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Nature as Nation: 19th-Century American Landscapes from the Collections There is perhaps no theme more central to American national identity than the land. Over the years, land has served for Americans as a wellspring of aesthetic inspiration, spiritual sustenance, and economic opportunity. This permanent collection installation features highlights of the Corcoran’s distinguished holdings of 19th-century American landscape painting, one of the best such collections in the world. The display includes a number of icons in the history of American art, such as Frederic Edwin Church’s groundbreaking 1857 painting Niagara and Albert Bierstadt’s epic 1888 western landscape The Last of the Buffalo. Frederic Edwin Church, (Hartford, Conn. 1826–1900 New York, N.Y.), Niagara, 1857, Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 90 1/2 in. (unframed), Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund 76.15
American Bronzes from the Corcoran Gallery of Art This installation of more than 30 bronze sculptures from the Corcoran’s world-renowned collection of American art highlights works dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries by such masters of the medium as Elie Nadelman, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Alexander Phimister Proctor (sculptor of Washington’s Buffalo Bridge). Works by women sculptors are a particular strength of the Corcoran’s collection, including those by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, Anna Hyatt Huntington, and Bessie Potter Vonnoh. The exhibition also features popular favorites such as western bronzes by Frederic Remington, a Civil War group by John Rogers, and sculptures by artists Thomas Eakins and Paul Manship. Frederic Remington, American (1861–1909), Off the Range (Coming Through the Rye), Modeled 1902; Cast 1903, bronze, Museum Purchase 05.7 (photograph by David Finn)
American Paintings from the Collection Edward Hopper, American (1882–1967), Ground Swell, 1939, oil on canvas, Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund
Sculpture from the Mouse House: The Olga Hirshhorn Collection at the Corcoran Even before her marriage to one of the most astute art collectors of the 20th century, Olga Hirshhorn had long been accumulating objects on her own. While her first collections consisted of hats, hair combs, furniture, and jewelry, they pointed the way to her lifelong commitment to art. She is a passionate collector with an extraordinary breadth of interest in small scale objects at the forefront of artistic thought or steeped in traditional culture, from artists both renowned and little-known. From Cypriot, African, and pre-Columbian antiquities to sculpture, paintings, and works on paper by contemporary masters, Hirshhorn has amassed a treasure trove of primarily small and domestic-scale objects that demonstrates her searching, critical eye and sensitivity to a wide range of forms and styles. In 1995 and again in 2004, Olga Hirshhorn donated significant groups of art from her collection to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Sculpture from the Mouse House: The Olga Hirshhorn Collection at the Corcoran displays a selection of three-dimensional works from these gifts that she had displayed in her Washington, D.C. home. Her tiny residence came to be called the “mouse house” by her friends, and the size of these works reflect the intimate nature of her home as well as the lasting friendships between herself and some of the artists whose work she collected. Olga Hirshhorn’s collection was created mainly during the 1960s and 70s, a time when her late husband, Joseph H. Hirshhorn, the founding donor of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, was still avidly collecting. Through him and his legendary love of American and European modern art, she met artists and dealers and became an avid collector herself. Her collection substantiates her astute eye and keen passion for all the arts. Ranging from the geometric elegance of works by Henri Laurens, Ilya Bolotowsky and Kenneth Snelson to the pop sensibilities of John Chamberlain and Antonia Miralda, the Hirshhorn collection at the Corcoran offers a glimpse into the passion of collecting for the love of art.
Recent Acquisitions in the Corcoran Collection This exhibition focuses on the Corcoran’s recent acquisitions of modern and contemporary art. These works have entered the collection over the past two years through museum purchase and the generosity of individual patrons and foundations. From its beginnings, the Corcoran’s commitment to contemporary art has been at the core of its mission and its identity. The gallery’s founder, William Wilson Corcoran, collected art made in his own day; since then, the Corcoran has exhibited and acquired the art of the present, intended to be displayed and interpreted within the museum’s ever-expanding historical collections of American art, European art, contemporary art, decorative arts and photography. The current exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts by Cynthia Connolly, Jane Hammond, Marc Quinn, Andy Warhol, and Terry Winters, among others. Terry Winters (American, b. 1949), Theoprastus Garden 2, 1982, oil on linen, Gift of the Women's Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Museum Purchase, by exchange: George Biddle 2009.001
John Singer Sargent in the Corcoran Collection Known as the pre-eminent society portraitist of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) had a long and varied career that included plein-air landscapes, murals, watercolors, and skillful drawings. The Corcoran draws on its deep and varied holdings of Sargent’s work for an intimate presentation in the Rotunda. Anchored by two of the artist’s great full-length portraits, Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd White (Mrs. Henry White), 1883 and Marie Buloz Pailleron (Madame Edouard Pailleron), 1879, the exhibition displays one of his later landscapes, Simplon Pass, 1911, as well as a selections of his drawings, many of which were given to the Corcoran by the artist’s sisters. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) , Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd White (Mrs. Henry White), 1883, oil on canvas, Gift of John Campbell White, 49.4
Coming Soon
The Corcoran in Context: European Highlights from the William A. Clark Collection In 1926 Senator William A. Clark of Montana bequeathed his personal collection of over 800 works of art to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The life of Senator Clark was surprisingly parallel with that of David Davies, who built the fortune left to Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. They lived through the same tumultuous period; both were self-made men; both were industrialists with interests in mining; both became politicians. And ultimately, the wealth of both went to the enrichment of major galleries of art. Ranging from ancient Antiquities to Impressionist paintings, Senator Clark’s collection today forms the core of the Corcoran’s holdings of European art. Timed to coincide with Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales (on display at the Corcoran from January 30 through April 25, 2010), The Corcoran in Context displays Clark’s particular enthusiasm for 19th-century French painting. The exhibition will include works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, and Edgar Degas. Edgar Degas, French (1834–1917), The Dance Class (Ecole de Danse), c. 1873 oil on canvas William A. Clark Collection, 26.74
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RELATED INFORMATION Highlights from the Corcoran's permanent collection SHOP ITEMS :: Purchase A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art :: Purchase American Treasures of the Corcoran Gallery of Art Tiny Folio
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