme autant de signes d’un statut affirmé ou rêvé. En confrontant les peintures et les objets du MAH à la collection d’histoire de la mode de la Fondation Alexandre Vassiliev, du XVe siècle à la période contemporaine, cette exposition invite à s’élancer dans un tourbillon de matières et de couleurs, un grand défilé déployé dans les salles palatines du musée transformées en galerie des miroirs. Instruments de pouvoir, de séduction ou d’évasion, vêtements et portraits nous entraînent dans une foire aux vanités où trouve à s’exprimer, de manière éblouissante ou dérisoire, toute la gamme des aspirations et des émotions humaines.
Exhibition | Geneva and Greece: Friendship and Independence
Opening this fall at the MAH in Geneva:
Genève et la Grèce: Une amitié au service de l’indépendance
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 15 October 2021 — 30 January 2022
A l’occasion du bicentenaire de la déclaration d’indépendance de la Grèce (25 mars 1821), la Fondation Hardt pour l’étude de l’Antiquité classique (Vandœuvres) et le MAH rappellent les relations d’amitié unissant la Grèce et Genève au début du XIXe siècle. Un Grec, Jean Capodistrias, et deux Genevois, Charles Pictet de Rochemont et Jean-Gabriel Eynard, ont joué un rôle clé pour l’intégration de Genève à la Confédération helvétique et pour l’indépendance de la Grèce. Eynard fut, en outre, co-fondateur de la Banque nationale de Grèce.
L’exposition met en valeur la collection du MAH ainsi que celles d’institutions genevoises et de musées suisses. Elle bénéficie également d’importants prêts venant de Grèce, accordés notamment par le Musée d’histoire nationale et le Musée Philhellénique d’Athènes, le Musée Capodistrias de Corfou ainsi que par des collectionneurs privés.
Exhibition | A Taste for the Antique: Anna and Jean-Gabriel Eynard
Opening this fall at the MAH in Geneva:
Le goût de l’antique: Anna et Jean-Gabriel Eynard
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 15 October 2021 — 2 January 2022
Le banquier et philhellène genevois Jean-Gabriel Eynard (1775–1863) s’est acquis une renommée internationale en soutenant la guerre d’indépendance grecque. Mais quel était donc son rapport à l’antique ? Nombre de philhellènes, fascinés par la littérature et l’art grecs, s’engagèrent ainsi en faveur de la liberté de la Grèce.
L’anticomanie des époux Eynard est manifeste. Elle transparaît au travers des édifices qu’ils bâtissent (Palais Eynard, Athénée). Elle imprègne aussi leur cadre de vie comme en témoignent les aquarelles d’Alexandre Calame : outre le mobilier de style néoclassique, de nombreuses peintures et sculptures renvoient à la mythologie gréco-romaine. La statue d’Anna Eynard, réalisée par Bartolini, en est un très bel exemple. L’exposition, où les représentations figurées font écho aux objets, dévoile en outre une partie de la collection de vases antiques du couple Eynard, récemment redécouverte.
Exhibition | Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited
The National Gallery acquired Bellotto’s The Fortress of Königstein from the North (1756–58) in 2017. This exhibition unites it with four other paintings of the site by the artist—paintings from the Manchester Art Gallery, Knowsley Hall, and The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
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Now on view at the National Gallery:
Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited
National Gallery, London, 22 July — 31 October 2021
Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780) painted this historic site—a stronghold located approximately 25 miles south-east of Dresden, in the picturesque Elbe valley—not just once, but five times. In this exhibition, we reunite these five monumental views, which includes our recently acquired view from the north, for the first time in more than 250 years.
Painted at the height of Bellotto’s career, when he was court painter to August III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, these views were commissioned as part of a larger series of 30 views of Dresden and its surroundings. The five paintings of Königstein show the ancient fortress from outside its forbidding walls as well as from within. Bellotto succeeds in capturing both the drama and detail of this commanding site, on canvases measuring more than two metres wide. Stand back and you can see the sharp, angular forms of the fortress, but look closely and you can make out the crumbling stone walls, tiny soldiers on the ramparts and women hanging washing in the courtyard.
