Master pieces

Europe is decidedly different from us. We speak of years and they speak of centuries. The head gardener at Versailles was once asked how he kept the lawn so beautiful. He replied that it was simple: "Water every day, cut every week … for 300 years."

One of our oldest institutions, the University of Pennsylvania, is now exhibiting other well-kept treasures from Europe — master drawings on loan from Oxford University.

Jon Whiteley of the Ashmolean selected the 51 works in the show — "Master Drawings (1800-1914) from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford" — but the full story of the show involves much more. The notion of a university sending off part of its collection for view in the United States started with Cambridge in 1989, and the immediate response was, "What about the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford?"

Then, about 10 years ago, things got serious with the whole business of getting permission from all sorts of stuffy bureaucrats.

The current show took shape as Penn’s Susan Sidlauskas prepared to organize a seminar on the drawing collection at the Ashmolean, specifically those pieces that would make up the exhibition.

It was then decided that the 10 graduate students and two undergraduates in her seminar would travel to Oxford and see the works firsthand to write essays for the exhibition catalogue. And so it happened, and the show runs through June 27.

If all of this has a kind of Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney "Let’s-put-on-a-show" feeling, that’s pretty much because that’s the way it was. The huge difference is, of course, that these are, in fact, master drawings, and probably the most beautiful of the entire 19th century.

As curator of the exhibit, Whiteley had much to draw on. The Ashmolean Museum opened in June 1683, when even the use of the word "museum" was new. Some 25 years later, an early dictionary used the Ashmolean to describe what a "museum" was. The name comes from a generous benefactor with the unfortunate moniker of Elias Ashmole, whose collection formed the basis of the museum with items of "miscellaneous curiosities." To Philadelphians, this has the familiar ring of the Peale family.

As Whiteley notes, "None of us can ever escape the taste of our times entirely. This exhibition shows that great things can be achieved within the constraints of fashion by a curator or collector driven by conviction and passion. It celebrates a view of the 19th century, which will seem increasingly selective as time goes by, but is based upon a profound belief in the overriding importance of quality."

This is typical English understatement, as the drawings on the whole are absolutely stunning.

Of particular interest are the "Orientalists," a term used then to describe almost any exotic location or personage other than Englishmen. Decamps’ Turkish merchant is a marvelous example of Orientalism, as are Dupre’s Armenian, Lewis’ Spanish girl and Wilkie’s Constantinople family.

There are several marvelous landscapes such as L’Hermitte’s Pont en Royan and Dyce’s Distant Mountain Range. Even a city that recently had an overdose of D�gas will appreciate the female nude seen from the rear who is emerging from a shower with no apparent self-consciousness.

And what would an English exhibition be without a maritime piece? This show has a striking and complex scene of ships by Bonington called Shipping Off the Coast of Kent, 1825.

In many ways it is typical of maritime art of the time, with a low horizon and full-length side view with quite wonderful waves. Still, the ships are not completely recognizable, a practice that any normal marine artist would never dare. Bonington seems more interested in the interplay of water, sky and ship than in a faithful rendition of a sailing vessel.

The student essays, which make up a helpful and attractive catalogue, are a combination of youthful passion for the subject, along with a sometimes-painful attempt to act serious and grownup. They needn’t have been apprehensive, as their passion is well placed. It allows the viewer to enjoy the works more for themselves than for the art-historical gibberish that so often appears at academic shows.

The exhibit is being hosted by the Arthur Ross Gallery in the Art Library building on the Penn campus. The building is the work of Frank Furness and its architecture easily matches the rather staid Ashmolean.

Master Drawings (1800-1914) from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Through June 27
Arthur Ross Gallery in Fisher Fine Arts Library
University of Pennsylvania
220 S. 34th St.
Free admission
215-898-1479
www.upenn.edu/ARG