A Legacy of Giving: Mary Virginia Terry

Mary Virginia Terry

Mary Virginia and her late husband C. Herman Terry are among the most generous donors in the history of the University of Georgia.

Its business school bears their name, as it has since 1991, but they have also supported faculty chairs, the general scholarship fund at the university and the College of Pharmacy. Their legacy continues through Mrs. Terry’s latest gift: 14 paintings and works on paper to the collection of the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia.

Throughout her life, Mrs. Terry has focused her philanthropy on three areas: education, children’s charities and the arts. She has been a trustee of Jacksonville University and served on the boards of the Wolfson Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Home Society, the Salvation Army, the Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless and the Jacksonville Symphony. Mr. Terry graduated from what was then UGA’s school of commerce in 1939, then became president of Dependable Insurance Co., which he built into a major corporation in Jacksonville, Florida, where the couple made their home. He passed away in 1998, but Mrs. Terry has continued the legacy of giving that they began together. She received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Georgia in 2009 and served recently as honorary chair of the very successful Building Terry campaign at UGA’s Terry College of Business.

A native of Quitman, Georgia, and a graduate of Valdosta State University, Mary Virginia Terry understands the impact that art can make on children’s lives and the way that it can provide UGA students with a well-rounded experience. She and her husband built their collection of art together, and these 14 works greatly increase the museum’s holdings by the major artists who created them.

It would be rare and marvelous to receive a gift of a single work by Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, Maurice Prendergast, Andrew Wyeth, Ernest Lawson, Winslow Homer, Gifford Beal or John Singer Sargent. To receive works by all of these artists at once, in a single gift, is extraordinary. Until Mrs. Terry made her gift, the museum did not own a painting by Sargent, only a drawing. Not only are the works beautiful and important, but they also fill some gaps in its collection, allowing UGA students and the wider Athens-area community to benefit from seeing these works in person. All 14 works will be on display at the museum this spring, in the exhibition “A Legacy of Giving: C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry,” on view May 12 through August 5.

William U. Eiland visited Mrs. Terry several times over the years of his tenure as director of the museum and said, of this extraordinary gift, “My reaction at hearing from Mrs. Terry that she was making this gift to the museum? Joy. Unaffected, pure joy. And gratefulness, on behalf of generations of students yet to enroll at the university.”

Mary Virginia Terry has said, “My husband and I just felt we wanted to give back because we had such good fortune.” They chose to focus on the arts, hospitals, education and children’s concerns because, “We felt those were important both for the future and for the needs we saw now.” Mrs. Terry is a modest person, who does not love the spotlight, but she accepts public recognition in the hope that her giving will serve as an example to others. For more than half a century, she has provided support to the University of Georgia that has helped it strengthen academic and research programs. The museum is proud and grateful to be among the beneficiaries of their kindness.

"Portrait of Archbishop William Laud" Attracts Controversy

A couple of weeks ago, the museum issued a press release highlighting its acquisitions in calendar year 2015, including a large portrait of Archbishop William Laud by Anthony van Dyck and studio (pictured above in a low-resolution version). The credit line on the image that ended up going out to the press through UGA's News Service deleted the "and studio" part, for space and because they are not art historians (we don't expect them to be!). When read without that caption, the release suggested that the museum believed the painting was by Van Dyck alone, and a high-profile art history blog quickly picked up on that fact.

From that point, other news sites and newspapers wrote their own versions of the story. Some of them contacted us for information. Others did not.

We have created a FAQ that appears below in the interest of accuracy. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments and we will do our best to address them and add both questions and answers to this post.

FAQ

Q. Who painted this portrait of Archbishop Laud?

A. The painting is attributed to Anthony van Dyck and studio. The credit line for the image of our painting that appeared on the news.uga.edu website was edited to remove “and studio.” Our version of the press release, sent through MailChimp, only included an image of the Frederick Frieseke painting the release also promoted. It is unambiguously listed as “Anthony van Dyck and his studio” in the deed of gift in the museum’s files.