For many years Bellotto was overlooked, in favour of his more famous uncle and master, Canaletto, but today he is recognised as one of the most distinctive artistic personalities of the 18th century. Applying what he had learnt in Venice to his highly original panoramic depictions of northern Europe, Bellotto took the tradition of view painting in an entirely new direction.
Letizia Treves, with Lucy Chiswell, Stephen Lloyd, and Hannah Williamson, Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited (London: National Gallery, 2021), 88 pages, ISBN: 9781857096743, £15 / $20.
Exhibition | Table Delights: Historical Linen Damasks
Press release for the exhibition, via the European Textile Network (‘Tafelfreuden’ is my new favorite word! -CH).
Tafelfreuden: Historische Leinendamaste / The Delights of Dining: Historical Linen Damasks
Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg, 25 April — 7 November 2021
Linen Damask with Grapevines, United Provinces, 1660–80 (Abegg-Stiftung, inv. no. 3573; photograph by Christoph von Viràg). White-in-white patterned table linen was generally more expensive than fine glassware, exquisite porcelain, and cutlery in the seventeenth century.
Patterned table linen has adorned festive dining tables since the Late Middle Ages. These pure white tablecloths, napkins, and hand towels are patterned with discreet, artfully-drawn pictorial compositions and coats of arms. Used in conjunction with fine silverware, linen damasks served as a status symbol in both princely and bourgeois households. The textiles that have survived are valuable testimony to historical dining culture. Among the many pleasures of dining, besides indulging the palate, is the spectacle of fine glassware, exquisite porcelain, and silver. And since the early sixteenth century, table linen made of white linen damasks has also been a common part of festive banquets. Often it was the most expensive item on the table.
White-in-white patterned table linen? Is there anything to see at all? Most definitely. For concealed within these seemingly plain white cloths are hitherto unimagined visual worlds and experiences. Their subtlety prompts us to ponder our sense of sight and optical phenomena generally, since depending on the fall of light—and unlike on perfectly illuminated photographs—the woven designs are not always clearly visible. But anyone ready to engage with them will soon discover motifs drawn from seafaring or everyday life, mythological and Biblical scenes, portraits of rulers, historical events, and the patrons’ coats of arms. The Abegg-Stiftung in Riggisberg possesses one of the world’s most important collections of historical linen damasks. These monumental tablecloths, napkins, and hand towels are normally kept in storage. This year’s special exhibition, however, will feature a selection of exceptionally fine examples dating from the sixteenth to eighteenth century. These will be flanked by texts and short films explaining their manufacture, place of origin, and use.
Related publication from the museum:
Cornelis A. Burgers, White Linen Damasks: Heraldic Motifs from the Sixteenth Century to circa 1830 (Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2014), 2 vols, 564 pages, ISBN: 978-3905014563, CHF 280.
The Abegg-Stiftung’s collection of white linen damasks ranks amongst the foremost in the world. With tablecloths, banquet napkins, handtowels, and napkins, it covers a wide range of patterns, including heraldic and historical motifs, biblical and mythological stories, flowers, hunting scenes, views of towns, etc. With emphasis on heraldic motifs all such patterns feature in this catalogue. Occasionally clients also had their names and a date woven in. Most of this napery originates from weaving centres in the Southern and Northern Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and Russia.
Exhibition | Family & Friends: Reynolds at Port Eliot
Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of the Eliot Family, 1746, oil on canvas, 85 × 112 cm (Plymouth: The Box, A16; acquired from the Trustees of Port Eliot Estate through the acceptance in lieu scheme, 2007).
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Press release for the exhibition, via Art Daily. . .
