Eminent Domain Elizabethans: State Expropriation Of Manet Painting (from ArtDaily.org)

EdouardManet, Portrait of Madame Claus, 1868



    The Ashmolean Museum is mounting a campaign to save Edouard Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, 1868, for the nation. Onthe advice of the Reviewing Committee, the Culture Minister Ed Vaizey hasextended the temporary export bar on the painting untilAugust to give the Ashmolean time in which to raise the funds in order toacquire the painting. The painting has been sold toa foreign buyer for £28.35 million but, under a privatetreaty sale, with tax remission it can be purchased by an approved UKpublic collection at a greatly reduced price. The Ashmolean isapproaching public funding bodies, trusts and private individuals, andlaunching a public campaign to raise the required £7.83xmillion. 



   Dr Christopher Brown CBE, Director of the Ashmolean, said, “Thisis one of the most important pictures of the 19th century which has been inthis country since its sale following the artist’s death. The painting is available to public bodies approved by theTreasury at 25% of its market value. The £7.83 million, though a substantial sum to be found, is a mere fraction ofthe picture’s actual worth and it would therefore be anenormous disappointment if it could not be saved for the nation. The picture’s significance is reflected in its history: it was hugely admiredand then bought by another great artist, John Singer Sargent, in 1884. Its purchase would, at a stroke, transform the Ashmolean’srepresentation of Impressionist painting.” 

JohnSinger Sargent, Self-Portrait, 1906



 
    Manet was one of the greatest painters of the 19th century.During his lifetime he was controversial, but his work, though it shocked thepublic, was hugely admired by artists. His reputation grew rapidly in the 20thcentury and consequently his best works were acquired by major museums. Thereare now remarkably few Manets in private collections, almost all in France, andthere are only a handful of important pictures byManet in the United Kingdom – in the National Gallery and the Courtauld Institute in London,as well as other works in Cardiff, Birmingham, and Glasgow. Adding to theMuseum’s permanent collections and the Pissarro Family Collection, the acquisition of this masterpiece would make the Ashmolean aworld-leading centre for the study of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work.

 
         The portrait is a preparatory study for Le Balcon (1868–9) now in the Musée d’Orsay - one of the key images of theImpressionist movement. Initially inspired by the sight of people on a balcony,during a summer spent in Boulogne-sur-Mer with his family in 1868, Le Balcon famously draws on Goya’s Majas on a Balcony painted around 1810.It is also an important example of Manet’s work from the late 1860s onwardswhen he began to focus his attention on his family and close friends. The portrait’s subject is Fanny Claus (1846–77), the closest friendof Manet’s wife Suzanne Leenhoff. A concert violinist and member of the first all-women stringquartet, Fanny was one of Manet’s favourite sitters and a member of aclose-knit group of friends who also provided the artist with models. Shemarried the artist Pierre Prins (1838–1913), another friend of Manet’s, in 1869,but died of tuberculosis just eight years later at the age of 30. 

EdouardManet, Le Balcon, 1868-9



      If acquired by the Ashmolean the Portrait of Mademoiselle Clauswill be shown at a number of museums in the UK in a specialexhibition. Having previously been exhibited only once since it waspainted, this will be a great revelationboth to the public and to Manet scholars. As a first sketch, the portrait has aspontaneous quality and a vibrant palette lessevident in Le Balcon which was reworked a number of times by the artist as he refinedthe composition in his studio. Mademoiselle Claus reveals fascinating newinformation about the working methods of Edouard Manet, one of the greatestmasters of modern art. 

 
EdouardManet, Self-Portrait With Palette, 1879

NOTE:   


       This article on the ArtDaily.org website caught my eye this morning, mostly because it pairedthe names of Edouard Manet, one ofmy favorite painters, with Oxford’s esteemed AshmoleanMuseum. However, when I read it and learned about the museum’s “campaign to save Edouard Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, 1868, for the nation”, it made meangry. 


    The general publicusually pays very little attention to Stateexpropriation of private property under the sanitized,clinical, and almost noble-sounding sobriquet “eminent domain.”  Eminent domainconcerns are mostly the province of its unfortunate victims, their lawyers andthe "compulsory takers'" lawyers. (By the way, anyone with any significantleasehold on real property should read their legal documents carefully on thispoint before signing.) 


     I don’t wish to overelaborate, spin this out, or ruin anyone’s day, but itis one thing (albeit a complicated one) if the State feels the desire and expresses the intention to putan essential road through privately-owned real estate by engaging in coerced taking.  But it is quite another when government abrogates aprivate, legal sale of personal property by a citizen (or otherwise legally authorizedperson) for any reason, let alone for such attenuatedand specious ones as we find here.  