Q. Didn’t you edit your press release after the fact?

A. We did, to make the authorship of the painting clearer, but we included a note saying the release had been edited and why, to be as transparent as possible. We assumed, with the original release, that the credit line appearing with the image would make it clear who painted it, but the image and the release have not always appeared together. Lesson learned.

Q. Did the museum know the painting is one of several versions of the same image?

A. Yes. Contrary to the news stories that have appeared, we were fully aware that this painting exists in several versions, including in the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Q. Which is the original?

A. Scholarship tends to agree that the version in the Fitzwilliam is directly by the hand of Van Dyck, but it was not recognized as such until 1982, after cleaning and restoration, when Michael Jaffé made the case that it was by Van Dyck himself. Before that, the Fitzwilliam had catalogued it as “Studio of Van Dyck,” even though the collectors who donated it to the museum (Charles Ricketts and C.H. Shannon) believed it was by Van Dyck alone.

Q. Is the Georgia Museum of Art’s painting a “fake,” as Blouin/ArtInfo says?

A. Absolutely not! There is a big difference between a deliberate forgery and a painting created either as a collaboration between the artist and his studio or by the studio under the supervision of the artist. For example, Gilbert Stuart painted numerous versions of his Athenaeum portrait of George Washington, some with the assistance of his daughters (see, for example, the version at the Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Q. Who gets to say whether or not it’s a Van Dyck?

A. This kind of work is what art historians do: research, comparison, careful argument. Our curator of European art believes strongly that the face and hands are by Van Dyck, with the clothing and drapery having been rendered by his studio, but it is rare that a definitive answer can be found, especially with a 17th-century work. The provenance (or ownership history) for the Georgia Museum of Art’s painting dates back to the mid-17th century.

Bendor Grosvenor, an English art historian, contends on his blog that our painting is only “studio of Van Dyck” at best but admits he has not seen it in person. Making judgments from photographs is difficult.

Erik Larsen’s 1988 catalogue raisonné lists the Hermitage and Fitzwilliam versions of the portrait (cat. nos. 896-97, pages 350-51) but writes that both were created with the artist’s studio. He mentions Jaffé’s article but writes, “Considering that Jaffé is the director of the Museum which owns the painting, his panegyric must be taken with a grain of salt.” Larsen then lists five studio replicas on pages 493-94 and writes that “There exist also a number of copies, both contemporary and later,” i.e., the National Portrait Gallery’s painting. Grosvenor, in the same blog entry, refers to Larsen’s work as “perhaps the most inept catalogue raisonné ever.”

Sammy J. Hardman, in his “Sir Anthony Van Dyck: The English Portraits” (1999, privately printed, cat. no. 103, pages 43-44) believes this version of the portrait may be the original or a prototype for it. He writes, “As compared with the other known portraits of Laud, the work is of excellent quality. X-ray studies of this work show emphatic pentimenti in the head as well as in the hands.” Hardman documents this version as having been sold at Christie’s on March 4, 1927 (no. 58), as a Van Dyck (although previously attributed, in 1876 and 1910, to Henry Stone, a contemporary and known copyist of Van Dyck’s; Hardman calls this an “old family attribution” and “without foundation”).

The 2004 catalogue raisonné of Van Dyck, published by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art at Yale University, lists the version in the Fitzwilliam as the original (IV.153, pages 549-550). It then lists some of the “more important” copies but does not include the painting now at the Georgia Museum of Art.

[Edit 1/26/16 11:35 a.m.] Mary Louisa Boyle's "Biographical notices of the portraits at Hinchingbrook" (1876, Victoria press) lists it as "A Copy of Vandyck in Lambeth Palace. / By stone" on pages 61-62.

Q. Did the Georgia Museum of Art buy this painting?

A. We did not. The painting was a gift from Mr. and Mrs. M. Daniel Byrd, of Atlanta. The museum has a very limited budget for acquisitions, especially high-dollar ones. Any news sources that refer to our buying the painting are incorrect.

