« Fulton BID Gaining Momentum Monday Blogwrap »

December 8, 2008

Closing Bell: Brooklyn Winters, Now in Arkansas

Cat05.JPG Wal-Mart had to find something to do with all its cash, so they decided to open an art museum near the company's headquarters, in Bentonville, Arkansas. But what to fill the halls of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art with? How about "Winter Scene in Brooklyn," a painting by Francis Guy, which shows "a snowy view of Front Street between Main and Fulton streets, an area now under the Brooklyn Bridge," according to an AP story (mistakenly calling the painter Francis Gay). The Museum of the City of New York writes that the painting is "the most important and compact portion of Brooklyn as it stood in 1820. [It] will forever be invaluable as exhibiting the architectural character of the village at that period; and, in some degree for half a century previous." Bentonville's definitely the right spot for that.
'Winter Scene in Brooklyn' now in Arkansas [WXVT]
Photo from Museum of the City of New York.




Posted by lisa at 4:00 PM | Comments (17)
Categories: Closing Bell

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/7516

Comments

There are four of these I think, one for each season. The Brooklyn Museum has the summer scene and I thought the Museum of the City of New York owned this one. I'm sure I have seen this picture hanging on the wall at the Museum of the City of N.Y.

Did they sell it to Wal-Mart? Say it ain't so!

Posted by: sam at December 8, 2008 4:10 PM

Guy did paint more than one of these, although I didn't realize that there was one for each of the seasons. A while back, there was a (small "g") guy who wanted to reproduce one of the paintings on the NYPD garage that is on Front and Water streets. (The building goes through the block.)

Posted by: altervoce at December 8, 2008 4:28 PM

The city garage is more or less where the view is taken looking east towards Old Fulton Street. I can't believe that the Museum sold this painting. A couple of years ago the NY Public Library sold its famous "Kindred Spirits" painting to the same museum and it caused a ruckus. Bentonville, Arkansas? Go figure.


Posted by: sam at December 8, 2008 4:44 PM

I think there's more than one of each. In any case, I'm sure the Brooklyn Museum has one of the "Winter" versions hanging/

Posted by: Bob Marvin at December 8, 2008 4:47 PM

I remember seeing this at the Brooklyn Museum. It always fascinated me because my great grandmother used to tell me stories about her girlhood in 1890's Brooklyn. She told me she could walk to the Fulton Ferry. I wonder how much the landscape changed from 1820 to 1880? Probably a lot but I can still look around and see the bones of 1940 everywhere.

Posted by: Stonergut at December 8, 2008 4:53 PM

If you look carefully, you can just make out the figures at lower left - a group of parents (including Mrs. Guy) clustered around neighborhood developer Hezekiah Walentas, standing on the site of his proposed Dock Street project, which promised "a first-class grammar school, affordable housing for non-freeholders, ground floor smith and cooper shops, and plentiful off-street parking for wagons and horses." The project was defeated after encountering opposition from those concerned it would block the iconic views of the long-standing butcher stalls and slaughterhouses.

Posted by: NorthHeights at December 8, 2008 4:54 PM

Hezekiah Walentas. Pretty funny. The first Quaker ever named Walentas.


Posted by: sam at December 8, 2008 5:02 PM

Bentonville is no worse a location for this painting than Brooklyn is for a bunch of Egyptian sarcophagi and African masks.

Posted by: Sparafucile at December 8, 2008 5:21 PM

Francis Guy did at least 5 of these, the view from his second-floor window. Local pride helped them sell easily, so he kept painting them. The one in the Brooklyn Museum was damaged in a fire around 1881, and the damaged left side was cut off. All of the others are intact, and at least one is still in private hands. I think we can spare one of these to be sent off to Bentonville, where it will eventually be seen by indifferent school-children on field trips. Still, no definite word on who sold this one.

Posted by: brikenny at December 8, 2008 6:35 PM

The painting so prominently displayed at the Brooklyn Museum or Art is a winter scene. It is missing the left-hand side which was trimmed to remove fire damage.

There were some controversial acquisitions by the Walmart museum, one of which was a painting which was part of the NY Public Libary and NOT to be deaccessioned. This is considered B-A-D in the museum world. Trust is destroyed when a covenant like this is broken. Very bad form on the part of the NYPL. Very bad.

Crystal Bridges was not a great name for the museum even if there is a "Crystal Spring" on the property. It sounds like a good name for a country singer. I am surprised Moshe accepted it (the name)...but what are you going to do? I'm glad to see he's still at it at what must be 70.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at December 8, 2008 6:39 PM

I hope that a new administration will help bring some renewed pride in America and interest in objects and paintings from the first century of our existence. We need the likes of Alice Walton, like Ford, Rockefeller, Hogg and DuPont before her, to breath new life and interest to American Art and Decorative Arts. I hate seeing our great collections of American Art overlooked. Nature hates a vacuum and the vacuum that New York creates, Arkansas fills.

MORE HERE: urbanantiques.blogspot.com

Posted by: newcolonist at December 8, 2008 8:59 PM

American Art overlooked in NY? Have you been to the NY Historical Society lately? To the Met's American wing? The Museum of the City of NY? The Audubon galleries at the American Museum of Natural History? The Brooklyn Museum? The paintings in City Hall? As well as many of the private galleries and artist associations such as the Salmagundi Club that feature mostly American artists? True the "modern" museums such as the Guggenheim, and MOMA are mostly about European non-representational painting, but American art, in all its glory, is amply showcased in the City's non-modern museums and private clubs. The collections at the Lotos Club and the Century Association, as well as the University Club are incredible. Still and all, the Brooklyn museum has probably the single best collection. Unfortunately current leadership there prefers trendy modern stuff. Most of the wonderful, golden, American collection is under wraps. Some day, the Brooklyn Museum will unveil its American painting collection, and when that happens, all hell will break loose.
It is almost incredible that the idiot who currently runs the museum is so ideolgiacally tone deaf that he does not wish to showcase his institution's collection. I pray and await his retirement or providential passing.

Posted by: Inigo at December 8, 2008 9:20 PM

See

http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/francis-guys-winter-scene/80

and

http://www.panix.com/~cassidy/stilesv2/v2c2/89pic.html

Posted by: fultonferryres at December 9, 2008 3:21 AM

so brooklyn really IS a suburb? :(

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at December 9, 2008 10:47 AM

Sure, I've seen lots of American Art in New York, more than anywhere. I've not met too many people interested in it, however. I think its trapped in some realm of exclusivity. I love the American Wing at the Met and the NY Historical Society. Everything that's done to promote it, or anything related to it like antique collecting, seams to be directed at wealthy senior citizens.

Newark is a great place for American Art btw. If you can, please post your comments on the urbanantiques.blogspot.com comments.

Posted by: newcolonist at December 9, 2008 2:11 PM

There are two winter scenes. One is still hanging in the Brooklyn Museum. Perhaps a little fact checking next time? Took my about 3 minutes tops to figure out yesterday.

Posted by: spnder at December 9, 2008 4:18 PM

Of course there is more than one winter scene. Where did you get the idea there was only one?

Posted by: newcolonist at December 9, 2008 7:36 PM

Post a comment

Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.

Latest Restaurant Additions