Family & Friends: Reynolds at Port Eliot
The Box, Plymouth, 24 July — 5 September 2021
Curated by Emma Philip
Family & Friends: Reynolds at Port Eliot is a new, free exhibition that draws on The Box’s extensive collection of paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792)—the UK’s single largest public collection of the artist’s work outside of London—to explore the enduring connection between the Plymouth-born master painter and the Eliot family of Port Eliot in St Germans, Cornwall. On view from 24 July until 5 September, the exhibition paints an intimate picture of how a rare fusion of patronage and genuine friendship supported Plymouth’s most famous portrait painter throughout his life, from budding local artist to founding president of the Royal Academy. Intimate in scale and subject matter, the exhibition is a precursor to a major celebration in 2023 which will mark the 300th anniversary of Reynolds’ birth.
It was Reynolds’s early portraits of naval officers living around Plymouth Dock (Devonport) that caught the attention of Captain John Hamilton, a man Reynolds would paint three times over the course of his life and a close friend of the Eliots who later married into the family.
The Eliot connection proved both lucrative and personally fulfilling as Edward Eliot—later the first Lord Eliot—was one of Reynolds’s repeat patrons and acted as one of the pallbearers at his funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1792. The close bond between the Eliots and Reynolds endured even after his death, with the family continuing to purchase his work when it became available, such as Hope Nursing Love, acquired in 1835.
Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Lady Anne Bonfoy, née Eliot (1729–1810), oil on canvas, 125 × 101 cm (Plymouth: The Box, A18; acquired from the Trustees of Port Eliot Estate through the acceptance in lieu scheme, 2007).
Perhaps it was Reynolds’s exceptional ability to capture the individual characters of his sitters that first attracted the Eliot family, or perhaps it was this close relationship that gave rise to some of Reynolds’ most eye-catching work. Many of the pieces within the exhibition speak to this mastery, in particular a rare example of an early group portrait in The Eliot Family (1746), which remarkably shows children actually playing and foreshadows Captain John Hamilton’s future role as part of the family, and Lady Anne Bonfoy (née Eliot) (1755), a stunning portrait which depicts the young woman—whom Reynolds had known for a number of years—in the type of dynamic stance previously reserved for portraits of men.
Family & Friends: Reynolds at Port Eliot is an opportunity for the visitors to see 14 of the 23 paintings that were accepted by Plymouth City Council in lieu of inheritance tax in 2007, and which now form part of The Box’s permanent collection. The Box owns a total of 18 autograph works by Reynolds, plus three attributed to or after Reynolds, as well as a number of his personal items.
After visiting the exhibition, visitors can explore additional gallery spaces at The Box displaying work by and objects belonging to Reynolds. The collection features his 1746 Self-Portrait, his 1755 sitter’s book, palettes, mahl sticks, paint box, and sketchbook from 1750–52. Four works are also on display in the Cottonian Research Room: portraits of Reverend Samuel Reynolds (his father), Frances Reynolds (his sister), Charles Rogers, and a further self-portrait.
Emma Philip, Senior Curator at The Box said: “We’re delighted to display these important Reynolds paintings from our collections for our audiences to enjoy this summer. Now, more than ever, we all feel the importance of our family and friends, and of our images of them. This exhibition offers the opportunity to see an intimate, historic set of portraits and examine the relationship between Reynolds and the Eliot family from a new perspective.”
Councillor Mark Deacon, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Culture, Leisure and Sport said: “Sir Joshua Reynolds is an artist of immense local significance as well as national and international importance and so it’s wonderful to see this intimate celebration of his portraiture of people who meant a great deal to him staged here in Plymouth. The works you’ll see at the exhibition offer a glimpse into those accepted in lieu by Plymouth City Council in 2007 ahead of a more substantial celebration of Reynolds in 2023.”
The Box is Plymouth’s new £46 million cultural destination, proudly led by Plymouth City Council in Britain’s Ocean City. A museum, gallery, and archive. A cafe, shop, and bar. A place that you can make your own, and where there’s always something new to discover. The opening of The Box was one of the most significant cultural events in the UK in 2020. Plymouth’s former Museum and Art Gallery, Central Library and St Luke’s church buildings have been completely transformed with a series of new galleries and exhibition spaces.
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