Q. How do objects come into the museum’s collection?

A. The Georgia Museum of Art has a collections committee that meets monthly to discuss potential accessions, whether through gift or purchase. The committee carefully assesses various factors, including quality, size (storage space is unfortunately limited), condition and whether a given work fits with the collections plan before agreeing to accept a particular object, even if that object is a gift.

Q. Why would you want this painting if you believed it was by Van Dyck and studio instead of by Van Dyck alone?

A. Our collection of European art, especially 17th-century European art, is very small. Even if the painting should turn out to be only studio of the artist, it would still fill a very large gap in our collection. Considering the fact that the National Portrait Gallery and the Hermitage both own copies of the same painting, we feel we are in very good company. In addition, an important part of our role as a university museum is to participate in and share the results of research. We invite any scholars to come study the painting.

Matt King, Continental Drift @ LDSoA

Having gotten a sneak peak yesterday during its installation, I can assure you that this show should not be missed. I met Matt King at this year’s CAA conference in NYC. After finding out he was having an exhibition at our own Lamar Dodd School of Art’s Gallery 307 this summer, I checked out his website (http://mattkingstudio.com/) and was immediately impressed with his work. Matt is Assistant Professor of Art Foundation and Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University. In his artist statement, he posed the question “might sculpture establish an alternative encounter with the same objects and images, to destabilize what is familiar and create an experience that is similarly abundant and strange?” From what I’ve seen, the answer is a resounding “yes,” and I would add that it can be visually and intellectually engaging while doing so. Matt has also been gracious enough to donate one of his works to the museum, the three-dimensional print “Take a Number,” an edition he made to give as gifts to people who helped him in his career.



Matt King
Take a Number, 2010
Screenprint and laser on paper

Paintings from the West Foundation Collection

GMOA recently acquired two significant American paintings from the West Foundation Collection of Atlanta, Ga. The foundation gave Benjamin West’s “Portrait of Captain Christopher Codrington Bethell” (1769) and John Linton Chapman’s “Via Appia” (1867) to the museum in honor of our director, Bill Eiland, and in anticipation of the reopening.

Benjamin West, a native of Springfield, Pa., was a founding member of the Royal Academy in England and taught important American artists, including Samuel F.B. Morse and Washington Allston. The portrait by West (below) is now the earliest American painting in the museum’s collection.

John Linton Chapman was born in Washington, D.C., but was a longtime resident of Italy. He painted the Via Appia, the section of the Roman road that led to southern Italy, several times. This version (below) shows the view along the road looking back toward Rome. The painting was part of the museum’s award-winning 2004 exhibition “Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Painting and the Italian Encounter” and is also on the cover of the exhibition catalogue.

“Both paintings, important additions to the museum’s already strong collection of American art, will be on display in the new permanent collection galleries when GMOA reopens on January 29,” says Paul Manoguerra, GMOA’s curator of American art. “We are grateful to the West Foundation for giving these two excellent paintings in celebration of the new galleries and the work of our director.”

GMOA in the News

Art Daily has covered both the acquisitions Paul detailed below on this blog (the Billups portraits) and the award of a $50,000 grant by the NEA to GMOA to fund a curator of decorative arts.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded the Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) a $50,000 grant through the 2009 NEA Direct Grants: Museum-Recovery Act. Recognizing the importance of the nonprofit arts industry on the economy, the Recovery Act provides stimulus funds, which the NEA uses in an effort to preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector that are threatened by the current economic downturn. GMOA is one of only nine nonprofit arts organizations in Georgia that received a grant, which will provide salary support for positions deemed critical to an organization’s artistic mission. Only organizations that were awarded NEA funding over the past four years were eligible.

The stimulus grant will provide a year of salary and benefits to fill the vacant position of curator of decorative arts. The curator directs the museum’s Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, which has as its primary focus the decorative arts and material culture of Georgia. Founded in 1998, the Green Center produces exhibitions, publications and educational programs that reach audiences in Georgia and well beyond the region, thus serving a critical role in the museum’s mission and its long-range and strategic goals.

“Happily, this very timely grant allows us to continue the work of the Henry D. Green Center without missing a beat,” said the museum’s director, Dr. William U. Eiland.

