Hesse Exhibit in Oregon

Attention all you lucky West Coasters! The Portland Art Museum in Oregon is having the following exhibit:

Sat Oct 29, 2005 – Sun Mar 19, 2006
Hesse: A Princely German Collection
The Portland Art Museum announces the first international exhibition devoted to the great artistic wealth of the German House of Hesse. Conceived in close cooperation with Their Royal Highnesses Moritz, Landgraf of Hesse, and his son, Prince Donatus, the exhibition features over 250 outstanding pieces from the family collection. Contained within the collection are: Baroque silver and furniture, a royal coach, a guilded throne, German Romantic paintings, extraordinary portraits from Winterhalter, a Russian dowry, turn of the century Jugendstil from the Hesse-sponsored Darmstadt artist' colony, and classical antiquities. Also on view will be a pair of portraits by Lucas Cranach the Elder that complement the family's famous Holbein Madonna regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of German Renaissance art.


I might just have to swallow some valium, get on a plane and fly out to this.   Especially making my ears perk up--'extraordinary portraits from Winterhalter' and 'a Russian dowry' (does anyone know what that could be?).

Thank you, GDElla ! That is easy enough to get to from SF. {In between China, Las Vegas, the UK and Russia this year !!}

[http://erhj.blogspot.com]

And I for one plan on attending the opening festivities!

Arturo Beéche

Thanks for that additional information Thomas.

I'm just hoping that the exhibition might go to other cities as well since I doubt I'd be able to get to the West Coast.  

[grandduchessella]

grandduchessella, thanks so much for posting the information about the Hesse exhibit!  It's only a few hours by car for me, so this is going on my calendar.

Thank you for this information, Ella! It sounds quite interesting. I can't go, but I do look forward to possibly purchasing the catalogue of the exhibit once it becomes available in the museum's online store.

Ooh.  I'm going, definitely...

Thanks for the info GDElla!  Well, Oregon isn't toooo far from So. Cal., hopefully I get to go!  

Thanks for that additional information Thomas.

I'm just hoping that the exhibition might go to other cities as well since I doubt I'd be able to get to the West Coast.  

Looks like an exclusive.

Sadly, yes it does. Sigh.

Here's a photo that was posted of the brochure. I hope they had a catalog as I didn't see one listed at the museum site like some of the others.

    Just wondering why an exclusive?

Thanks, Grandduchessella.

Sunny

oh, i am envious of you all!  we lived in Minneapolis, or outside of it, and could never get to that side of the world!  but, winterhalter is my favorite artist, of the European type anyway, right after Manet and Monet!  you all think of me while you are there!

Ooooooo I can't wait!  Not very far from me I'm in very northern California . . . Lucky me!  I'm going to schedule this one in!!

[DM25 million inheritance tax after the death of the last of the southern branch of the family, Margaret von Hesse, and the consequent merger of all of the family holdings with the northern Cassel branch of the family]

Some more info:

Today the Hesse family collection remains one of the greatest private collections in all of Europe. The exhibition coming to Portland in October will contain the Holbein Madonna, painted for the burgomeister of Basel Meyer von Hasen, in 1526. This Madonna of Mercy, with her cape spread out protectively over his family, escaped the Basel Iconoclasm of 1529 and reappeared with the French dealer Le Blond a century later. He had two clients, an Amsterdam bookseller and Marie de Medicis, so he sold her a copy, later acquired by the King of Saxony, while the original remained in Holland. It then reappeared in Paris in 1822, when it was bought by Prince William of Prussia, who bequeathed it to his wife, a Hesse.

It will leave Germany for the first time in more than 150 years to be exhibited in America.

Meanwhile, aside from the luncheon, the Art Newspaper reported that Prince Donatus has decided to put the Holbein Madonna up for sale in order to pay a DM25 million inheritance tax after the death of the last of the southern branch of the family, Margaret von Hesse, and the consequent merger of all of the family holdings with the northern Cassel branch of the family. (Yikes DM25 million--what is that in Euros now?)

The paper estimated that on the open market it could be worth $100 million, although according to law it will have to stay within Germany.

In addition to the Holbein Madonna, this ground-breaking exhibition at the Portland Art Museum will include outstanding examples German baroque silver and furniture, a royal coach, a gilded throne, German Romantic paintings, Winterhalter portraits, a Russian dowry, Jugendstil from the Hesse-sponsored Darmstadt artists colony, classical antiquities, and jeweled orders and tiaras.

Oh I am so glad that our law does not allow him to sell the Madonna abroad.
He will get much less if he wants to sell it in Germany instead of the USA and so he hopefully won't do it.

How can one dare selling a painting which has been the heart of a famous and outstanding collection of arts for about 160 years?!

Prince Ludwig (1908 - 1968 ) always refused to sell it, even when Americans offered him to pay a gigantically price during the Wartime when his money ran out (and he had to feed the whole Kassel family whom he had so friendly given exile...

Taking up for Don Hesse, The tax Man  must be paid.  Unless we are going to give all rich people a break just because they own great paintings, thing have to be done to pay death duties.  I'd rather sell a painting than my castle or Land.  

I have never seen this painting.  If the painting is that great (and I am sure it is) then why doesn't the German government just buy it for the populace at large to enjoy anytime they see fit.  

I an not being snotty just presenting food for thought on the debate of breaking up "great estates".

TampaBay