DOI Heft:
Nr. 232 (June 1915)
DOI Artikel:Art collection and psychology
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43461#0408
Art Collecting and Psychology
Courtesy J■ S. Carpenter, Des Moines, Iowa
SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS BY FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
A RT COLLECTING AND PSY-
/\ CHOLOGY
BY RAYMOND WYER
There is perhaps nothing more in-
teresting than studying a collection of art in
relation to the one who assembled it. Many
are the thoughts that are expressed, sometimes
desirable thoughts, often incomplete ones, and
very often ones which would have been better
left unrevealed and unrecorded. Finding reasons
for certain paintings being included, why this
good painting should be hanging next a mediocre
one, and other strange inconsistencies, keep one
in a continual state of wonderment and specula-
tion. In the first place, to know why people col-
lect paintings at all is not so easy a matter to
decide, for the more one wanders among the col-
lections of ancient and modern art which are to
be found everywhere and observes their varying
characteristics, the more one realizes that there
can be no single answer to the question.
I have known private collections in which all
are great works by great masters. I have seen
collections which at first filled me with delight,
and then despair, and I finished up in a state of
mental perplexity. It would be this way—I will
state a particular case or experience I had some
years ago. A gentleman, since dead, asked me
to see his collection. The first three paintings I
saw on entering the house in the main hall were
a Hogarth, an exceptional Ferdinand Bol, and
an old Crome. I was interested. Here was artis-
tic perception. In another of the rooms I found
a Cazin, next to it—and it was here the first blow
came—a florid head by Jacquet followed by a
landscape by that great artist, Twachtman, and
then a Ridgeway Knight, and so on. As I left
the house I was wondering which were the acci-
dents.
Although the paintings in a home should reflect
the judgment and taste of the collector—they
more often fail to do so. For example the pos-
session of a collection composed entirely of great
masterpieces does not necessarily signify the pos-
session of a refined and cultivated taste on the
cxxi
Courtesy J■ S. Carpenter, Des Moines, Iowa
SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS BY FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
A RT COLLECTING AND PSY-
/\ CHOLOGY
BY RAYMOND WYER
There is perhaps nothing more in-
teresting than studying a collection of art in
relation to the one who assembled it. Many
are the thoughts that are expressed, sometimes
desirable thoughts, often incomplete ones, and
very often ones which would have been better
left unrevealed and unrecorded. Finding reasons
for certain paintings being included, why this
good painting should be hanging next a mediocre
one, and other strange inconsistencies, keep one
in a continual state of wonderment and specula-
tion. In the first place, to know why people col-
lect paintings at all is not so easy a matter to
decide, for the more one wanders among the col-
lections of ancient and modern art which are to
be found everywhere and observes their varying
characteristics, the more one realizes that there
can be no single answer to the question.
I have known private collections in which all
are great works by great masters. I have seen
collections which at first filled me with delight,
and then despair, and I finished up in a state of
mental perplexity. It would be this way—I will
state a particular case or experience I had some
years ago. A gentleman, since dead, asked me
to see his collection. The first three paintings I
saw on entering the house in the main hall were
a Hogarth, an exceptional Ferdinand Bol, and
an old Crome. I was interested. Here was artis-
tic perception. In another of the rooms I found
a Cazin, next to it—and it was here the first blow
came—a florid head by Jacquet followed by a
landscape by that great artist, Twachtman, and
then a Ridgeway Knight, and so on. As I left
the house I was wondering which were the acci-
dents.
Although the paintings in a home should reflect
the judgment and taste of the collector—they
more often fail to do so. For example the pos-
session of a collection composed entirely of great
masterpieces does not necessarily signify the pos-
session of a refined and cultivated taste on the
cxxi