Among the first duties of the interim curator of decorative arts is to plan and present the fifth biennial Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, “Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins,” on January 29-30, 2010, and edit the presentations for publication following the event. The curator will design the display of the permanent collection of decorative arts in the museum’s new gallery wing and formalize the Henry D. Green Center with the new GMOA humanities study centers, opening in early 2011. The curator will resume development of a major survey exhibition and catalogue of the decorative arts in Georgia, circa 1750-2000, along with other original exhibitions, and will direct new acquisitions of decorative arts, with an emphasis on works made in Georgia, the South and the United States.

GMOA Acquires Two Works Significant to Georgia History

I have been waiting some time, while all the donor wishes and wording details got formalized, to post about this:

The Georgia Museum of Art at UGA Acquires Two Works Significant to Georgia History

ATHENS, GA – The Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) acquired two important American paintings at the sale of the Florence and William Griffin Collection at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, N.C., Saturday, May 30. Between 1945 and the 1980s, the Griffins amassed an exceptional collection of southern furniture, silver, pottery, books, paintings, prints and decorative arts significant to Georgia history.

The purchase, with winning bids and buyer’s premiums totaling $133,400, was made possible by an anonymous donation in honor of George-Ann and Boone Knox. The paintings depict Robert Ransome Billups and his wife, Elizabeth Ware Fullwood Billups, circa 1827 and were painted by Edwin B. Smith (active 1815 to 1832).

The portraits have extensive exhibition and publication histories and were displayed in the traveling exhibition Missing Pieces: Georgia Folk Art 1770-1976, organized by the Atlanta Historical Society and shown at a number of venues in 1976 and 1977.

A classic example of early American portraiture, the half-length view of a seated Mr. Billups is set against a backdrop of lush, rolling hills with hunters and dogs chasing a wounded stag. In contrast, the more austere image of Mrs. Billups shows her seated in an interior with drapery wearing a black dress with a silver belt buckle and delicate lace collar.

Married in 1818, Robert Ransome Billups and Elizabeth Ware Fullwood were early residents of Clarke County. Mr. Billups, the nephew of Capt. John Billups, was killed on June 9, 1836, in the Creek Indian battle at Shepherd’s Plantation in Stewart County. His son, Edward Swepson Billups, married Mary Richardson, daughter of Richard Richardson, owner of the Eagle Tavern in Watkinsville, Ga., where the paintings hung until 1956, when the building was given to the State of Georgia.

“The personal biography of Mr. Billups, the rich iconography of the hunters and the stag, and even Mr. Billups’ elaborate coiffure will likely make this painting among the favorites of our patrons,” said William U. Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art.

The acquisition of these two portraits supports and strengthens the museum’s collection of American paintings, a collection begun by Alfred Heber Holbrook in the 1940s. With works such as Samuel F.B. Morse’s Portrait of Mrs. Catherine Munro (ca. 1818) and Charles Bird King’s Portrait of William Harris Crawford (1823), these paintings are among the earliest images in the American collection.

“The portraits will serve as an excellent means to encourage the discovery of new knowledge about Georgia’s visual and material culture, especially of the early American republic,” said Paul Manoguerra, curator of American art at GMOA.

In addition, the portraits of the Billupses will be anchors for the museum’s collections of Georgia’s decorative arts and American portraiture in the galleries devoted to the permanent collection within the new wing of the museum that will open to the public in early 2011.

I had the pleasure of serving as the museum's representative on the floor at Brunk Auctions back on that Saturday in late May in Asheville. It truly was a thrill -- and very nerve-racking -- to be able to win these great portraits and return them to Athens and the people of the state of Georgia.

Images: Edwin B. Smith (active 1815–1832), Robert Ransome Billups, ca. 1827. Oil on canvas, 30 x 31 1/8". GMOA 2009.89; and Edwin B. Smith, Elizabeth Ware Fullwood Billups, ca. 1827. Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 23 1/8". GMOA 2009.90

Also posted on Classic Ground.