Art of the Americas collection

Autumn / Winter 2010
THE NEW
AMERICAN
WING at the
MUSEUM OF
FINE ARTS,
BOSTON
SARGENT and
IMPRESSIONISM
REINTERPRETATION
and RENOVATION at
MONTICELLO
ALSO IN
THIS ISSUE:
Six Centuries
of Chairs
Tiffany
Stained Glass
Native
American Art
Bronze Sculpture
American
Needlework
$6.95 US/C AN
05
0
56698 28524
North Carolina
Pottery
Wadsworth
Atheneum
3
A Tiffany Masterpiece
for the New MFA
by Nonie Gadsden
L
Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933)
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (active 1892–1902)
Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl
New York, New York, circa 1893
Glass, lead, bronze chain, 77 x 38½ inches
Gift of Barbara L. and Theodore B. Alfond in honor of Malcolm Rogers.
2008.1415
2010
ouis Comfort Tiffany created Parakeets and Gold
Fish Bowl to showcase his firm’s design and glass
manufacturing skills at the World’s Columbian
Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In a promotional brochure for
the fair, Tiffany stated that it “illustrate[s] most perfectly the
possibilities of American glass.”
This magnificent window was painstakingly constructed out
of rough and polished pieces of opalescent and “favrile” glass (the
latter patented by L. C. Tiffany in 1894), which created effects
unlike traditional stained glass windows that relied on uniform,
solid-colored pieces of glass along with enameling, paint, or ink
to create detailed images. With favrile glass, each piece could
have several different rich colors that swirl together in varying
degrees of thickness and intensity. Careful glass selection and
manipulation allowed the artisans to create form and figure,
including shading and depth. The variations in the yellow glass
in the background of this window give the effect of ethereal, dappled sunlight, while irregularly shaped pieces of opalescent glass
were used to create dimension in the composition. Opaque white
drapery glass (so called because the heavily folded glass suggests
fabric folds), was used over multicolored glass to suggest the
impression of water in the fish bowl. To heighten the illusionistic
effect, Tiffany incorporated a real chain to suspend the fish bowl.
These daring techniques represented a new direction for Tiffany’s
leaded glasswork that he continued to refine for years and for
which he is well known today.
Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl was recently donated to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, by MFA board president
Barbara L. Alfond and her husband Theodore in honor of
MFA director Malcolm Rogers. The window will be unveiled
in the Robert P. and Carol T. Henderson Gallery for Art of the
Aesthetic Movement at the November opening of the new Art
of the Americas Wing, and will be shown alongside works by
Tiffany’s great rival, John La Farge, as well as James McNeill
Whistler, Thomas Dewing, Tiffany and Company, and the
Herter Brothers.
Nonie Gadsden is the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator
of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
Antiques & Fine Art
157
The New Art
of the Americas
Wing at the
Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston
BY ELLIOT BOSTWICK DAVIS
ABOVE:
Fig. 1: Exterior Landscape Looking into Ruth
and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard.
Photograph copyright of Chuck Choi (2009).
FACING PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT:
Aerial view rendering of The New MFA designed
by Foster + Partners (London). Courtesy of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fig. 2: Mask, 1150–550 B.C. Olmec, Rio Pesquero
area, Veracruz, Mexico, Early to Middle Formative
period (900–550 B.C.). Jadeite with black
inclusions. H. 8 ½ in. Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. Gift of Landon T. Clay (1991.968).
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fig. 3: Winslow Homer (1836–1910), Boys in a
Pasture, 1874. Oil on canvas, 15⅞ x 22⅞ inches.
The Hayden Collection (53.2552). Courtesy of
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
158
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T
he new Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA),
opening November 20, 2010, marks the culmination of over a decade’s work to
bring together in one place a more inclusive vision of American art. In 1999,
renowned architects Foster + Partners (London) were selected to design the new wing
for the Art of the Americas and Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard (Fig. 1)
accessible through the two redesigned entrances, Huntington Avenue and the State
Street Corporation Fenway Entrance. The design reestablishes the MFA’s north-south
axis envisioned by Guy Lowell (1870–1927), the museum’s original architect, bringing
visitors to the heart of the MFA and improving navigation throughout the building.
Containing fifty-three galleries, the new wing allows for more than 5,000 works from
the museum’s Art of the Americas collection to be on view, which more than doubles the
number previously displayed. The new wing exhibits art from North, Central, and South
America spanning three millennia, including works of the Ancient Americas, such as the
Olmec mask of 1100 b.c. (Fig. 2), and Native North America (see “Native American Art
at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” pages 168–173), as well as painting, sculpture, and
decorative arts up through about the third quarter of the twentieth century (Fig. 3). For
the first time since the museum’s founding in 1870 (the present location is its second
home), objects representing the Americas across a broad range of media have been brought
together, including prints, drawings, photographs, musical instruments, and textiles and
fashion arts (see “The Samplers of Colonial Boston,” pages 162–167).
