Hanover art travels the world
By Natalie Brewster '10
When you think of places to view great works of art, several cities come to mind: New York, Paris, Chicago, Rome. But Hanover? One of the College's best-kept secrets is the great works of art in its collection. This secret has emerged recently with the help of an unexpected ally, the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany. The gallery will feature two of Hanover's finest pieces by romantic artist Edward Burne-Jones in its upcoming show of Burne-Jones art, the first such exhibit in Germany.
Hanover's Professor of Art History John Martin, Ph.D., received the request for the loan of "The Petition to the King" and "Princess Sabra Drawing the Lot" back in June 2008. Previously restored in 1997 at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, the paintings were in great shape. The frames, however, were in disrepair. So while excited about the request and the buzz this would draw the College, Martin had to reply to Stuttgart that "the frames are in bad shape and not sturdy for travel."
The Staatsgalerie, eager to borrow the art, generously offered to restore the frames in exchange for the loan, at a cost of more than $10,000. The gallery paid to send them to Gold Leaf Studios in Washington D.C., the premiere frame restorers in the country, used by such famous galleries as the Metropolitan Museum and Washington's National Gallery.
The studios performed a great deal of intricate work on each frame, including carving a brand new bottom rail for one of the frames that another restorer had previously replaced; the new bottom piece matches the rest of the frame, something the earlier restoration did not. "They are beautiful once again. They appear as they must have looked like when they left Burne-Jones' studio," said Martin.
The journey to Stuttgart will be a long one. For the tedious trek to Germany, the pieces - each roughly seven feet in length - would need to travel in large crates. "They're so big they don't fit in even the largest passenger plane," said Martin. The crates would go to Chicago by truck to fly on a special cargo plane to Frankfurt and then by truck to Stuttgart, quite the voyage.
The Staatsgalerie will display the pieces, and will featured details from the Hanover paintings in both the catalogue and program brochure of the exhibit. Staatsgalerie exhibition curator, Christofer Conrad, said, "the two pictures you have generously granted for our exhibition have become the very sweethearts of our editors."
In summer 2010, the exhibit will travel to the Basel Kunsthalle in Switzerland before returning home to Hanover. The loan will bring great publicity to the College as an institution that appreciates the fine arts and shares in the cultivation of the global art community.
Edward Burne-Jones is notable in the art community as a Pre-Raphaelite English painter. Inspired by William Morris's "Earthly Paradise," and the story of St. George and the Dragon, the paintings are in the Romantic-style and part of a seven-piece series.
Once they return home, Martin hopes that the pieces will again be on display in a prominent campus location. "Students don't know them even though they were given to the students of the college." Having been on display at the Speed Gallery in Louisville for the past ten years, most students are unfamiliar with the works, a gift from William Henry Donner in honor of his son.
Originally, they hung in Donner Hall's lobby, as an initiative of then-President Albert G. Parker. Parker said at the time, "We wish very much to have good paintings for our halls and classrooms so that students may learn to appreciate the beautiful as they are surrounded by it daily."
It is Martin's hope that these pieces, now enjoyed by an international audience and bringing so much fame to Hanover College, will once again become part of the campus' surrounding beauty.
Junior Natalie Brewster (Winslow, Ind.) majors in English, is president of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and sings with both College choirs.
