NEW YORK—She was the one who got away. In 1922, Helen Clay Frick turned down Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, or rather, her portrait. Lady Agnew, wife of Scottish baronet Sir Andrew Agnew, was looking to sell the painting by John Singer Sargent to pay off some debt.
Unfortunately, Helen’s father, industrialist and founder of the Frick Collection, had just passed away, and the collection’s trustees were not buying new pieces at the time. Having been passed up, the portrait was acquired by the Scottish National Gallery in 1925.
Now Lady Agnew has found her way to the Frick’s galleries, not as a part of the collection, but with the exhibit Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery. It’s a small show comprising only 10 works, but manages to represent a microcosm of European painting.
The Scottish National Gallery, located in Edinburgh, is home to paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures ranging from the 14th to early 20th centuries, not only from the best of Scottish art, but of European art in general. Scottish National Gallery Director Michael Clarke and former Frick Deputy Director Colin B. Bailey selected the exhibition pieces from the gallery’s vast collection.
At the exhibition’s Nov. 3 press preview, Clarke said that they tried to select pieces that the Frick would have bought.
Indeed, the works look right at home at the former Frick residence, one of New York City’s coziest places to cozy up to fine art. Also fitting with the Frick Collection’s flair for juxtaposition, the landscapes, portraits, and genre paintings seem to pair up with one another, inviting us to compare and contrast.
The show will continue to the de Young museum in San Francisco and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery
Nov. 5 to Feb. 1, 2015
The Frick Collection
1 E. 70th St.
Admission: $10–$20
frick.org
Read on for a description of each painting.
HOLY
“The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child,” circa 1485, by Sandro Botticelli.
Artist’s background: Italian
Artist’s Style: Early Renaissance
Notes: Maternal love and divine grace commingle in this simple scene. This is one of Botticelli’s rare paintings on canvas as opposed to wood panel, suggesting that it was meant for a private home rather than a church. It’s the first time it’s been shown in the United States.
MUNDANE
“Fêtes Vénitiennes,” 1718–19, by Jean-Antoine Watteau
Artist’s background: French
Artist’s Style: Rococo
Notes: Watteau invented a genre all his own, depicting human follies set in unearthly, lush, Eden-like settings. In “Fêtes Vénitiennes,” suitors vie for the attention of the central woman. There’s some attempted groping in the background. Everyone’s so formal and elegant, but we know what’s really on their minds.
HE
“Colonel Alastair Ranaldson Macdonell, 15th Chief of Glengarry,” 1812, by Sir Henry Raeburn
Artist’s background: Scottish
Artist’s Style: Portrait painter
Notes: Colonel Macdonell, apparently a smallish man, stands proud in highland tartan, a feather in his cap, with a shield and sword on the wall behind him. When other Scottish painters went to England to seek wider markets, Raeburn stuck around, and became portraitist to King George IV in Scotland.
SHE
“Lady Agnew of Lochnaw,” 1892, by John Singer Sargent
Artist’s background: American, but worked on both sides of the Atlantic
Artist’s Style: a leading portrait painter of his gneneration.
Notes: Lady Gertrude Agnew, née Vernon, was 27 when she posed for Sargent. The French bergère and the silk backdrop are studio props. These, along with her relaxed posture, make this portrait one of the most accessible and candid in Sargent’s oeuvre.
OBSCURE
“An Allegory (Fábula),” circa 1585–95, by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
Artist’s background: Born in Crete as Doménikos Theotokópoulos, died in Spain. Artist’s Style: Spanish Renaissance, Mannerism.
Notes: This dark and cryptic picture may refer to the Spanish proverb “Man is fire and woman tow; the devil comes and blows.” The saying is a warning against lust, but the only way that interpretation would make sense is if the central figure is a woman—it’s hard to tell. And it still doesn’t explain the monkey.
EVERYDAY
“An Old Woman Cooking Eggs,” 1618, by Diego Velázquez
Artist’s background: Spanish. One of the most respected Old Masters.
Artisit’s Style: Spanish Golden Age
Notes: Velázquez composed this painting when he was only 19 years old. This painting is sometimes considered a bodegón, a Spanish genre depicting pantry items or game and livestock waiting to be skinned. The categorization is debatable since its central figures are people. Beyond offering a glimpse of country life, this painting can also be read as a study of intergenerational dynamics—the old woman’s direct gaze and the young boy’s oblique one seem loaded with meaning.
SOFT NATURE
“River Landscape with a View of a Distant Village,” circa 1748–50, by Thomas Gainsborough
Artist’s background: British.
Artist’s Style: Rococo. Preferred landscapes to portraits, though he did both.
Notes: It’s a lazy day. A winding dirt road mimics the gentle twist of the river. Dappled waters in the foreground look soft, almost like chalk pastel. The brushwork so blended and delicate that the only tension in this idyllic picture is between a couple of travelers and a couple of milkmaids, whose backs are turned to the viewer.
HARD NATURE
“The Vale of Dedham,” 1827–28, by John Constable
Artist’s background: British.
Artist’s Style: Romantic. Painted portraits also, to make ends meet.
Notes: In this picture, even the most delicate ferns punch out of the ground with vehemence. Nature is unbridled and not always welcoming. Constable makes extensive use of palette knife and fingernails, creating textures that make the painting look hyper-real, almost pixelated. A woman and baby, barely noticeable in the foreground, highlights how fragile, even pathetic, humanity is in this unforgiving place called Earth.
MARRIED
“Margaret Lindsay of Evelick, Mrs. Allan Ramsay,” circa 1758–59, by Allan Ramsay
Artist’s background: Scottish.
Artist’s Style: Classicism.
Notes: Margaret Lindsay is Ramsay’s second wife and former drawing student. Her family disowned her for marrying without their consent, below her social class. Here, Ramsay seems to catch Margaret Lindsay unaware, while arranging flowers. This portrait, done on a small scale, was probably not meant for public display.
UNMARRIED
“The Ladies Waldegrave,” 1780–81, by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Artist’s background: British.
Artist’s Style: Believed deeply in elevating art by referencing the classical. In this case, he alludes to the Three Graces.
Notes: Three powdered young ladies, bouffanted and rouged, sit around on a patio embroidering. These are the grandnieces of author Horace Walpole, who once said that he preferred Ramsay’s portraits of women, but had to settle for Reynolds because at the time Ramsay was no longer working. The girls look almost ghostly in their primness. There’s something impenetrable about their expressions, as if each were thinking her own private thoughts unbeknownst to each other.