Autumn/Winter
Galleries are arranged chronologically on each of the four
floors, allowing visitors to travel through time as they rise through
space. Level LG is dedicated to Ancient American, Native
American, seventeenth-century, and maritime art. Level 1 features
art of the Colonial Americas. The cosmopolitan world of Colonial
Boston comes to life with the sumptuous examples of furniture,
silver, portraits, and textiles displayed in period settings (Figs. 4,
5). The United States’ emergence as a new nation is also explored
in a gallery featuring an enormous, historical portrait of George
Washington, The Passage of the Delaware, created by Thomas Sully
in 1819 (Fig. 6). Measuring 12 feet high by 17 feet wide, the
painting has been reunited with its original frame for first time
since entering the MFA in 1903 (to view a video of the painting’s
installation, visit www.mfa.org). Level 2 explores nineteenthcentury and early-twentieth-century art with special attention
2010
given to the work of John Singer Sargent (Fig. 7) in all phases of
his career. Level 3 displays twentieth-century art up to the 1970s.
Some of the galleries are devoted to a single artist or to
makers, such as John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) and the
Goddard-Townsend families, master furniture craftsmen in eighteenth-century Newport; style (the Gothic Revival, the Aesthetic
Movement (see “A Tiffany Masterpiece for the New MFA, Boston,
Wing,” page 157); or period (American Art and Design in the
1920s and 1930s).
The North and South Pavilions with their more intimate spaces
and domestically scaled ceiling heights offer a variety of period
rooms and settings, nine in all throughout the wing, that are placed
adjacent to additional galleries. The South Pavilion on Level One is
entirely devoted to the re-created rooms of the Oak Hill Mansion,
residence of Elizabeth Derby West, daughter of the prosperous shipAntiques & Fine Art
159
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER TOP:
Fig. 6: Thomas Sully (1783–1872), The Passage of the Delaware, 1819.
Oil on canvas, 146½ x 207 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Gift of the Owners of the old Boston Museum (03.1079).
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Rendering of The New MFA designed by Foster + Partners (London).
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fig. 5: John Singleton Copley (American, 1738–1815), Paul Revere, 1768.
Oil on canvas, 35⅛ x 28½ inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of
Joseph W. Revere, William B. Revere and Edward H. R. Revere (30.781).
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fig. 4: Sons of Liberty Bowl, 1768, Paul Revere, Jr. (1734-1818). Silver.
Overall. 5½, Base: 513⁄16, Diam.: 11 in. Boston, Massachusetts. Gift by
Subscription and Francis Bartlett Fund (49.45). Courtesy of Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
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FACING PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT:
Fig. 7: John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) , The Daughters of Edward
Darley Boit, 1882 Oil on canvas, 87⅜ x 87⅝ inches. Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Mary Louisa Boit, Julia Overing Boit,
Jane Hubbard Boit, and Florence D. Boit in memory of their father,
Edward Darley Boit (19.124). Photograph Courtesy of Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fig. 8: Chest-on-chest, 1806-1809. Design and carving attributed
to Samuel McIntire (1757–1811) Salem, Massachusetts. Mahogany,
mahogany veneer, ebony and satinwood inlay, pine. The M. and M.
Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts (41.580).
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fig. 9: Joseph Stella (American, 1877–1946), Old Brooklyn Bridge,
about 1940. Oil on canvas, 76¼ x 68¼ in. Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. Gift of Susan Morse Hilles in memory of Paul Hellmuth,
1980. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1980.197).
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Autumn/Winter
ping merchant Elias Hasket Derby, often described as the first
millionaire in the United States. West commissioned Salem architect Samuel McIntire to design the rooms, which attest to her love
of neoclassical and feminine motifs such as baskets of flowers, cornucopia, and the goddess of Liberty also known as Columbia, who
stands prominently atop the extraordinary chest of drawers in her
bedroom (Fig. 8), now far more accessible than ever before.
Many new acquisitions are displayed for the first time, among
them many more artists of color—supported by the initiative of
the Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection—as well as women
artists, and artists like César Paternosto from Argentina. These
additions to the collections speak to the breadth, richness, and
diversity of artistic expression emanating from the United States,
and, more broadly, from the Americas.
2010
The MFA’s new wing for the Art of the Americas and Ruth and
Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard will open to the public on
Saturday, November 20, 2010. In celebration, the museum is
hosting a free Community Day to welcome visitors to see The
New MFA. The New MFA will enrich the ways in which visitors
encounter the museum’s great works of art, improve navigation
through its galleries, as well as enhance and increase space for the
MFA’s encyclopedic collection, educational programs, conservation facilities, and special exhibitions. In September 2011, the
MFA’s new Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art will open.
