The Battle of the U.S.S. “Kearsarge” and the C.S.S. “Alabama,” an oil on canvas painting by the French artist Édouard Manet from the John G. Johnson Collection is one of the major highlights of Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

ART EXHIBITION: Artworks by famous artists highlight Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

BY KAZEEM ADELEKE

Eduard Charlemont, Austrian,1848 – 1906, ‘The Moorish Chief’ 1878. Oil on panel 59 1/8 x 38 1/2 inches. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art

PHILADELPHIA- Over ninety artworks from the John G. Johnson will feature prominently in a major exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in November. . The  Collection has nearly 1,500 works. Titled Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection, the art exhibition focuses on one of the finest collections of European art to have been formed in the United States by a private collector.

The art exhibition includes early Italian and Renaissance paintings by masters such as Botticelli, Bosch, and Titian.  The show also includes important seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings by Rembrandt and Jan Steen and others. Also in the exhibition are paintings by contemporary French masters of Johnson’s day, notably Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and the Impressionists.

Édouard Manet’s The Battle of the U.S.S. “Kearsage” and the C.S.S. “Alabama,” 1864 are some of the major highlights of the art exhibition.  Also expected to captivate art lovers are works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, including Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks, 1864.

Dutch and Netherlandish painters

Major works by Dutch and Netherlandish painters, including Judith Leyster’s The Last Drop, c. 1639, and Rogier van der Weyden’s The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning, c. 1460  are expected to bring focus to these famous art masters.  Italian paintings including Titian’s Portrait of Archbishop Filippo Archinto, 1558, and Masolino and Masaccio’s Saints Paul, Peter, John the Evangelist, and Martin of Tours, c. 1427–28, will also feature prominently in Old Masters Now.

In 1917, John G. Johnson, the most famous lawyer of his day, left his astonishing trove of European art in the city of Philadelphia. Old Masters Now celebrates the centinnial of Johnson’s gift of his collection to the city of Philadelphia.  It offers a close look at some works that curators and conservators have analyzed and cared for over the years. This art professional explored issues of attribution and authenticity. Additionally, they undertook other forms of detective work to form a better understanding of Johnson’s collection.

As a way of bringing context to the exhibition, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be publishing a digital catalog, which includes thematic essays, archival resources, and detailed entries on 70 artworks. The essays focus on the formation and stewardship of the collection. The catalog will be widely available to researchers of all kinds, and free to access.

Celebrating the Johnson Collection

Three curators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art came together to curate this major show:  Jennifer Thompson, The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, and Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection; Christopher Atkins, The Agnes and Jack Mulroney Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, and Manager of Curatorial Digital Programs and Initiatives; Teresa Lignelli, The Aronson Senior Conservator of Paintings; and Mark S. Tucker, The Neubauer Family Director of Conservation.

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, Italian), Italian 1576, Portrait of Archbishop Filippo Archinto 1558. Oil on canvas 45 3/16 x 34 15/16 inches. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection, on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from November 3, 2017, through February 19, 2018