 |
| Prince Sergey S. Belosselsky-Belozersky and Florence Crane, ca. 1944 |
In mid-July, the University of Georgia
announced that, for the fifth consecutive year, UGA donors set a record in
fundraising, contributing a total of $242 million in new gifts and pledges to
the Commit to Georgia Campaign. This was the second consecutive year that the
total surpassed $200 million. The museum has a goal of raising $22.5 million by
the conclusion of the campaign, which includes works of art. One of the most
exciting gifts we have received during the campaign is the one that makes up
the current exhibition “One Heart, One Way: The Journey of a Princely Art
Collection” (on view through January 6). Organized by Parker Curator of Russian
Art Asen Kirin, it introduces our audiences to the art collection of the
Belossersky-Belozersky family, a collection that has not been seen for decades
and that now belongs to the people of the state of Georgia.
A little over a year ago, Princess
Marina Sergeevna Belosselsky-Belozersky Kasarda was looking for a museum that
could house her family’s collection of paintings and decorative arts dating
back to 1660. Her father, Sergei Sergeevich, had previously donated items from
the family archive, manuscripts and works of art to Harvard and Columbia
universities, Hillwood Museum and Gardens and the Walters Art Museum, and she
hoped to follow in his tradition of philanthropy. Marina and her husband,
Vladislav Kasarda, contacted experts affiliated with the Hoover Institution at
Stanford University and the Harriman Institute at Columbia University — two
noted sources with considerable expertise on Russian culture and art — for
advice on the matter, and both of them recommended the Georgia Museum of Art.
The museum had worked with Hoover and Harriman previously on scholarly
exhibitions of Russian art, and they knew we were well suited to manage,
exhibit and study such a gift. “One Heart, One Way” is only the first step in
our process of doing so, and we look forward to discovering more about each
object from this collection as well as making connections between it and others,
like the Parker Collection.
The Belosselsky-Belozersky family
traces its roots back to Rurik of Jutland, the 9th-century Viking chieftan and
founder of the medieval state of Kievan Rus’ (the predecessor of Russia). The
Beloye (white) Lake in northern Russia gave the family its name and was famous
for its sturgeons, two of which appear on the Belosserky-Belozersky crest. The
family played an important role in the history of Eastern Europe. In the 18th
century, starting in the reign of Peter the Great, its members took part in
European political, diplomatic and intellectual life. Prince Alexander
Mikhailovich corresponded with the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Voltaire.
Portraits of these aristocratic intellectuals and objects they owned are part
of the collection, including paintings by renowned portraitists Anton Graff,
Pietro Benvenuti and Christina Robertson.
With the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917,
the Belosselsky-Belozersky family emigrated to its estate in Finland; a
chartered train carried the collection to safety there. At this point in the
art historical record, experts considered several famed paintings in the
collection as lost, but happily their assumptions were incorrect. From Finland,
the family moved to London, England, where the collection survived World War
II, and finally to Ipswich, Massachusetts, when Prince Sergei Sergeevich
Belossselsky married Florence Crane, of the family that owned the Crane
Company. The Russian program at the Georgia Museum of Art has grown steadily
since its inception and is now widely respected. For Mrs. Kasarda to trust us
with her family’s heirlooms that have been through so much is a profoundly
moving expression of confidence in our abilities. The art of giving consists,
in part, of being able to make just such a magnanimous gesture. We will do our
very best to live up to our end of the bargain.
--
Heather Malcom
Director of Development
No comments:
Post a Comment