For information call 617.267.9300 or visit www.mfa.org.
Elliot Bostwick Davis is the John Moors Cabot Chair,
Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Antiques & Fine Art
161
THE SAMPLERS
OF COLONIAL
BOSTON
BY PAMELA PARMAL
G
ertrude Townsend, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s, first curator
of textiles, focused much of her energy during the late 1930s and
early 1940s on building the country’s finest collection of early
American embroidery, curating the exhibition New England Colonial
Embroidery, in 1941, the first to focus exclusively on the subject. With the
opening of the museum’s new American Wing in November 2010, three consecutive exhibitions will further Townsend’s work and will be the basis for a
forthcoming publication exploring the embroideries of colonial Boston, the
lives of the girls and women who made them, and the economic role of embroidery in this urban center (Fig. 1).
The first exhibition Embroideries of Colonial Boston: Samplers, Saturday,
November 20, 2010, through Sunday, March 13, 2011, features samplers from
the eighteenth century made by girls between the ages of ten and thirteen; the
age when girls from middle- and upper-middle-class families typically began
their training in the genteel arts of embroidered fancy work, music, dancing,
and deportment. Girls furthering their embroidery education began their
training by working elaborate samplers, often embroidered with pictorial
imagery created using a wide range of stitches. These samplers no longer func162
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LEFT:
Fig. 1: This 1769 map by John Bonner illustrates Boston
before the landfill obliterated the Mill Pond. At the time,
the city divided itself into the North End and South End,
with the city’s primary business district, along and
between King and Cornhill Streets. Map reproduction
courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the
Boston Public Library.
RIGHT:
Fig. 2: Mary Holingworth, born in Salem (about
1650/52). Sampler, ca. 1665. Linen plain weave embroidered with silk; 25 x 7½ inches. Photo courtesy of the
Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
Mary Holingworth’s sampler shares many similarities
with band samplers embroidered in England during the
mid-seventeenth century, including the stitches used,
the color of the silk, and the design of the bands. Band
samplers developed in England during the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth century as a way to collect
embroidered band patterns that could be worked onto
clothing and household linens.
Autumn/Winter
LEFT:
Fig. 3: Mehetabel Done, Boston (1715–1757).
Sampler, 1724. Linen plain weave embroidered
with silk; 18½ x 7½ inches. Collection of Anna
and Neil Rasmussen.
Mehetabel Done’s sampler is the oldest known
Boston Adam and Eve sampler. Mehetabel was
the granddaughter of Elias Calendar, who served
as minister of the First Baptist Church, at the corner
of Stillman and Salem Streets in the North End,
from 1718 to 1738.
RIGHT:
Fig. 4: Anonymous, sampler, initialed M. D. English,
1654. Linen plain weave embroidered with silk;
17¾ x 7⅛ inches. Photo courtesy of the MFA Boston.
While the scene at the bottom of this seventeenthcentury English sampler is almost identical to
Mehetabel Done’s sampler (fig. 3), even more
striking is the use of similar stitches. Both include
satin stitch and a complex wrapped buttonhole
stitch rarely found on samplers.
2010
tioned in the traditional sense as a collection of patterns which could be copied
onto household linens or clothing, but were often framed and hung on the wall as
symbols of a girl’s genteel accomplishments.
Newspaper advertisements and primary sources have revealed that more than
one hundred embroidery teachers were active in eighteenth-century Boston. Each
taught her own style, which might have been influenced by the samplers she
worked as a young girl or by what was fashionable at the time. Even with the wide
range of samplers produced within the city of Boston, taken as a whole, the schoolgirl embroideries produced in the period reflect the evolution of Boston from
Puritan capital to wealthy merchant town and the changes that took place in the
education of its young women over the course of a century.
The samplers in the exhibition fall into distinct styles, some reflect the fact that
they were embroidered under the same teachers, others indicate evolutions in
design from one teacher to the next, one generation to the next. Some samplers
reveal the influence of immigrants who brought their own embroidery styles to
Boston. As a result of recent research, some of the samplers can now also be
grouped by neighborhood and social and economic class.
Of the few known surviving seventeenth-century American samplers, none can
Antiques & Fine Art
163
be securely attributed to a Boston teacher. According to the reverend
William Bentley (1759–1819) of Salem, Massachusetts (whose diary is
the source of much information from the period), the sampler worked
by Mary Holingworth of Salem in circa 1660–1665 (Fig. 2) was completed in Boston when Mary studied with Mme. Piedmonte, described
1
by Bentley as a “celebrated instructress of her day.” Although no
information about Mme. Piedmonte has been found in the historical
record, the reference points to Boston as an important center for the
education of the children of prosperous families from beyond Boston
as far back as the seventeenth century.
