KEEPING A RIVALRY ALIVE: GAUGUIN V. SEURAT Writer / Kara Kavensky
The Indianapolis Museum of Art, founded in 1883, is one of the oldest art museums in the United States. That same year, 35year old Paul Gauguin left his successful position as a Parisian stockbroker to dedicate his life to art (to the distress of his wife, with whom he had five children). Three years later, Gauguin would paint a pivotal and influential work, Still Life with Profile of Laval. Still Life with Profile of Laval, which is currently on display in the European Galleiesr, is the cornerstone of the Pont-Aven Collection acquired by the IMA from international art collector Samuel Josefowitz in 1998. This famous painting is going on tour later this year, first to The Art Institute of Chicago, and then on to the world famous Musee d’Orsay in Paris. The acquisition of works by Gauguin and his followers, included in the Pont-Aven Collection, elevated the prestige of the IMA in international art circles. Of the 17 paintings in the collection,
three are by Gauguin. The Pont-Aven Collection also includes 84 prints by Gauguin and his cronies. “In addition to the Pont-Aven Collection, we have the best collection of Neo-Impressionist paintings in the world outside of the Musee d’Orsay and the Kroller-Muller Museum in Europe,” says Ellen Lee, Wood-Pulliam Senior Curator and a friend of Josefowitz. The IMA already possessed one masterpiece by the founder of the movement, Georges Seurat, The Channel of Gravelines, and Petit Fort Philippe, through a generous donation in 1945 from Mrs. James W. Fesler, in memory of her parents. Indianapolis businessman W. J. Holliday gave the IMA’s core collection of works by Seurat’s followers to the IMA in 1979. Other strategic additions were made more recently through the family and friends of Robert S. Ashby. Inside the European Art Galleiesr, the juxtaposition of the PontAven Collection gallery adjacent to the Neo-Impressionist
TownePost.com / JANUARY 2017 / INDY METRO