Portland Art Museum Receives Gift of van Gogh Masterpiece

Thursday, 18 October 2007 22:30

Portland, OR - After more than half a century in a private collection, this masterpiece will be on public view This afternoon, the Portland Art Museum received a major gift of an original canvas by Vincent van Gogh, The Ox-Cart (Charrette de boeuf). Since 1960, this painting has resided with a family in Roseburg, Ore. It will now be on public display in the Museum’s Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.

“This is a defining moment in the history of the Portland Art Museum,” said Brian Ferriso, the Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Director. “It is the ultimate philanthropic gesture when individuals choose to donate a priceless work of art to a public institution so that future generations can experience it. This is truly a gift to our children and the many generations to follow.”

Fred and Frances Sohn are giving the painting to the Museum for the benefit of future generations. The Sohns have been Oregon residents since 1949 when they moved to Roseburg with their three children. In Roseburg, they had two more children and Fred built a successful lumber business. The business is now managed by two of their sons. The Sohn’s five sons and their families, including nine grandchildren, have grown up around the painting.

Fred Sohn grew up in Germany and was among the fortunate members of his extended Jewish family who survived the Holocaust. Frances was raised primarily in New York City where great art museums were part of her childhood. The couple, married for 67 years, received this painting from Frances’ parents, Cora and Julius Fohs, in 1960. Her father purchased the painting in 1950. The van Gogh painting is the most valuable gift to the Museum.

“The gift of this notable painting is unparalleled in the Museum’s history,” said Bruce Guenther, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “In the current art market, the Museum could never afford economically to purchase a work of this significance. What this gift does for our collection is priceless, both intellectually and historically. ”

Painted in Nuenen, The Netherlands, early in van Gogh’s career, The Ox-Cart (1884) is part of his exploration of peasant life, which included dozens of studies of peasants, farm work, and the rural landscape. Van Gogh had returned to his father’s home in Nuenen, after he had failed at the clergy and given away all of his possessions. He rented studio space from the local church and seriously pursued his career as an artist.

Intrigued by the work of Rembrandt, the great Dutch genre traditions, and Millet, van Gogh’s paintings from Nuenen show his deep identification with the simple, yet difficult life of peasants eking out a humble existence on the land. This exploration of the dank and dark landscape is a sharp contrast to his later work produced in southern France where he was inspired by the bright colors of the region and the work of fellow artists Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin.

His work in Nuenen (1883 – 1885) established his mature vocabulary as a painter – the physicality of the paint and the essential formal vocabulary of his aesthetics. Van Gogh’s visual expression of emotions through color and the physicality of the brushstrokes redefined art-making practices and have influenced generations of artists. The Ox-Cart represents a critical step in his artistic journey. It helped to set the stage for his seminal painting, The Potato Eaters (1885), and for his later work produced in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise (1888-90).

Van Gogh produced two versions of The Ox-Cart, one with a black ox and the other with a red ox. (Ref: Letter to Theo #373). The second version with a red ox is part of the Rijksmuseum’s Kröller- Müller Foundation collection. The Ox-Cart, featuring the black ox, will now be a permanent part of the Portland Art Museum’s collection and will be on display on the first floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in conjunction with the Museum’s Impressionist and School of Paris early modernist works.

The Ox-Cart has been included in a number of major exhibitions following van Gogh’s death. In 1903, it was part of an exhibition in Rotterdam. The painting was part of the Museum of Modern Art’s landmark Vincent van Gogh exhibition of 1935/36, which traveled to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Following the war, from 1946 – 1947, it was included in an exhibition at The Hague and then traveled to five other European cities. It was also on loan for a number of years to the Rijksmuseum. Since 1960, this masterpiece has resided with the Sohn family in Oregon.

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous artists of modern times, and among a handful of artists, such as Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Rembrandt, who have achieved universal recognition across cultures and time. Although van Gogh’s career was short, he has influenced and inspired artists as diverse as Max Beckmann, Chaim Soutine, Marsden Hartley, Henk Pander, and Robert Colescott, all of whom are represented in the Museum’s collection.

About the Portland Art Museum

The seventh oldest museum in the United States, and the oldest on the West Coast, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections. The Museum’s collection of 42,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The Museum dedicates 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection. The Museum’s campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland’s cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of over 23,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts. For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503.226.2811 or visit : www.portlandartmuseum.org .