More than one hundred Boston samplers made between 1700 and
1776 have been identified. The earliest samplers that can be securely
placed within the city show the influence of England. It is not surprising, since the colonists brought their culture and traditions with
them. As Boston developed into a wealthy port city and center of colo164
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LEFT:
Fig. 5: Rebekah Owen (1734–1811), Boston. Sampler, 1745. Linen
plain weave embroidered with silk; 18 x 10½ inches. Museums of
Old York, York, Maine.
By the early 1740s, the typical Adam and Eve sampler had a more
centralized scene and a strawberry border. This evolution could
indicate the influence of a new teacher in the city.
RIGHT:
Fig. 6: Sarah Hill (1726–1784), Boston. Sampler, 1737, Linen plain
weave embroidered with silk; 18 x 8 inches. Photo courtesy of
Historic New England. Museum accession; 1918.10.
In 1737, a new sampler style appeared in Boston. This sampler and
a near identical example by Hepzibah Baker in the collection of
the Winterthur Museum share a hexagon band, now known as the
Boston Band, which is a signature element of this style. The
teacher of this style of sampler probably later adapted it to
include the figures of Adam and Eve as can be seen in fig. 7 and
continued to teach the sampler until the late 1740s.
Autumn/Winter
LEFT:
Fig. 7: Margaret Mansfield (1728–1777), possibly Lynn,
Mass. Sampler, 1744. Linen plain weave embroidered with
silk; 20 x 8 inches. Collection of Jane and Gerald Katcher.
Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
This sampler was made by Margaret Mansfield who was
sent to Boston to be educated. Many women who taught
embroidery also boarded girls.
RIGHT:
Fig. 8: Sarah Lowell (1738–1759), Boston. Sampler, 1750;
Linen plain weave embroidered with silk; 17⅞ x 12⅝ inches.
Collection of Glee Krueger. Photo by Ralph Krueger.
Sarah Lowell was the daughter of Ebenezer and Mary
Reed Lowell. Her father was a successful merchant and
retailer, and the family lived on State Street in the South
End of the city near the Boston Common. The two figures
carrying the bunches of grapes are the Spices of Canaan
biblical imagery.
2010
nial trade, its merchants identified themselves as a part of the British Empire
and took pride in keeping up with the latest London fashions in architecture,
design, and education. One of the first women to advertise embroidery lessons
in the city was Mary Turfrey in 1706. According to Bentley, Turfrey had newly
arrived from London, and so would undoubtedly have brought the latest styles
of embroidery with her. Mary Holingworth, who had earlier been instructed
by Mme. Piedmonte, and her husband, Philip English, sent their daughter
2
Susannah to board and take lessons with Turfrey.
Samplers embroidered with images of Adam and Eve or the Garden of
Eden form the most identifiable and earliest Boston sampler style. Three distinct groups of Adam and Eve samplers evolved during the eighteenth
century. The earliest known group was made between 1724 and 1736. The
scene with Adam and Eve in Figure 3 shares a remarkable similarity to that
of a 1654 English sampler in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston (Fig. 4), and a related embroidery may have inspired the woman who
Antiques & Fine Art
165
developed this style of Adam & Eve sampler for her students. Six known samplers in this
style were worked between 1724 and 1736 along with five related samplers, two of which
feature the Garden of Eden without Adam and Eve and another three composed solely of
decorative bands. The second recognizable group of Adam and Eve samplers (Fig. 5)
includes five samplers that appear to be later transformations of the previous-mentioned
style, possibly developed by a new teacher at the school. A third Adam and Eve sampler had
emerged by the late 1730s (Figs. 6, 7). There are nine known examples, the earliest two of
which feature the Garden of Eden, again devoid of Adam and Eve. The girls who worked
these samplers lived in the North End of Boston and were the daughters of its craftsmen
and merchants
The North End of Boston was the first area of the city to be settled in the 1630s and
remained home to the original Puritan colonists’ families into the eighteenth century, where
Adam and Eve as well as references to the Garden of Eden remained important symbols in
3
Puritan theology. In the mid-eighteenth century the South End of the city became home
to Boston’s more prominent merchants who built large estates near the Boston Common
and set themselves up as gentlemen. Educated by the most fashionable teachers, their
daughters embroidered tent-stitch pictures, often with pastoral scenes, and coats of arms
that included more expensive materials than the silk threads used on samplers such as gold
and silver metallic yarns. The girls embroidered samplers as well, although simpler in design
and execution than the samplers made in the North End. Popular styles included biblical
imagery such as the Spies of Canaan (Fig. 8) or bands of flowers (Fig. 9).
