Summer 2016 Preview

Summer 14 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Clive Devenish Antiques Incline Village, Nevada (510) 414-4545 clivedevenishantiques@comcast.net www.clivedevenishantiques.com Exhibiting at Old West Show, Grass Valley, CA, May 5–7, 2016 Established 1976 John Hauser (1859–1913) Mountain Desert Trail  Gouache on paper, 9½" x 15½" S ome people are driven to make their mark in the world, while others create their legacy by simply following their passions. Benjamin Franklin’s contributions as a man of letters, inventor, diplomat, and statesman are renowned. In response to the adulation he received abroad while ambassador to France during the American Revolution, his likeness appeared on vases, snuffboxes, rings, and innumerable decorative objects. There were also several portrait busts; the most recognized was sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1778 while Franklin was in Paris. There was, however, an earlier, often misattributed bust for which Franklin sat, and which he is thought to have preferred. In 1777, Franklin commissioned a bust from Jean-Jacques Caffieri, sculptor to the king of France. Franklin ordered a plaster copy of the original terra cotta bust for the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. This bust was “lost” after being sent to America in 1949 and thereafter transferred to several locations. On pages 144–151, Pamela Ehrlich presents her findings on what she believes is the current destination of this missing historic representation of one of America’s most prominent citizens. In 1917, arts patron Mabel Dodge Luhan relocated from New York to the high desert of New Mexico, where she pursued a passion for American culture rooted in “a spirit of place.” An activist for Native American rights, she organized some of the first exhibitions of Pueblo and Hispano art. In 1918, she built a seventeen-room house and guesthouses in Taos for her circle of friends, who included artists Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Paul and Rebecca Strand, and Georgia O’Keeffe; these and other artists went on to create works inspired by what Luhan referred to as a primal and liberating landscape. Luhan “did not dabble in the region, she helped define it,” creating one of the nation’s centers for modern art and patronage. On pages 118–125, author Lois Rudnick relays Luhan’s trajectory as she followed her dreams and made a lasting impact on art and culture. Scholarship is critical to expanding knowledge and understanding the collective past. The arts are particularly fortunate when individuals or families provide the means by which young scholars can gain valuable experience and contribute to their respective fields. Carter Hudgins shares the dedication behind the ten-year-old Wood Family Fellowship at Drayton Hall in Charleston, South Carolina (pages 98–99), which, though born of tragedy, has enabled discoveries that have strengthened awareness of the property and helped to expand the knowledge base of Drayton Hall and historic preservation for years to come. Enjoy, Johanna McBrien Founding editor Photography by Ellen McDermott Letter from the editor