The American Art Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
November 8, 2006
There were only a few galleries in The American Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The art was sorted by date with the most recent 20th century work being shown in the first gallery. I decided to limit my paper on one particular gallery, which displayed art from 1825-1901. This gallery was the most interesting to me even though there were some flaws in the layout of the room and in the way the art was showcased.
On entering the gallery, American Art III, the first things I noticed were “The Agnew Clinic” and an assortment of furniture and accessories in the back of the room. There were also two statues and fourteen paintings hung on the walls. Three of these paintings were hung over each entrance into the room about twelve feet above the floor, and two painting were hung on top of one another on the west wall. Also among the paintings were Hovenden’s “Breaking Home Ties” and “The Annunciation” by Tanner.
I found it strange that three of the largest paintings in the gallery were hung above the entrances. It was really hard to see and enjoy them so far away. The smaller paintings, which were hung on top of one another, were also hard to see. One was below eye level while the other was way above. There was some organization behind this though because each painting above an entrance was a beautiful landscape and the smaller two were both of the ocean. I asked the gallery attendant if the art was hung this way because of space issues due to the temporary exhibits and she said that the room hadn’t changed except for the new painting, “The Agnew Clinic.”
“The Agnew Clinic” occupies a half wall between the north and east entrances into the room. It’s the only painting on the whole wall. I found it strange that there was so much wall space if only one painting was hung there prior, which was half of it’s size, when there are two paintings on top of one another on the adjacent wall. There should have been plenty of space to have everything at eye level.
“The Agnew Clinic” is about ten feet by seven and a half feet. It is hung horizontally in the center of the wall space, one and a half feet off the ground. The frame was about ten inches of solid oak with text engraved into the bottom left-hand corner. It was hung perfectly. The surgeons are all eye-level with the viewers. I felt like it was a huge window into the operating room itself. I really felt like I was there watching the operation take place.
While I was looking at the painting, the gallery attendant came over and told me a little bit about the art. I learned that it was on temporary loan from the University of Pennsylvania due to a flood at their facility and that Dr. Agnew has a scowl on his face because there is a woman present. Normally, women weren’t allowed in the operating room but she was given the opportunity to observe because she had graduated at the top of her class. She also told me that Eakins had painted himself into the work on the far right side as one of the observers. I really enjoyed her explaining the work for me. It was a nice experience.
Each painting had it’s own information card, but they weren’t a consistent size. The width should have been uniform throughout the gallery. It took me a while to find the information cards for the two ivory sculptures in the room, which did seem a little out of place. I eventually found the information cards on the walls next to the south and west entrances.
Displayed on a short landing on the south half of the gallery was a mix of furniture, accessories and four paintings. There were also four display cases on the floor filled with pitchers and vases. The art here was organized very nicely. All of the colors were dark shades of brown, red, green and blue. The paintings above the landing reflected the furniture because they had similar furniture painted in them. One of the paintings “Portrait of George Burnham,” by Cecilia Beaux was of a man who appeared to be wealthy. It was a nice accompaniment to the furniture and accessories, which were very ornamental and expensive.
I did have a few problems with this section of the gallery though. The information cards for this work were on the floor of the landings, making them hard to read. The four paintings above the furniture were too far away from the viewer to see all the detail, and the display cases had room in between them for someone to walk through, but the space was very cramped and almost dangerous. There should have been either more room in between the cases or none at all.
The gallery was very loud due to the construction of the room. The room was very large with a high, level ceiling. Each wall came together at a 90-degree angle, which allowed sound to reverberate easily. When it was quite, I tested the reverberation time and it took three seconds for a sound to decay. There didn’t seem to be any attempts at isolating sound within the gallery. A few simple fixes could have been bass traps on each corner of the room painted the same color as the walls and a large rug in the middle of the room, that mimicked the style and colors of the furniture that was already on display. Even if the walls were built at slight angles such as 2 – 3 degrees, sound would have been minimized. There were a lot of people talking and joking around in the room. At one point, a crying baby was brought through in a stroller. I could also hear conversations from two galleries away. This made it harder for me to picture myself in the hospital while viewing “The Agnew Clinic.”
The walls were painted a medium grey/brown from the floor to 3/4 of the way to the ceiling with a dark blue/green stripe between the off-white color that extended to the ceiling. These colors complimented the dark colors in the artwork. The ceiling was covered in slightly transparent tiles allowing some natural light to mix with the track lighting. The light was very nice. It was bright enough to see all the details of the artwork with no obstructive glare on the paintings as in some of the other American art galleries, which I am not covering in this essay.
As a whole, my experience was fine. I enjoyed the artwork, but I didn’t enjoy some of the ways in which the art was being displayed. For the room being so large, the walls should not have been so cluttered. There was only two feet of space separating most paintings. The gallery was also in need of some serious acoustical treatments. I visited on a Sunday, which is the day you can gain admittance for as low as a penny. Teenagers and parents with children are more likely to attend on Sundays. This may have had something to do with the overall experience and the loud ambiance of the gallery.
