Shelburne Museum director Stephan Jost recently announced the acquisition of several works to the museum’s collection, among them an important painting by Nineteenth Century maritime artist Francis Augusta Silva (1835‱886).
“The Silva painting, the museum’s first, marks the most significant addition to Shelburne’s collection of Nineteenth Century American art in more than a decade,” Jost said. “An outstanding Luminist painting, the work broadens the collection of marine paintings that includes works by Silva’s contemporaries, Martin Johnson Heade and Fitz Henry Lane.”
Silva, a member of the Hudson River School’s second generation of painters, focused his artistic energies on coastal scenes of the Atlantic Seaboard. His handling of atmospheric effects placed him in league with emerging Luminist painters. The painting was donated by Eric P. Lande, PhD, a Vermont resident whose gift is meant to further inspire donations to Shelburne Museum’s collection of American paintings. It will be on view in Webb Gallery for the 2008 season.
Two donations to the decorative arts collection include an extremely rare Eighteenth Century English creamware pot and an American Chippendale looking glass. The unique hot water pot is a gift from renowned collectors and connoisseurs Jane and Gerald Katcher and will be exhibited at the museum in the Variety Unit. The parcel gilt looking glass, attributed to William Wilmerding, will be on view this season in the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building and is donated by the Stanley family.
The Shelburne Museum, open daily from 10 am to 5 pm from mid-May through October, is on US Route 7. For information, 802-985-3346 or www.shelburnemuseum.org .