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LEFT:
Fig. 9: Lucretia Keyes, born in
Marlborough, Massachusetts (1723-1764).
Sampler, 1737. Linen plain weave
embroidered with silk; 18½ x 14½ inches.
Collection of Anna and Neil Rasmussen.
Lucretia Keyes embroidered her sampler
in 1737 shortly after her father, the merchant Gersham Keyes moved his family
from Marlborough to Boston. The family
lived in the South End near Peter Pelhem,
a painter-engraver who also opened a
school where he and his wife taught dancing, painting on glass and embroidery.
RIGHT:
Fig. 10: Mary Welsh (1760-1820), Boston.
Sampler, about 1772; Linen plain weave
embroidered with silk; 21 x 15 inches.
Photo courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg
Mary Welsh’s sampler, which is dominated
by the tent stitch picture of a seated
shepherdess and shepherd, has more in
common with the pictorial embroideries
worked by Boston schoolgirls than with
more traditional band samplers of the
earlier eighteenth century.
Autumn/Winter
Fig. 11: Sally Jackson (born in 1760), Boston. Sampler, 1771. Linen
plain weave embroidered with silk; 30 x 20 inches. Photo courtesy
of the MFA Boston.
The design of this sampler shares remarkably similar elements with an
embroidered chair seat and crewel, or wool, embroidered petticoat
borders and bed hangings in the collection of the MFA, Boston, all of
which may have been designed by the same Boston draughtsman.
As pictorial embroidery and not sampler work began to dominate in Boston’s finer embroidery schools of the South End and
city center, its imagery, often pastoral, began to influence the sampler styles produced by girls of the North End which now
4
incorporated elaborate pastoral scenes created in tent stitch (Fig.
10). Other samplers incorporated the pastoral imagery found on
crewel-work bed hangings or petticoat borders and set within an
elaborate floral framework (Fig. 11). The Boston samplers of the
third quarter of the eighteenth century reflect the trend toward
more pictorial works that served as emblems of gentility rather
than symbols of piety and education. By the end of the eighteenth
century Boston’s evolution from Puritan community to wealthy
merchant town was complete. The samplers produced during this
time reflect the tastes of a secular community where prominence
was based on wealth and not on religion.
Pamela A. Parmal is the David and Roberta Logie Curator
of Textile and Fashion Arts and Department Head at the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
1. Richter, Paula. Painted with Thread: The Art of American Embroidery (Salem,
Mass.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2000), 8.
2010
Embroideries of Colonial Boston: Samplers will open
with the MFA’s new American Wing on Saturday,
November 20, 2010, and continue through Sunday,
March 13, 2011. This exhibition is supported by the Coby
Foundation, Ltd. and the MFA Associates/MFA Senior
Associates Exhibition Endowment Fund. Embroideries of
Colonial Boston: Pictorial Embroideries will follow and
remain open from April 2, 2011 through August 28, 2011.
The third exhibition in the series, Embroideries of
Colonial Boston: Domestic Textiles will open on
September 17, 2011 and close on May 27, 2012. For more
information call 617.267.9300 or visit www.mfa.org.
2. Diary of William Bentley, Vol. II (Salem, Mass., The Essex Institute, 1905), 25.
3. See Andrew Morrall, “Regaining Eden: Representations of Nature in SeventeenthCentury English Embroidery” in ‘Twixt Art and Nature: English Embroidery from
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580–1700, ed. by Andrew Morrall and Melinda
Watt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 79–97. I would also like to thank
Lynn Tinley for sharing her PhD dissertation work on Boston Adam and Eve samplers.
4. See Nancy Graves Cabot, “Engravings and Embroideries: The Sources of Some
Designs in the Fishing Lady Pictures,” in Antiques Magazine (December, 1941):
367–369, and Gertrude Townsend, “Notes on New England Needlework Before
1800” in Bulletin of the Needle and Bobbin Club 28 (1944): 2–23.
Antiques & Fine Art
167
NATIVE AMERICAN ART
at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
BY GERALD W.R. WARD
F
or the first time in its long history, the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, has a gallery dedicated to the display and
interpretation of the magnificent arts of Native Americans.
