{"id":40,"date":"2019-04-14T13:55:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T17:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/mux300-jxu\/?p=40"},"modified":"2019-05-07T14:25:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T18:25:56","slug":"ramesseum-at-thebes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/interpreting-collections\/2019\/04\/14\/ramesseum-at-thebes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramesseum at Thebes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lockwood De Forest<\/strong> (American, 1850-1932)
\nRamesseum at<\/i> Thebes,<\/em> circa 1876<\/span>
\nOil on canvas<\/span>
\nPurchased with the Hillyer-Mather-Tryon Fund <\/span>
\n[on view; 3rd floor]<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The debate over the 1940s sale of some 100 paintings from the Smith College Museum of Art collection\u2014including a Lockwood de Forest work, Ramesseum at Thebes<\/em>, which sold for $10\u2014raises the question over whether selling off works of American art, at the time deemed unimportant, was prudent. Now that the painting is once again owned by Smith, it will be part of an installation in August.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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In February 1876, Lockwood de Forest ventured into Thebes as part of his multi-month tour of Egypt. Ramesseum at Thebes<\/i><\/span> portrays the famed, fallen Colossus of Ramesses II (known as “Ozymandias” after the 1817 Percy Shelley poem it inspired) memorializing Pharaoh Ramesses II. Highlighted by the Egyptian sun and framed by the roofed hypostyle hall, the columns of which are decorated with deteriorating illustrations of the Pharaoh’s military successes. Upon returning to the United States, de Forest created this painting in his studio, using oil sketches and drawings from his travels, and in this case, a tourist photograph called The Temple of Ramesses III, Medinet Habu,<\/em> from the studio of French photographer Henri B\u00e9chard.<\/p>\n

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Henri B\u00e9chard (French, active Cairo, Egypt 1869 – 1880s)
The Temple of Ramesses III, Medinet Habu, about 1872, Albumen silver print
39.5 \u00d7 28.6 cm (15 9\/16 \u00d7 11 1\/4 in.), 84.XP.767.19
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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De Forest\u2019s canvas was one of three Orientalist paintings purchased by Smith College President L. Clark Seelye in July 1879. Before that, Ramesseum<\/em> was likely a gift of the artists to a fellow artist, James Wells Champney (1843-1903), Smith College’s first professor of art from 1877-1884. All three were sold in 1940 to Harry Eichleay in Pittsburgh, PA, but Alice Pratt Brown Professor John Davis rediscovered Ramesseum at Thebes<\/em> in the Debra Force Fine Art exhibition in 2015<\/a>, allowing the Museum to recover one of its foundational collection. People might think that liquidating museum collections is going to be the immediate way of solving financial challenges, however, Davis’s research indicates that the sale of what today are widely considered to be masterpieces bought the college \u201csome furniture and some paint on the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n