Two years after the purchasing the Nadleman collection of American folk art, in 1950, Stephen Clark made his usual Saturday morning visit to the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, ending up as always in Lou Jones’ office, where he said, “Have you heard of the Lipman Collection?” Jones replied that he had, having known the Lipmans for some time. “Well” said Clark, “What do you think of it?” Jones said, “Next to Nina Little’s it’s the great collection.” Clark replied “I did something I shouldn’t have done without consulting you first. I hope you don’t mind. I bought it yesterday.”
Jean Lipman was well known as the long-time editor of Art in America, in which she had featured Clark’s Henri Matisse collection in 1934. Lipman was also a pioneering collector; and her pieces among others had illustrated her influential books American Primitive Painting and American Folk Art in Wood, Metal, and Stone in the 1940s. Clark purchased 334 paintings and sculptures from the Lipmans for $75,000, exactly twice what Mrs. Lipman had paid for each item.
As Clark set about collecting folk art, he did so with an eye honed from years of collecting Modernism, and recognizing in folk art the aesthetic similarities to modern art, which Lipman described as “the unselfconscious ability to develop the purely aesthetic qualities of abstract design.” In this regard it makes perfect sense that he would be enthralled with the works that Lipman had collected.
All of a sudden the museum’s folk art collection was one of the largest and most important in the country. The Lipman collection included landscapes, townscapes, schoolgirl pieces, weathervanes, cigar store figures, nautical carvings, and trade signs.
One of Lipman’s favorite pieces, Winter Sunday in Norway, Maine, was purchased from an antique dealer for 50 cents and sold to Mr. Clark for one dollar.
Lipman owned two great Peaceable Kingdoms by the Quaker minister and artist Edward Hicks, the earlier one incorporating a border with the paraphrased verse from Isaiah, and the later noteworthy for its unified and dramatic composition.
The Lipman Collection was especially strong in sculpture, and included a unique Cigar Store Figure with African features, reportedly made by a freed slave by the name of Job in Freehold, NJ.
After the acquisition of the Lipman Collection, the lower level of Fenimore House, a former swimming pool in Edward’s mansion, was filled in to create state-of-the-art galleries for all of the folk art holdings. (see photo below)
All of a sudden the museum’s folk art collection was one of the largest and most important in the country. The Lipman collection included landscapes, townscapes, schoolgirl pieces, weathervanes, cigar store figures, nautical carvings, and trade signs.
One of Lipman’s favorite pieces, Winter Sunday in Norway, Maine, was purchased from an antique dealer for 50 cents and sold to Mr. Clark for one dollar.
Lipman owned two great Peaceable Kingdoms by the Quaker minister and artist Edward Hicks, the earlier one incorporating a border with the paraphrased verse from Isaiah, and the later noteworthy for its unified and dramatic composition.The Lipman Collection was especially strong in sculpture, and included a unique Cigar Store Figure with African features, reportedly made by a freed slave by the name of Job in Freehold, NJ.After the acquisition of the Lipman Collection, the lower level of Fenimore House, a former swimming pool in Edward’s mansion, was filled in to create state-of-the-art galleries for all of the folk art holdings. (see photo below)Top: Winter Sunday in Norway, Maine, ca. 1860, Artist Unidentified, Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Gift of Stephen C. Clark, Cooperstown, NY, N0321.1961.
Middle: Peaceable Kingdom ca 1830-1835, Edward Hicks (1780-1849), Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, gift of Stephen C. Clark, N0038.1961.
Bottom: Cigar Store Figure, Female (African American) ca.1850, attributed to Job, an African American carver from Freehold, NY. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Gift of Stephen C. Clark, N0145.1961
During the early 19th century, women painted and embroidered countless scenes honoring departed friends and relatives. They were an expression of the universality of death and a belief in eternal life with a promise of heavenly reunion. Frequently an important part of the curriculum in female seminaries, these mourning pictures derived from late 18th century European and English design sources and typically included grieving figures, funeral urns, and weeping willows.
The daughter of a wealthy resident of rural Connecticut, Eunice Pinney was well-educated and had an unusual exposure to culture for her day. She is believed to have taken up watercolor painting in her thirties and derived many of her subjects from literature such as Goethe’s “Sorrows of Werther,” Homer’s “Iliad,” and the Bible. Over fifty known works survive, most of which were painted between 1809 and 1826. They are particularly important because they are the work of a mature woman, rather than a schoolgirl.
Nine of Pinney’s known works are memorials. Three are in the Fenimore Art Museum collection. (A fourth work in the collection depicts two women sitting in chairs in an interior setting.) In one of the mourning pictures, she prepared a memorial to herself when she was 43 years old, leaving space on the tombstone for her age and year of death. She also rendered a memorial to her sister, Diadama Pinney, and an
I spend a lot of time planning exhibitions; deciding which artworks tell a particular story, negotiating to bring those works together here at the museum, writing or editing labels, and working with the exhibitions staff to create a layout that brings the visitor into the world that the art portrays. My absolute favorite part of this job, however, is sharing that world with visitors after the exhibition is mounted. Over the course of the season I might give dozens of tours and lectures to hundreds of people. When we have exhibitions that are particularly popular, we simply schedule more and I make the time.