The new gallery presents a broad overview of the diverse
works of art created by Native Americans across the continent
from ancient times to the present day. Many rarely seen textiles
and other light-sensitive objects will be displayed for the first
time, with additional examples going on view in rotation in the
future. Centrally located in the new Art of the Americas Wing,
the Native American Gallery is situated next to galleries devoted
to the arts of ancient Central and South America, presenting a
long sweep of the arts of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
The gallery represents only a fraction of the artistic traditions
of the “five hundred nations” often grouped under the allembracing (but misleading) term “Indian.” The works of art here
include examples from most areas of the continent. Large cases in
the center of the room contain a survey of Southwest pottery and
jewelry, as well as baskets from several regions, while other areas
are devoted to objects created by diverse regional and cultural
groups. A particular strength of the gallery is a generous selection
of the museum’s collection of historic and contemporary pottery
from many of the pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona.
A significant number of modern works in many media are
presented in the gallery. As those objects indicate, Native
Americans are working actively in both traditional and contemporary modes. Today’s artists feel a close kinship to their ancestors
and often discuss the connections of their work to ancient prototypes, thus recognizing the continuum while simultaneously
demonstrating the vibrancy and vitality of the modern Native
American experience. As the twenty-first century progresses,
Native American artists will undoubtedly continue to encounter
many challenges, each identifying a unique formula to balance the
on-going pressures of weighing continuity versus change, of
seeking freedom from tradition as well as freedom within a tradition, of establishing an individual voice within or without a group
identity. Cultural critic Paul Chaat Smith (Niuam [Comanche])
has noted that Native Americans’ “true history is one of constant
change, technological innovation, and intense curiosity about the
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Continued on page 173
Autumn/Winter
Shot pouch and powder horn, possibly Lenape (Delaware),
Eastern United States, early 19th century.
Wool twill trimmed with glass beads, horn.
(2008.1459.1) L. 28 in., W. 7½ in.; (2008.1459.2) L. 29 in., W. 6 ½ in.
Gift of Tim Phillips (2008.1459.1-2).
The shot pouch and powder horn were introduced when Europeans
brought guns to the New World. On the East Coast this occurred
almost as soon as the Dutch and English arrived in the first half of the
seventeenth century. Lavishly decorated shot bags were probably made
as gifts and not for everyday use. The provenance of this bag suggests
this is the case here. According to family history, a Lenape hunting
guide gave the shot pouch and powder horn to Nathaniel Hurd, a
merchant of Frederick, Maryland, who often hunted in the Allegheny
Mountains with the guide. The materials and decoration of the shot
pouch support the provenance. The use of wool trade cloth and the
decoration of fine white beads with a “picot” or lace-like edging
appear to be consistent with Lenape practices at the time. Several
Lenape women’s leggings collected by Erastus Tefft (who, according to
a New York Times article of December 27, 1907, was said to have the
most complete collection of Native American artifacts in the world)
are similar in execution and style. Tefft’s collection was purchased by
the American Museum of Natural History in 1910.
Rick Rivet, Métis (b.1949), String Game—2 (Kayaker), 2001.
Acrylic on canvas, 42 x 42 inches.
Gift of James and Margie Krebs (2009.4342).
Born in the Canadian Arctic, Rick Rivet is descended from the
Métis, a distinct cultural group that grew out of the intermingling
of European and Native peoples in the early days of colonization.
He was raised in a family of hunters, trappers, and fishers, eventually earning his MFA from the University of Saskatchewan. As he
notes, his work “aspires to the spiritual, to the recovery of the main
tradition of creativity. The encounter with shamanic ideology and
culture compels the contemporary artist to admit to the binding
ties of a common spiritual heritage.” This is one of several paintings
in which Rivet explores the forms created by string games, evoked
here by the white lines in the center of the canvas. Children all over
the world play string games—cat’s cradle, for example—making
these a nearly universal human experience. Rivet also invokes the
cardinal directions with the words “North” and “South” at the top
and bottom of the painting, transforming the canvas into a maplike space. At the top left, the pointed white shape suggests the form
of the kayak mentioned in the title as seen from above or below.
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Carrying basket or coiled pack basket, Lataxat (Klikitat),
Columbia River area, Washington, about 1890.
Coiled cedar and spruce, bear grass, wild cherry bark,
horsetail or dyed cedar bark. H. 12 in., Diam. 10¼ in.
Gift of Arthur Beale and Teri Hensick (2008.1503).
Baskets made by the Plateau peoples of the mid–Columbia
River area of the state of Washington are among the finest
examples of Indian art produced in this country. This
sturdy carrying or pack basket, used for gathering huckleberries, is attributed to the Lataxat (Klikitat), who live on
the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains north of the
Columbia River. This example is fashioned of coiled cedar
and spruce, completely imbricated with bear grass, wild
cherry bark, and horsetail or dyed cedar bark. The imbrications (overlapping of the edges in the design) creates the
tile- or scale-like appearance of the exterior. The traditional
design on this basket has been identified by modern makers
as the “geese in flight” pattern, so named by their ancestors.
