Harvard To Sell Cassatt Painting

Harvard University Art Museums officials have decided to sell a valuable Mary Cassatt oil painting, “Mother and Two Children,” but some criticize the decision as one driven solely by financial gain.

Initially given as a gift to Harvard in 1922 by Ernest G. Stillman, class of 1907, the painting will be auctioned at Christie’s auction house as part of a sale titled “Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculptures.” The painting has a projected sale price of $3 million to $5 million.

The painting in question is the only major Cassatt oil that Harvard University owns, standing out among a potpourri of other Cassatt drawings and prints, according to the Harvard University Art Museums website.

The Stillman family has not been notified of the sale, according to Luann Abrahams, Assistant Director of Administration of the Harvard University Art Museums, who said that notification is not required by current museum policy.

In response to concerns, Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., graduate of Harvard Law School in 1964 and curator of American Art at the Fogg Art Museum said, “I think that if the painting was donated last year, then it would be insensitive, but after 77 years, it’s not insensitive, but instead impractical to attempt to contact a scattered group of descendants of the initial benefactor.”

But some criticize the sale on the grounds that the Fogg Museum is getting rid of an artwork of great aesthetic significance in order to increase its endowment, according to comments on internet blogs such as www.freerepublic.com.

According to The New York Times, Stebbins had initially said that the money acquired from the Cassatt sale would most likely be used to buy a work by the same artist.

Eric Widing, department head of American art at Christie’s, emphasized the artistic value of the work, saying, “We are delighted to have it for sale.”

“We have not had a great multi-figural façade oil such as this painting for many years,” he said, noting that the painting is “large and in wonderful condition.”

He also added that “although in every sale we have works of this magnitude, whenever a major oil comes up for auction, it is an event.”

But Abrahams explained the museum’s decision.

“We are constantly looking at our collections and trying to make sure what we have is useful for a teaching mission, and although this is a painting that we have had for a long time, it is not something we teach from, and it is something we haven’t used for a long time,” she said. “This motivated our decision to instead strengthen our holdings in a Cassatt drawing or print.”

Stebbins also explained that the acquired funds could be put to better use, saying he hopes to use the money to create a more comprehensive exhibition of American art.

“Cassatt was a great pastelist, and we are certainly considering acquiring one of her early pastels for our collection using the funds from this sale. But at the same time, our collections are very lacking in American Impressionism, in particular other works by other American Impressionists.”

But both Abrahams and Stebbins affirmed that the museum did not have specific replacement acquisition plans and did not yet know what it was going to do with the money.

The auction is set to take place at the New York Rockefeller Plaza on Dec. 1.