This college town is one of the prettiest corners of New Jersey, an adjective not normally associated with Tony Soprano’s home state. It has history going back to the American Revolution when it saw an American upset victory in winter, just two days after New Years in 1777. That battle took place west of a small Presbyterian school, then the College of New Jersey, now the esteemed Ivy League School known as Princeton University. It is a place this writer is long familiar with dating back to collegiate rowing regattas on Carnegie Lake, years afterwards visiting an esteemed art world figure, Dr. John Wilmerding while he was teaching in the art history department as the Christopher B. Sarophim professor of art history. Today the place still has a beacon like attraction as it is the home of the Princeton University Art Museum. Located in the middle of the campus, the Princeton University Art Museum has over 70,000 objects relating to western Europe, the Mediterranean, the United States, Latin America, and China. Relating to the aesthetic concerns of those that follow the art market the European and American paintings plus the Chinese antiques are of greatest note, with Chinese language often overheard in the galleries as the collection has slowly become world renown.
First the obvious, the collection has a large number of French Impressionist and Old Master paintings. While it doesn’t have a major van Gogh like Yale, the two paintings by Claude Monet (1841-1926), Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge, Giverney, 1899 and the Houses of Parliament, these works may be even more recognizable.
Claude Monet (1841-1926), Water Lillies and Japanese Bridge, Giverney, 1899
Claude Monet (1841-1926), Houses of Parliament
Other French works from the 19th century include:
Edouard Manet (1832-1883), Gypsy with a Cigarette
Eugene Boudin (1824-1898), The Beach at Trouville, 1865
Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875), Woman at Well
Jean Leon Gerome (1824-1904), Napoleon in Egypt
Other countries, Britain and Russia:
Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), After Vespers, 1871
Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893), A Flower Walk, 1874
Wassely Kadinsky (1866-1944), Promenade, 1903
Old Masters:
Fra Angelico (1395-1466), The Penitent St. Jerome, circa 1420
Peter Paul Reubens (1577-1640) and Studio, Cupid Supplicating Jupiter, 1611, gift of the Forbes Collection
Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), The Mocking of Christ
Juriaen van Streeck (1632-1687), Still Life
American:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, Painted in 1783-84
Asher Durand (1796-1885), View of Lake George, 1859
Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900), Evening, 1855, gift of Stuart Feld, Class of 1957
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), View of Mount Adams
Winslow Homer (1836-1910), At the Window, 1872
William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Shinnecock, Long Island
Childe Hassam (1858-1935), Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue, 1916
The Chinese art is so interesting, yet different, it deserves its own article here on AAD, which it will in a forthcoming piece.
The Admission is always free
Princeton Art Museum, McCormick Hall, Princeton, NJ 08542
http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/fr/visit