    I suppose I could understand – slightly – if the artwork inquestion were British, rather than French, or if it had been the property of ahistorically significant British collector, rather than a famous Americanpainter who happened to purchase the work in Great Britain where he was then resident.Essentially, this painting’sheritage is as foreign to Britain as my own.

   
    I assume that the “private treaty sale,with tax remission” aspect of this horrendous exercise ofState power is intended to lessen the ultimate tax consequences for theabused seller and restore some of his or her lost profit margin.  Possiblyother emoluments (invitations to museumopenings, blue ribbons and rosettes, fancy hors d'oeuvres) are also beingoffered in partial, paltry recompense.  In the end, however, the State will do whatthe State will do.


    Regularly reading about the totallyscrewed-up financial and social state of the United Kingdom today, I find it absolutelyappalling that Prime Minister Cameron's government and the grabby Ashmoleandirector don’t feel that their priorities aretotally misplaced. (Please see today's relevant Link Of The Day on this subject.)  I mean, it’s a lovely painting with an interesting history andconnection to another famous Manet, but Who Cares?  The painting belongs to its owners, not to the British government or people(who I hope would be in general agreement with that proposition).

EdouardManet, Portrait of Madame Claus (detail), 1868

Oysters Functionally Extinct (AFP - 2-3-11)

  

Henri Matisse, Still Life with Oysters, 1940, Republic of Maldives stamp

Oysters disappearing worldwide: study

Feb 3 01:20 AM US/Eastern AFP

        A survey of oyster habitats around the world has found that the succulent mollusks are disappearing fast and 85 percent of their reefs have been lost due to disease and over-harvesting.

        
       Most of the remaining wild oysters in the world, or about 75 percent, can be found in five locations in North America, said the study published in BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. An international team of researchers led by Michael Beck of the Nature Conservancy and the University of California, Santa Cruz, examined the condition of native oyster reefs in 40 ecoregions, including 144 bays.

        "Oyster reefs are at less than 10 percent of their prior abundance in most bays (70 percent) and ecoregions (63 percent)," said the study.


        "They are functionally extinct -- in that they lack any significant ecosystem role and remain at less than one percent of prior abundances in many bays (37 percent) and ecoregions (28 percent) -- particularly in North America, Australia and Europe."

Oyster assembly



        By averaging the loss among all regions, the researchers came up with an estimate that 85 percent of oyster reef ecosystems have been lost, but said that figure was likely low because some areas lacked historical records for comparison.


        The study also did not include oyster reefs in parts of South Africa, China, Japan, and North and South Korea. 

George Frederic Watts, Tasting The First Oyster, 1883

        Other studies and observations in those areas "suggest that wild oyster abundance was much higher in the past and that reefs have declined greatly in abundance or have disappeared altogether," the authors said.


        The one bright spot in the oyster world was in the Gulf of Mexico, where native oyster catches are "the highest in the world despite significant declines in abundance and reefs," according to the study.

Gulf of Mexico oysters


        Five regions where oyster catches were globally the highest were located in eastern North America, from the Virginia coast southward and also in the Gulf of Mexico.

        Oysters are important to ecosystems because they filter impurities from water and provide food and employment for people living in coastal communities.

Oyster luggers at the docks, Baltimore, Maryland, 1905

        The decline in oyster population often begins when trawling or dredging destroys the structure of parts of the reef, leaving surviving oysters vulnerable to stresses in the environment.

        In some cases, non-native species of oysters are introduced after a population decline, and they bring with them diseases that further kill off the native oysters.

Edouard Manet, Oysters, 1862

         
        The authors recommended that any reefs with less than 10 percent of their former abundance be closed to further harvesting until the oysters can build up their numbers again.

Oyster Drawing/Diagram

Pacific oyster

Chincoteague oysters 

Olympia oyster

Belon oyster

Maldon oyster

John Vachon, Marilyn: August, 1953; Tom Clark's Beyond The Pale; Newly Revealed Oscar Wilde Letters -- Two Nations Divided By A Common Language

From ArtDaily.org, 9-25-10:  "In another of the pictures, a comically frightened-looking Monroe is in the clutches of a taxidermy bear." 

The amusing photograph above appeared on the ArtDaily.org website yesterday as part of a publishers's announcement for the new Calla Editions book, Marilyn:  August 1953, released this week.

The photographs contained in the book were taken by LOOK magazine photographer John Vachon, on assignment in Alberta, Canada, where Monroe was filming "River of No Return" with Robert Mitchum. 

