Item of The Week

Only 19 years old, Rosa Bonheur made her first entry into the Paris Salon of 1841 with “Rabbits Nibbling Carrots.” Her handling of light, color, balance and texture were well beyond her years. In that same year, Bonheur began to show and sell her bronze animals, which became wildly popular. This was the beginning of a long and full career. Bonheur worked steadily until her death in 1899. Her drawings, paintings and bronzes remain popular – particularly those of animals.

Do you know a child who loves animals and art? We’ve got a book for them! Portraits of Women Artists for Children: Rosa Bonheur is a full picture of the life of the artist in a shorter form. The book is full of surprises and fun trivia. Did you know that the Bonheur family kept a sheep in a 6th-floor apartment? Did you know that Rosa Bonheur painted publicity photos for Buffalo Bill? Please stop by the Jean Outland Chrysler Library and check out our new collection of children’s books!

By Library Assistant Sara Mason

Unsolved Mystery

20 years ago this week, the largest art theft in history took place. In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two unknown men gained entrance to the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston and stole 35 priceless works of art. Works by Vermeer, van Rijn, Degas, Manet and many others vanished without a trace that night. “The Concert” by Vermeer is considered to be the most valuable missing painting in the world. In her 2005 documentary “Stolen,” Rebecca Dreyfus explores the nature of beauty and the tragedy of the theft through the eyes of those involved after the incident. Though there have been suspicions and clues to the identity of the thieves, none of the missing art have been recovered. Enjoy a good mystery? Stop by the Jean Outland Chrysler Library and ask for “Stolen!”

-Library Assistant Sara Mason

Coming Soon!

The exhibition Women of the Chrysler: A 400-Year Celebration of the Arts opens next Wednesday, March 24.  
This expansive show fills both the Large and Small Changing Galleries with more than 150 works by women painters, sculptors, photographers, silversmiths, glass artists, and printmakers drawn from the Chrysler Museum's permanent  collection. The exhibition also traces the course of women’s ever-expanding contributions to the arts in Europe, America, and eventually the world .

Here in the Library we've been gathering information about the contributions of women to the history of the Museum itself. Women from all backgrounds have played and integral role in the creation, development, and operation of the Museum from its very beginning.  Each week during the exhibition, the blog will feature a story about a woman or group of women accompanied by an online album of images from the Library's collections. We  also invite you to join us in the Library throughout the run of the exhibtion to learn more about these dedicated women.

Stay tuned!

The Jean Outland Chrysler Library Collection: in Concert this Sunday

Music of Quality and Taste: Selections from the Myers Music Collection

If you are a regular blog reader, you may remember us mentioning the Myers Family Music collection. This impressive library of over 900 pieces of music from the 18th and 19th centuries is a treasure of beautiful music tucked away in our collection. Some of these pieces are little known and rarely heard today. This Sunday, March 14, 2010 the Friends of Historic Houses present Music of Quality and Taste: Selections from the Myers Music Collection. The Virginia Chorale will perform choral and instrumental selections from the collection on  instruments like those the Myers would have used.  Don’t miss this rare opportunity to enter the musical world of the early 1800s in the comfort of the Museum’s Kaufman Theatre. The concert starts at 3 p.m. It’s free for Friends of the Historic Houses, $5 for Museum Members, $10 for all others. For ticket information, please call (757) 333-1087.


We hope to see you there!

Kate Chopin's The Awakening at Art & Books, Wine & Cheese!

Please join us on March 17th at 6:30pm for Art & Books, Wine & Cheese in the Gifford Room at the Chrysler Museum of Art. We will be kicking off Women of The Chrysler by discussing Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Kate Chopin, nee’ Catherine O’Flahrety, was born in St. Louis to an Irish father and a mother of French descent. She spent her life surrounded by strong women, including her mother and two grandmothers, and good friends who influenced her creative ideas and encouraged her writing. Her charming personality and quick mind led to friendships with the likes of Edgar Degas and George Sand. Chopin’s writing was both celebrate and heavily criticized by her contemporaries; quite notably Willa Cather.

Upon its publication in 1899, The Awakening was labeled as shocking, morbid and distasteful. Chopin’s depiction of the public and private life of a well-off woman of polite New Orleans society caused a fuss in its day, but was quickly forgotten after her death in 1904. A resurgence of the popularity of her work in the late 1960s and early 1970s once again brought Chopin’s novels and short stories to the forefront. Her work has become a permanent fixture in literature classes world-wide, The Awakening being arguably the most popular and thought-provoking. We hope that you will be provoked to join us on the 17th.

For more information about Kate Chopin, please visit http://www.katechopin.org/.

- Library Assistant Sara Mason

Item of the Week: “To Imagine a Language is to Imagine a Form of Life”

We're getting ready for Women of the Chrysler: A 400-Year Celebration of the Arts, part of Minds Wide Open: A Statewide Celebration of Women in the Arts in Virginia.  The exhibition opens March 24, 2010 and will feature an amazing variety of artwork by women artists drawn from the Chrysler Museum Collection. In the Library you'll find books and other resources about each artist included in the exhibition.  Spring Library Intern Victoria M. Schwab was inspired by one of the works in the show  - Deborah Butterfield's 2000 peice Kakiwi to write the following about one of the volumes featured in the reading room:  Horses: the Art of Deborah Butterfield.  Victoria writes:
"Deborah Butterfield’s work establishes a language with another species through her ability to understand and communicate with the horse. When constructing her sculptures she relies on her memory of the horse’s internal gestures and energy rather than a mere copy. Butterfield compares the process to learning how to dance with someone who cannot talk to you.

Butterfield claims art is meant to advance human beings and that a single work is the “debris from thinking and growing.” She specifically believes that art is geared to confront the viewer with what may initially appear uncomfortable through a vulnerable and complex position. Through her expression of language, growth and perception are made achievable in the physical presence of her sculptures. The viewer is asked to climb into and connect with the shape, which offers a view of the world through another set of eyes. The transference of oneself into the form allows the viewer to bring their unique life experiences to the work of art, meanwhile perceiving the remnants of Butterfields’s energy. The wonderful result is that the viewer utilizes what makes them unique from the next person and grows from the experience; one that begins with yourself and then working outward."

By: Victoria M. Schwab

Derived from the 1988 interview with Marcia Tucker

More information about Women of the Chrysler  will soon be available here, or your can learn about other events taking place as part of Minds Wide Open here.