AFA Autumn 2018

Antiques & Fine Art 119 2018 The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting opened at the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin. It is currently on view at the Heckscher Museum of Art from August 4– November 4, 2018. Several newly discovered tiles, paintings, works on paper, cabinet cards, and bronzes, many by distinguished artists working early in their careers, are showcased. For more information, visit www.chazen.wisc.edu or www.heckscher.org.  Ann Glasscock is assistant curator at the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the guest curator for the exhibition. 1. Francis Hopkinson Smith, The Novels, Stories and Sketches of F. Hopkinson Smith , Vol. 7 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), 163. 2. Ronald G. Pisano. “Decorative Age or Decorative Craze? The Art and Antics of the Tile Club (1877–1887).” In The Tile Club and the Aesthetic Movement in America , 1877– 1887, edited by Elaine M. Stainton (New York: H. N. Abrams in association with the Museum at Stony Brook, 2000), 12. clockwise from top left Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), Francis Davis Millet, 1879. Bronze, 10½ x 6½ inches. Chazen Museum of Art; Gift of D. Frederick Baker from the Baker/Pisano Collection (2017.27.59). Frank Millet lived an extraordinary life, starting as a drummer boy in the Civil War; he was an active member in many art organizations of the day, serving as a trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on the art advisory board of the National Gallery. On April 15, 1912, he was on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic and, with most of the passengers, was lost at sea. Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896), Oscar Wilde, 1882. Albumen print (cabinet card), 6½ x 43⁄16 inches. Chazen Museum of Art; Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection (2012.1.18). On December 18, 1882, the Tilers held a dinner, the honored guest being none other than Oscar Wilde. This was at the beginning of Wilde’s nationwide tour in which he lectured on the decorative arts and other subjects. On entering the country, Wilde announced at U.S. customs, “I have nothing to declare but my genius.” J. Alden Weir (1852–1919), Tile Club Chef, n.d. Gouache, 15 x 10 inches. Chazen Museum of Art; Gift of D. Frederick Baker from the Baker/Pisano Collection (2017.27.29). In the early 1880s, Weir completed a number of watercolors, several pertaining to the Tile Club.