Horse’s headstall, Diné (Navajo), Arizona, about 1875-1900.
Silver, leather, H. 25½ in., W. 17½ in., D. 2 in.
Gift of Ruth S. and Bertram J. Malenka and their sons,
David J. and Robert C. Malenka (2008.203).
The Diné (Navajo) learned silversmithing from Mexican plateros
working in the Southwest during the second half of the nineteenth century, probably in the late 1860s or early 1870s. The raw material for
their craft was usually obtained by casting Mexican and American coins
into a melting pot; turquoise elements were also often used as highlights
on their silver products.This horse’s headstall is one of the characteristic
Diné forms made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
along with concha belts, ketohs, squash-blossom necklaces, bracelets,
rings, and other types. Fashioned from commercial leather, the side
pieces of the headstall are sheathed in part in silver, including a concha (a
round, shell-shaped ornament) with stamped decoration, and have silver
strap ends that curve upward. The so-called cloud-shaped brow or crosspiece has both stamped decoration and rocker-engraved detail on its
plaques. An ornament, probably a crescent-shaped naja was originally
suspended from the loop located on the browpiece at its center.
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Autumn/Winter
Edna Romero (Santa Clara, born in 1936),
Water jar (Olla), Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, 2001.
Micaceous clay, H. 12½ in., Diam. lip 8¾ in.
Gift of the Bardar Collection in honor of Ruth S. Malenka (2001.822).
Although the museum has a strong collection of Native American pottery from the
Southwest, the holdings include only a few examples made of the glittering micaceous clay favored by the potters of several of the northern New Mexico pueblos.
Edna Romero, originally from Santa Clara, is a member by marriage of the extended
Naranjo pottery-making family of Taos, which has some of its roots in Santa Clara.
This water jar is a thinly walled, beautifully formed vessel distinguished by its carefully modulated surface and elegant shape. It was acquired directly from the artist by
the donors at Indian Market in Santa Fe in August 2001. Indian Market, organized
by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts and held each year since 1922, provides an important opportunity for many Native American artists to market their
wares to collectors and to receive recognition for their work. Romero’s pottery has
received awards at numerous Indian markets and other Southwest art fairs.
Chilkat dancing blanket, Tlingit, Southeastern Alaska. Early 20th century.
Twined wool and cedar bark, vegetal dye. H. 45 in., W. 65 in.
Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously (2008.650).
Members of the Tlingit of the Northwest Coast wore intricately patterned
shoulder blankets with a long fringe for ceremonial dances and during the potlatch. The blankets symbolized the wearer’s high status within the community,
and upon death the owner was often buried wrapped in the blanket, or it was
hung outside the grave. Typically, clan crests depicting stylized animals such as
whales, beavers, and bears are featured on the blankets. Here, the crest represents a diving whale, one of the more common designs found on such blankets.
This example is remarkable for the intensity of its color, as the traditional dyes
used in these blankets are very fugitive and normally fade relatively quickly
when exposed to light. Such vibrant colors may be an indication that this
example was made for trade and purchased soon after its completion.
Stan Natchez (Shoshone/Paiute, born in 1954),
White Buffalo—We the People, 1997.
Acrylic and collage on canvas. H. 48 in., W. 58 in.
Gift of James and Margie Krebs (2006.1925).
The buffalo has important symbolic resonance for many contemporary Native
American artists, both because of its significance in traditional Plains Indian culture
and because, more recently, the species has begun to flourish after near extinction.
Here, Natchez, by descent a Shoshone-Paiute, creates an explicit relationship
between the buffalo’s body and the historical images of Native people collaged
within it. Natchez refers in the painting’s title to white buffalo, animals that are
extremely rare and are considered sacred by many Plains Indian cultures. The title
also evokes the figure of White Buffalo Woman, highly important to several Plains
peoples, who is said to have taught the Lakota to pray. White Buffalo Woman,
during an appearance on earth, also taught the people how to use the buffalo to sustain them; then, as she was departing, she promised to reappear one day and restore
the earth to harmony. Combined with the phrase “We the People,” this reference
suggests an ultimately hopeful vision of our collective future.
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Nathan Begaye (Hopi-Diné [Navajo], born in 1969),
Squash Maiden vessel, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2002.
Earthenware with slip paint, beads.
H. 14⅛ in., W. 5¾ in., D. 5½ in.
Gift of James and Margie Krebs (2006.1911).
