On and Off the Wall is a series of brief reflections on or about works in the collection, including those that may not often make an appearance on the gallery wall due to shortage of display space. Deborah Spanich is the museum registrar. She compiled the digital database and fell in love with many of the works in the collection.

Barclay Sheaks, who started the art department at Virginia Wesleyan College, passed away this year. One of the works in the College’s collection is a hinged diptych by Sheaks. It is a nice example of a subject he visited in several of his paintings: various depictions of “watchers,” figures who gaze either at a specified focus, or who appear to stare ambiguously out at the viewer.

In Watchers, two women direct their attention not toward each other, but at unidentified targets. The young woman on the left holds a glass to her lips and looks beyond the edge of the canvas. On the right, an older woman sits in front of a window, eyes obscured by large dark glasses.

Far from being a portrait, this painting is a study of two people sharing the same space without an obvious connection between them. Sheaks uses lighting and other elements in this work to set up a tension apart from that presented by the undefined focus of the women’s watchful attention.

The face of woman on the left looms within the borders of frame. The break between the two panels effectively bisects her resting arm from her torso at the shoulder, leaving it at the margin of the right-hand painting. This panel is the domain of the other woman, centered in the space, yet not as prominent. In contrast to the first woman who is sleeveless, she is clad in a jacket. The table is devoid of food and her hands are not shown, leaving her without purpose. This composition suggests the women are together but not dining companions.

The light that accents the younger woman’s face and the liquid in her raised glass seems to lead the viewer’s eye toward the second figure. Further, the folded napkin on the table appears to point upward to the shadowed face. However, the shadow and sunglasses make her features enigmatic. It is as though Sheaks deliberately made her expression unreadable. Adding to the tension is the fact that it is not clear where she is looking. Her gaze may follow that of the woman on the left, it may rest on the back of her turned head, or even – unnervingly – on us.

Landscapes don’t always come in the two-dimensional form of paintings. One landscape in our collection is Landscape Bowl by Wayne Higby. This small wheel-thrown raku-fired piece captures the attention with a lightning bolt of color that zigzags down its sides. What isn’t easy to see in a photograph is that this appears on the inside of the bowl as well. Higby is a noted instructor and artist, and recently curated the Scripps Ceramic Annual. He favors the forms of bowls and covered boxes, which he augments with landscape imagery that evokes the scenery of his childhood home state of Colorado. In this piece, it seems that Higby wants to make us aware that memory and locale combine and permeate the ordinariness of the everyday.

Landscape Bowl by Wayne Higby

This old Charleston gate, Smyth or Smythe, is depicted in two works in our collection. Margaret Hardon Wright made the print shown here in about 1900. The other print was made by Alfred Hutty 27 years later. Both Wright and Hutty were members of the Chicago Society of Etchers, although she lived in Boston and he lived in both New York and South Carolina. Their work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930, along with that of numerous other etchers, on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the Society.

Margaret Wright collected the work of many of the etchers affiliated with the Chicago collection. She was the source of a large group of prints given to the Museum by her son and his wife, including works by Hutty and examples of work by some of the best etchers in this and other countries. The gates of Charleston are highly regarded, and it’s interesting that two artists in our collection visited this lovely one. I looked for a photo of it on the web, without success. (Does anyone know of one?)

You may see the Hutty etching of Smyth gate in our online catalog at http://maier.randolphcollege.edu/Obj470$2374.

Smythe Gate, Charleston, S.C., by Margaret Hardon Wright

Here is a secret: some of the works in the collection have double lives. While on display in the gallery Healy’s Young Woman shows no sign of what is hidden behind her. Unnamed and unfinished, the face of a bearded man gazes from the reverse side of the board. His face is detailed, if rather monochromatic, but below his collar nothing grounds him. Lines furrow his forehead (perhaps in puzzlement over why the artist chose not to continue his painting?) On the front, a vibrant young woman enjoys the full attention of both artist and viewer.

In Prendergast’s painting, bathers take pleasure in the sun and spray as they occupy rough outcroppings. In the foreground but not prominent, the figures seem part of the scenery. On the reverse side is a similar seascape, containing only rocks and sea. In the finished scene the figures add a sense of scale, but in light of the work on the back, it appears that the artist may have considered leaving them out. The rocks dominate, and speak for themselves.

We don’t know the reason Healy and Prendergast chose not to complete the paintings on the hidden sides of these canvases. Nor did they paint over the images. These works have both public faces, and private:  Prendergast’s vibrant, unpeopled place; and the man destined to spend eternity with his face to the wall.

We don’t often get to show works on paper in the museum. Most are in storage, including several by Judith Clancy. Clancy’s sketching style is simple, attentive, black ink against the white page. Her drawings look deeply at the world, and allow us to see it deeply as well. It almost seems a figure might make a subtle move or we could enter a scene and see around the corner. In fact, Clancy conducted workshops teaching “Drawing/Seeing.”

Clancy illustrated Peter Mayle’s books on Provence, portraits of places she loved. According to Peter Nicholson, “The soul seems to shine forth more clearly in a drawing.” The drawings show the soul of Judith Clancy. Have a look for yourself in the online catalog: Works in the collection by Judith Clancy.

Judith Clancy, Narrow Street Leading to Church of St. Gervais, 1985

Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Morgan

On and Off the Wall is a series of brief reflections on or about works in the collection, including those that may not often make an appearance on the gallery wall due to shortage of display space. Deborah Spanich is the museum registrar. She compiled the digital database and fell in love with many of the works in the collection.

Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Morgan
George W. Fitzwilson

What I like about this portrait is five-year-old Mary’s serene blue eyes and soft, almost glowing, face. Possibly the dress and perhaps even the body depicted in the portrait weren’t hers. The lack of detail and the simplicity of her dress and pose leave her expression as the only feature of her original spirit shining through.

However, this sweet-looking girl did not grow up to be as compliant as she appears in this portrait. Twenty years later, Mary defied Union rule that forbade the wearing of Confederate uniforms in the occupied City of Lynchburg. Taking fabric from her husband’s uniforms, she created a jacket boasting military braid and the gold stars of a Confederate colonel. Mary was often seen wearing this jacket paired with a grey skirt around Lynchburg. In a photograph from the time, Mary’s eyes gaze out with confidence, as if to say, “This is who I really am.”

Come and meet Mary at the Maier Museum, and then go and see her jacket which is on display at the Lynchburg Historical Museum!