What Art Would You Like to Own?

"Art always serves beauty," wrote Boris Pasternak in his novel DoctorZhivago, "and beauty is the joy of possessing form," With that thought in mind, we asked campus art experts: What is the one work you would most like to have in your personal collection?

"Paul Cezanne's Still Life with Fruit in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Cezanne is the only artist I know who makes apples more interesting than the human form."

Robert L. McGrath

Professor of art history

"I would enjoy owning Abbott Thayer's Below Mount Monadnock, painted around 1913. This is a wonderfully evocative view of the majestic, snow-covered peak at dawn, as seen from Thayer's studio in Dublin, New Hampshire. The work is a lyrical ode to the beauty and mystical power of nature, forcefully conveyed on a small scale that is perfect for a domestic setting."

Barbara J. MacAdam

Curator of American art at the Hood Museum

"Caravaggio's The Calling of St.Matthew springs immediately to mind. The drama of the moment, the clarity of the narrative and the power of the gesture summoning Matthew make this painting powerfully compelling."

Marlene E. Heck

Senior lecturer in art history

"The work I would most like to have is an Inuit fishhook that incorporates a small, naturalistic ivory carving of a seal. As an anthropologist, I find the incorporation of hunting magic depicted by the seal's prowess as a catcher of fish into the finely made object interesting on a number of levels. As someone interested in visual culture, I find the hook's fine old patina and the wonderful rendering of the seal's face visually appealing."

Kellen Haak '79

Registrar at the Hood Museum

My choice would be Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's Bather Seen from theBack, also known as the Valpinçon Bather, after its original owner. It presently hangs in the Louvre, but it would just fit in my house. The image is an extraordinary balance between physical presence and pictorial representation. A concise network of lines, it's equally an unbelievable study in flesh tones, framed by grays, olives and whites. Of course, the authorities wouldn't part with it. What to do?"

John Jacobus

Emeritus professor of art history

"The Bathers by Milton Avery. My parents owned this painting for a number of years and it hung in our living room. My mother loved it very much. When I was a young child, my mother's feeling for that painting taught me about the power and significance of art in our lives. It also created in me a lifelong affinity for the work of Avery."

Margaret Dyer Chamberlain

Acting director, the Hood Museum