Arts Entertainment AND
REMBRANDT
EN ROUTE Lift a glass of stout to Guinness’ collection of masterworks coming to the Arts Center. BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK
Y
ou have heard that Guinness is good for you. Here’s why: If it weren’t for Edward Cecil Guinness, a selfportrait by Rembrandt van Rijn might not be on display at the Arkansas Arts Center starting June 7, along with paintings by J.M.W. Turner, Anthony Van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. “Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London” contains 48 works by some of the greatest names in art of the 17th through
to Great Britain upon his death, is being spruced up. The star of the show is the Rembrandt, one of the last self-portraits the Dutch master painted and the second largest. It dates to around 1665 and shows the artist holding his palette, an unusual pose for one of his self-portraits. When the painting was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in April 2012, the New York Times arts writer described it as “wonderful almost beyond words.” But even without the Rembrandt, the exhibition, which Arts Center Director Todd Herman managed to land for the Arts Center though Little Rock wasn’t on the original tour schedule, would be special. Imagine the Townsend Wolfe and Jeannette Rockefeller galleries hung with imposing full-length portraits of these grande dames: “Princess Henrietta of Lorraine, Attended by a Page” (1634) by Van Dyke, which is 84 3/8 inches by 50 3/4 inches, or a little over 7 feet tall by over 4 feet wide; the taller “Mary, Countess Howe” (ca. 1764) by Gainsborough, a 95-inch-by-61-inch porREMBRANDT, BY REMBRANDT: One of the Dutch trait of the lady in flowing master’s last self-portraits. pink silks and white lace; and “Mrs. Musters as Hebe” the 19th centuries, Dutch, Flemish and (1785) by Reynolds, a gorgeous 94-inchEnglish. The collection — which Guinby-57-inch depiction of the lady as the ness’ beer wealth allowed him to accumuGreek goddess of youth, feeding an eagle late, is on tour in the United States while from a golden bowl. Herman described Kenwood House, bought by Guinness to these masterful portraits, and others in display his art and, like the art, donated the exhibition, as having “wall-power.” 24
MAY 30, 2013
ARKANSAS TIMES
‘PRINCESS HENRIETTA OF LORRAINE’: 17th century portrait by Anthony Van Dyke.
Besides the portraits, visitors to the show will see a Turner seascape, “The Iveagh Seapiece” (1803), a painting by Britain’s famed Romantic painter whose mastery of light is unparalleled; an Edwin Landseer painting of boys racing on their horses and followed by dogs, “The Hon. E.S. Russell and His Brother” (1834); and a Joseph Wright of Derby chiaroscuro “Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight” (1768-70), which though it sounds saccharine is actually sardonically sexual. For real sweetness, there is Sir Thomas Lawrence’s “Miss Murray” (1824-26), a portrait of a child in ribbons and lace holding flowers in her skirt. There will also be
works by Francois Boucher, Albert Cuyp, Francesco Guardi and others. The stop in Arkansas is the last for the exhibition, which has traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum. Julius Bryant, Keeper of the Word and Image at the Victoria and Albert Museum, will give a lecture, “Kenwood: From Guinness to Gainsboroughs,” at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 6, in the lecture hall. The exhibition will run through Sept. 8. Exhibition tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for military and $6 for students. Lecture tickets are $10. Arts Center members get in free to both.