Art Event

Louis Van Ess Louis Van Ess was a part time professor at Hartwick College between 1941 and 1960 in the History Department. He is known for his art collection, which he started years before he was a teacher here. He collected many amazing artworks and I was even stunned by some of the work that he was able to get. The Madonna and Child in Meadow is attributed to the School of Giovanni Bellini and was thought to be maid around 1510. It is oil pained on a wooden panel. I found it interesting that the Madonna’s hands are touching one another, not holding the child. The child is lying between her knees, as if Madonna’s dress created a hammock for the child to lie in. Madonna is wearing a dress that is yellow, red and blue; these primary colors are often used in religious paintings. The child’s face is serene, along with Madonna’s. It appears that the background is a cityscape of the city of Jerusalem, or so I believe. The Descent from the Cross is a cast bronze picture from the early Renaissance. The artist is unknown. This cast bronze piece is a sculpture, but looks like a painting or a relief sculpture. There is not much detail in the faces of the people and there is not background. The heads of people are the area which sticks out the most. There are three men and an angel with wings carrying down Christ from the cross. At the bottom of the scene are two men holding the fainted Mary in their arms. Of all the artwork in this exhibit, this one is my favorite because it is the most original piece, a style I have never seen before. Frederick Hassam’s painting Isle of Shoals is oil on canvas piece that was made around 1915. What caught my eye about this painting was that I thought it was a Van Gogh at first. Hassam used short thick brushstrokes like Van Gogh, which is why they look so similar. Hassam painted with browns, tans and greens that were all similar in color. From far away, it was hard to differentiate the parts of the landscape from one another because the colors were so similar and the brushstrokes seemed to blend into one another. John Henry Twachtman made an oil on canvas painting called In the Garden in 1890. This painting is exactly the opposite of the latter. The paint was applied so smooth that I could barely tell if there were any brushstrokes at all. The paint was all even and the it looked as though it was applied all at once. The only thick paint in the whole piece is on the flowers, and that was used to show the highlights. Louis Van Ess collected many paintings of the Adirondacks and of the area surrounding Oneonta. Many of these paintings looked like the ones from the River School Hudson artists. I am assuming he enjoyed these paintings because they were the scenes that surrounded him daily. I was surprised to see that Van Ess was such an accomplished collector that he even had a Rembrandt. It is pretty amazing and good bragging rights to say that Hartwick College has a painting by such a famous artist. Louis Van Ess’ legacy was his art collection that has many different styles, artists and mediums.