In the large western room there is a considerable number of small objects of the period of the Italian Renaissance, some bronzes belonging to the Athenæum, and some medals loaned by Mr. Charles C. Perkins; there is also a considerable number of reproductions of Italian medals, made by Elkington, of London, which serve a useful purpose in the absence of original specimens. There are also, in this room, several good pieces of Italian majolica; two specimens of the Della Robbia ware—one attributed to Luca, the other to Andrea, both loaned by Mr. Perkins. The collection is not rich in glass, either antique or modern. There are a few pieces of old Venetian glass, but they are neither very interesting nor very valuable.
On the south side of this division of the Museum are two rooms, one of which is occupied with a miscellaneous collection of objects in carved wood and ivory, Italian marriage chests, cabinets, tables, etc., etc., with some Japanese objects, chiefly swords, while the other is fitted up with carved oak of the sixteenth century, the lining of a room in some English house, with additions from other quarters. This is an extremely interesting apartment, and, besides the wood-carving, contains six portraits painted on panel, and forming a part of the original decoration of the room; among them heads of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queen Elizabeth. There are several pieces of antique furniture in this room, and in the center a glass case containing some good illuminated manuscripts. The mantelpiece, in the style of the period, is a modern reproduction.
Returning to the stair-case hall, and crossing to the eastern side of the building, we find ourselves in the picture-galleries. The shape and disposition of these rooms are similar to those in the opposite wing, but owing to the greater height of the sculpture-gallery on the ground floor at the eastern end, the space above it, divided into two rooms, is several feet higher than the rest of the wing. The great height of the upper story permits this division be to made without injury to the effect.
The pictures belonging to the Museum are not without interest, although their value is not very great, if reckoned in money. The early American pictures include portraits by Copley, Stuart, Allston, and West, but with the exception of the well-known portraits of Washington and Mrs. Washington, by Stuart, there is nothing here of particular interest, although there are often pictures loaned to the Museum by old residents of Boston, which are historically valuable. It is much to be desired that the collection of portraits by Copley in the Museum of Harvard College could be deposited in the Museum. There ought to be in this institution as complete a representation of the early art of the country as can be procured, and it would be comparatively easy to accomplish this at the present time. It must not be inferred that the authorities of the Museum have neglected this portion of their mission. On the contrary, they have rendered important service in this direction, and the special exhibitions have been of interest, and of great importance. Beside miscellaneous loan collections, there have been exhibitions of the works of Allston, of William M. Hunt, and of George Fuller, and every year the visitor finds representative pictures by artists of repute at home and abroad, which excite interest, discussion, criticism, and keep the flame of art and the love of art burning, even if—and this by no fault of the institution—comparatively few avail themselves of the light. The French school of painters which had its seat near the Forest of Fontainebleau, and which is associated with the names of Millet, Corot, Rousseau, and Diaz, is better represented here than any other of the modern schools, although Courbet and Couture are both seen in good examples, Courbet especially, of whom there is a fine picture, “La Curée”—the huntsman winding his horn to call the chase together to cut up the stag. The Couture is the Heads of Two Soldiers seen in profile, and though of no importance as subject, is a good example of his method.
The school of Fontainebleau, or more properly speaking, of Barbizon, is represented by the large “Dante and Virgil,” a companion in size to the “Orpheus” of the Cottier collection in New York, but by no means so fine a work. There is no important work by Millet at present, although there have been here some good examples from time to time, and especially his “Sower,” the fine replica of that picture belonging to Mr. Quincy A. Shaw, with other smaller subjects, particularly a Sheep-shearing, a picture in which all that is best in Millet was to be seen.
The picture gallery at the Museum is such a movable feast that it would be useless to attempt a catalogue of its contents. Just now the “Automedon taming the Horses of Achilles,” by Baptiste Regnault, the “Joan of Arc,” by Bastien Lepage, and “The Walk by the River Side,” by Henri Lerolle, are among the most noticeable of the contents of the large room, although there are a number of smaller pictures that are well worth looking at. There is an effort making to purchase the picture by Regnault, and the Lerolle was presented to the Museum in 1884 by Mr. Francis C. Foster.
The remaining rooms in this portion of the building are a small one in which some fine old Dutch paintings are exhibited, and those which contain the Gray collection of engravings. The Dutch pictures, it is hoped, will one day belong to the Museum; they will form a valuable addition to its collection.
The Gray collection fills the room which runs along the southern side of this wing answering to the large picture gallery which is parallel with it on the north. This collection, formed for the late Francis C. Gray by M. Thies, a German connoisseur, is one of the two or three important collections of prints that are owned in America, and in some departments is excelled by none, while the fact that there is a fund derived from moneys left by Mr. Gray, which is devoted to the maintenance and increase of the collection, gives it the advantage over all others here, and ensures its one day becoming of national importance. It is already very rich in Rembrandts and Dürers, but the aim of those who have it in charge is to make it representative in its character, not of any one school in particular but of all the schools and styles of engraving which have existed. The collection is under the intelligent care of Mr. Edward H. Greenleaf, who makes the contents of the portfolios useful to the public by a series of exhibitions of the finest specimens of the various schools, accompanied with titles, notes, and instructive memoranda, so that in default of proper space for doing full justice to the collection in any permanent way, the course of the year brings before the eyes of students and visitors a considerable number of the prints, and thus makes no slight contribution to general enlightenment on the subject.
The next paper in this series will take up the Metropolitan Museum of New York.