The Walters Art Museum has made several acquisitions that build upon its extensive permanent collection with purpose and depth.
Works on Paper
As one of the great European Masters, Rembrandt van Rijn is renowned for etchings that are nearly as important within the history of printmaking as his paintings are in the history of that medium.
Old Man with a Beard (mid 1630s) shows an older man with a beard seated and sleeping, wearing a mantle (similar to a cape or cloak), a fur hat, and a fringed scarf. The depiction of an older person dozing was common in Rembrandt’s early etchings and, given his fascination with human nature, it’s possible the artist was looking for wisdom in his subjects’ weathered faces.
In Self Portrait of Rembrandt with Saskia (1636), Rembrandt has depicted himself in a slouched hat with a jaunty feather sitting at a table and looking out at the viewer while his wife, Saskia, sits slightly further back. These etchings join the Walters’ two other works on paper by Rembrandt, including one likely self portrait from 1634, as well as The Lute Player (1629) by Jan Lievens (Dutch, 1607–1674), a painting for which Rembrandt likely modeled.
Fatme (1855), a pencil on paper drawing by Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824-1904), adds to the Walters’ robust collection of paintings and drawings by the artist. Never before exhibited in a museum, Fatme depicts an Egyptian woman in profile and is currently on view in Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century Collection. It’s known that the artist professed racist views that were reflected in his paintings, and Fatme poses thought-provoking questions about the power dynamics at play when the work was made: How did Fatme feel about being drawn by Gérôme? Was she paid for her time? Was she told what to wear or how to pose? How was she selected by Gérôme, or did she volunteer? In short, what control did she have over this encounter?
Oracion panegyrica… (1683)
and Distribución de las Obras Ordinaria, y extraordinarias del dia, Para hazerlas perfectamente, conforme al Estado de las Señoras Religiosas, Instruida con Doze Maximas (1712) were printed by “widow printers,” a term used for women who took on their husbands’ printing presses after they died. These Spanish colonial books were printed by the remarkable Calderón-Benavides family, which saw many women helm their presses over nearly 200 years. The work from 1683 was printed by Paula de Benavides, who resumed operations at her late husband’s printing press when he died in 1640, going on to print a staggering 448 books in her lifetime. The work from 1712 was printed by Gertrudis de Escobar, who took over from her husband when he died in 1707 and ultimately printed 78 works of her own. Lynley Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, plans to continue to acquire publications from every major printer across seven generations of the family. At present, the Walters holds works by five of the family’s 14 printers.
Paintings
The painting acquisitions include Tavern Owner on a Veranda with Two of Her Staff and a Client (1650s) by Willem van Herp (1614–1677); Two Students in the Life Room of the Heatherley School of Fine Art (1902) by Nellie Joshua (1877–1960);
Two Students in the Life Room of the Heatherley School of Fine Art, painted by English artist Nellie Joshua in 1902, is an important addition to Walters’ 18th- and 19th-century art collection, expanding the museum’s small collection of oil paintings by women from this time period. It also offers an extremely rare glimpse of women in an art education space from the 19th century. The work shows two women through the doorway of an art studio, sitting and conversing while surrounded by a variety of objects gathered for art students to draw. At the time, it was considered controversial for women to attend art school, where they would have to draw undraped (nude) models. Heatherley, the London art school Joshua attended, was one of the few institutions that admitted women, allowing Joshua to reveal this little-seen facet of 19th-century society through her unique perspective. The painting will be displayed at the Walters for the first time in Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century Collection, opening October 24, 2024.
Flemish artist Willem van Herp also brought to light an underrepresented slice of life in his painting Tavern Owner on a Veranda with Two of Her Staff and a Client. This work, made in the 1650s and recently purchased by the Walters, depicts a richly dressed Black woman—the tavern owner—sitting on a veranda and preparing a pipe while she is attended by two employees. The signs of the woman’s economic success speak to the growing participation of people of African ancestry in the economic life of the Southern Netherlands in the mid-1600s. The van Herp painting is a remarkably early European depiction of a Black businesswoman, a subject not often portrayed in artworks of the time. The work joins several other 17th-century paintings centering Black subjects now on view at the Walters, including
Balthazar (ca. 1700), a French painting possibly from the workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud, and
Moses and His Ethiopian Wife (ca. 1650), a work by Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens the elder on loan from the Rubenshuis in Antwerp.