According to the article: "An injured ankle prevented Monroe from filming, allowing Vachon to have several days to shoot the Hollywood icon. Only three of photos from the sessions were published in an October 1953 LOOK story. The book will feature photos of Monroe and then fiance, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio snuggling."

I mention all this here for two reasons.  First, I would not wish to stand in the way of the Marilyn Monroe Business, which will apparently roll on forever, and I have no problem passively supporting their efforts.  Second, I only recently became consciously aware of the extraordinary photographic oeuvre and career of John Vachon.  (I say consciously because Vachon's photography career included long stints on staff at Life and LOOK.  No one who grew up in the era when those magazines were being published could not have seen many of Vachon's images.)

The source of my Vachon awareness is the "poetry-art blog" of the major American poet Tom Clark called Beyond The Pale.  Over the past several months on BTP, Clark has turned his attention to the photographs produced of United States life during the Great Depression by the team of master photographers working under the direction of Roy Stryker at the United States Farm Services Administration. Vachon, who began as a non-photographer staff assistant and found his eye and metier during the FSA project, became part of the remarkable FSA crew, which also included Dorthea Lange, Jack Delano, Arnold Rothstein, Russell Lee and others.  Some examples from Tom Clark's site featuring both Vachon's black and white and his extraordinary color photography are found here and here again.  Once you see Vachon's work, I think you will agree that it is impossible to overstate his talent.

I would recommend that anyone interested in photography, American history and how present day life is prefigured in past events, consult Tom Clark's blog and become familiar with his extraordinary historical recovery project, as well as the other materials posted there.  To date, only a small percentage of the negatives in the FSA photography archive have been published.  They were paid for and belong to the American people and we should all avail ourselves of this extraordinary resource.

I don't have Tom Clark's eye, but a couple of Vachon shots that don't appear on Beyond The Pale are posted below, as well as a charming portrait of Vachon himself.  I have also included a Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn shot from the new book and an extraordinary Vachon image, which Tom Clark did previously publish showing an up-close look at two peeling billboard advertising posters.  The American Pop artist James Rosenquist must have been aware of any influenced by Vachon's keen and knowing eye.

John Vachon:  Three photographs of Armistice Day Storm, November 11-12 1940 (top Lyman County, South Dakota; Center: Watkins, Minnesota; Bottom:  Draper, South Dakota).

John Vachon, May 1940 Farm Services Administration photograph of billboard with peeling posters.

John Vachon:  Mrs. Ballnger, Wife of an FSA borrower, March 1942, Flathead County, Montana

John Vachon

Oscar Wilde

Because of the ridiculous number of Google News Alerts I have signed up for over the years, very little of little importance gets by me and escapes my attention.  I can reliably report to you that the Parmenides front remains (and is likely, in my opinion, to remain) quiet and that all that ever occurs on the Heraclitus border are  frequent nearly identical-in-every-instance reminders that change is constant (pretty funny, I think).

Oscar Wilde, however, remains fertile daily news territory, almost on the order of Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga.  Not a day goes by without multiple Wilde mentions and citations.  Usually they take the form of witty ripostes or ironic observations.  Re-reading The Picture of Dorian Gray recently, I was astonished to see that, like the Bible and Shakespeare, Wilde seems to be the source and author of most of the thoughts people try to express and claim as their own.

This week's Wilde story was a little different and involved a cache of five letters written by Wilde to a young London editor he apparently admired named Alsagar Vian in 1887, which were auctioned in England last week for about L34,000, exceeding the L10,000 pre-sale estimate.

The letters, which have been in the possession of Vian's heirs until now, are said to contain more documentary evidence than has heretofore been available about Wilde's homosexual leanings, which are alleged to be revealed in his repeated invitations for Vian to meet and dine with him to discuss literary and magazine editorial matters.

Not having read the letters in their entirety, I cannot comment reliably on the accuracy of this, but among the excerpts that have been published in the newspapers, I did notice this highly amusing interpretation by the Indian press agency ANI (which was widely picked up and republished in the Indian news) concerning the "key" fifth and final letter.

ANI reported yesterday that:

"In the final letter, he went at great lengths to encourage a naked meeting over a flask of wine". 

However, what the text of the letter actually says is:

"Come and dine at Pagani's in Portland Street on Friday, 7:30 pm.  No dress, just ourselves and a flask of Italian wine."

Readers of Wilde's letters (and people generally familiar with the manners of Wilde's time) will already be aware that Wilde was extending a more or less casual invitation to Vian to dine in a public restaurant that did not require formal evening attire, rather than one where his companion would be asked to pose for an updated version of Manet's "Le Dejuener Sur L'herbe".

Funny, I think.

Edouard Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe, 1862-3

Oscar Wilde letter to Alsagar Vian, 1887