One of the most innovative and freewheeling contemporary
Native American potters, Nathan Begaye was born in Arizona
to a Diné (Navajo) father and Hopi mother. After a rather conservative family upbringing near the Hopi Third Mesa in
Arizona, he studied pottery at the Institute of American Indian
Art in Santa Fe and then in the distinguished ceramics program
at Alfred University in upstate New York, where he worked with
studio potter Wayne Higby. Begaye’s extraordinary pottery is
noted for its eclecticism; he draws upon the full range of Native
American motifs and designs to create a wide variety of objects
that almost always have an air of humor and wit about them.
He is as interested in sculptural form—including the human
form—as he is in the more typical Native American art of
painting. As Begaye developed this vessel, he selected a subject
from his Hopi background, a young maiden, adorned with bead
necklaces, and with her hair coiled in the typical Hopi “squash
blossom” or “butterfly” mode adopted by young girls of marriageable age. An air of sensuality or eroticism is not uncommon
in Begaye’s pottery; it is one element of his work that places
Begaye apart from many modern Native American potters.
Water jar, Acoma, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, about 1930-40.
Earthenware with slip paint. H. 11½ in., Diam. 15 in.
Gift of James and Margie Krebs (2006.1913).
Acoma, also colloquially known as Sky City, is one of the most
magnificently sited villages in the world, perched high atop a towering mesa in central New Mexico. Inhabited for at least a
thousand years, it is also one of the oldest continuously occupied
communities in the United States. Acoma’s geographical and physical isolation provided its inhabitants with a degree of
independence that allowed them to retain a largely preindustrial
traditional way of life well into the twentieth century. Acoma pottery, such as this twentieth-century example, has been made for
centuries from a deposit of locally dug clay. The inherent plasticity
of this natural material permits the potter to fashion lightweight
vessels with thin, hard-fired walls that can accommodate a precise
painting style, evident here and on many examples from Acoma.
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Joe David, Nuu-Chah-Nulth (Nootka), born in 1946, Loren White, born in 1941,
Took-beek. Dayton, Oregon, 1982. Painted red cedar. H. 74 in., W. 24 in.
Gift of Dale and Doug Anderson in honor of Ron and Anita Wornick (2005.373).
Totem poles and house posts from the Northwest Coast are firmly entrenched in the
public imagination as one of the characteristic forms of naïve American art. Made for a
variety of purposes, some examples tower more than fifty feet high. The images they bear,
carved on red cedar logs, typically represent clan symbols, such as Raven, Bear, Eagle, or
Killer Whale. The art of totem-pole carving has been revived by a number of artists in the
Pacific Northwest, including Joe David, who carved this totem with the assistance of
Loren White. David has been immersed in the contemporary Northwest Coast art movement since 1969, creating works of art in a variety of media and participating in many
aspects of Native American life. David titled this work Took-beek (Sea Lion Hunter), a
treasured name in his family.
Bowl, Mimbres, Mimbres
River Valley, southwestern
New Mexico, 1000–1150.
Earthenware with slip paint;
Classic Black-on-white, Style III.
H. 4¾ in., Diam. 11¼ in.
Museum purchase with funds
donated by the Seth K.
Sweetser Fund and Supporters
of the Department of American
Decorative Arts and Sculpture
(1990.248).
Only about one-fifth of surviving painted Mimbres pottery
is decorated with images of animals,
l bi
birds,
d iinsects, or h
humans; this
hi example
l ffeatures
two animals—resembling fat quails—circling the bowl from left to right around the
puncture known as the kill hole. Beautifully painted, Mimbres pottery clearly
embodies the worldview and philosophy of its vanished creators. However, the
Mimbres culture remains frustratingly mysterious to us, due to the absence of written
records and the fact that many Mimbres vessels lack any archaeological context.
Continued from page 168
world.” That description of the past will no doubt serve equally well for the future, as Native Americans continue to make valuable and creative
contributions to visual culture.
Although the museum collected Native American art in the late nineteenth century, institutional interest in the material slackened for
much of the twentieth century. In the mid-1980s, the museum renewed its collecting of Native arts, recognizing their aesthetic qualities as well
as their ethnographic importance. Today, Native American materials are collected by five curatorial departments, and will be displayed
throughout the museum from time to time as well as in the dedicated space in the American Wing.
Selecting the objects for the gallery was an exciting process of rediscovering works that in some cases had been slumbering in storage for many
years, as well as acquiring new objects in order to provide a more well-rounded presentation. The works discussed here are, for the most part, recent
gifts from generous collectors who have helped build the museum’s holdings, which we are constantly striving to expand and improve.
Gerald W. R. Ward is the Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, and co-author, with Pamela A. Parmal, Michael Suing, Heather Hole, and Jennifer Swope, of MFA Highlights: Native
American Art (Boston: MFA Publications, 2010). Generous support for that publication was provided by Arthur R. Hilsinger and
Barbara J. Janson, to whom we are most grateful.
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