News and Events
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center acquires three 19th century paintings of Matthew Vassar’s Poughkeepsie estate, Springside.
Poughkeepsie, NY- When it was completed in 1852, the Poughkeepsie Eagle praised Matthew Vassar’s Springside estate, “Thou art indeed a realization of a painter’s dream….” The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College has recently acquired three paintings of Springside by American landscape painter, Henry Gritten (1818-1873), as promised gifts to the collection. The paintings demonstrate the verity of the Eagle’s proclamation.
The three vivid oil paintings depict Matthew Vassar’s Poughkeepsie estate after its completion in 1852. The paintings serve as important records of the landscape and architectural design of Andrew Jackson Downing. Downing designed Springside for brewer, philanthropist, and founder of Vassar College, Matthew Vassar, as an idyllic home and nature retreat.
“The Gritten paintings of Springside are unique and important historical documents and critical to our understanding of a major lost monument in the history of landscape design,” said Lehman Loeb Art Center director James Mundy. “They complete the picture of Matthew Vassar as an architectural patron.”
The paintings, auctioned at Christie’s in New York City on January 23, 2009, were purchased by an anonymous Vassar alumna and her husband and will reside at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center as promised gifts. Currently being conserved, the Gritten landscapes will be installed in the Art Center galleries by early fall 2009.
According to a family history, cited in the Christie’s auction catalogue, these three paintings were acquired in 1898 from a yard sale in Poughkeepsie by Springside’s caretaker, Karl Keiling (1865-1939).
ABOUT SPRINGSIDE
At the time of the Springside commission, Andrew Jackson Downing was considered the leading American horticulturist and tastemaker in the field of architecture and design. Downing had been appointed by President Filmore to design and supervise the landscape surrounding the White House, the Capitol, and the Smithsonian. Springside, a National Historic Landmark located at Academy Street and Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, is the only surviving Downing landscape and is today being preserved by the Springside Landscape Restoration organization.
Springside’s design exemplified Downing’s theories of combining the beautiful in nature and art. In contrast to the leading trend for rigid, geometric, neoclassical landscape design, Downing advocated in his writings for architecture and landscapes that complimented the rugged New England and Hudson River Valley terrain. His designs strove to exist in harmony with nature.
The original plans for Springside, now part of the Vassar Library collection, show winding paths and thickets of trees. The Gritten paintings allow the 21st century viewer to more completely envision Downing’s actualized design. The paintings depict the winding trails, the lush foliage, and the buildings that complimented rather than competed with the natural scenery. Although many of the pathways survive today, only the Gatehouse remains on the Springside ( http://springsidelandmark.org/ ) property.
ABOUT THE FRANCES LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was founded in 1864 as the Vassar College Art Gallery. The current 36,400-square-foot facility, designed by Cesar Pelli and named in honor of the new building's primary donor, opened in 1993. The Lehman Loeb Art Center's collections chart the history of art from antiquity to the present and comprise almost 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares. Notable holdings include the Warburg Collection of Old Master prints, an important group of Hudson River School paintings given by Matthew Vassar at the college's inception, and a wide range of works by major European and American 20th- century painters. Vassar was the first U.S. college founded with a permanent art collection and gallery, and at any given time, the Permanent Collection Galleries of the Art Center feature approximately 350 works from Vassar's extensive collections.
Admission to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free. The Lehman Loeb Art Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm; Thursday, 10:00 am–9:00 pm; and Sunday, 1:00–5:00 pm. Located at the entrance to the historic Vassar College campus, the Art Center can be reached within minutes from other Mid-Hudson cultural attractions, such as Dia:Beacon, the Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt national historic sites and homes, and the Vanderbilt mansion. The Art Center is wheelchair accessible. For more information, the public may call (845) 437-5632 or visit http://fllac.vassar.edu.
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Posted by College Relations Wednesday, March 5, 2008
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.