By Susan Shinn
sshinn@salisburypost.com
COLUMBIA, S.C. ó When sisters Gwen and Margaret Davies began their art collection in Wales, they probably never dreamed a portion of it would eventually be shown in the States.
But the Davies sisters were two of the early collectors ó pioneering women, if you will ó of modern art.
Their collection eventually grew to 260 pieces.
Theirs is the earliest and most extensive collection of Impressionism and post-Impressionistic art in Britain ó at a time when it was being largely ignored.
Fifty-three of those pieces are on display in “Turner to Cezanne ó Masterpieces form the Davis Collection, National Museum Wales,” on exhibit through June 7 at the Columbia Museum of Art.
This show marks the first time these works have been on display in the United State.
The museum is an easy two-hour drive from Salisbury ó if you plan the trip to hit Charlotte at the right time, that is.
The title of the exhibit is not overstated ó these pieces truly are masterpieces.
Look at it this way ó you’d have to travel to much larger cities or even abroad to see the quality this show encompasses.
In the first two weeks of the show, more than 4,500 tickets have already been sold, according to Allison Horne, the museum’s marketing and public relations coordinator. “The response has been very, very positive so far. We are expecting to break all exhibit records to date.”
The largest previous show was an exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright.
“This is the most significant exhibit to come to Columbia,” Horne says. “It is the first stop on the tour. We are very excited.”
The Davies sisters began collecting between 1908 and 1923 ó when no one else seemed to be taking note of painters such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and others.
Seeing such great works today, you have to wonder just what critics and the public were thinking at the time.
I suppose the saying that a prophet is not appreciated in his own hometown comes to my mind in this case.
The Davies sisters were found to have an astute understanding of 19th-century painting. They purchased 19 pieces by William Turner, more than any other artist, and also made major purchases from Paul Cezanne and Van Gogh.
The bulk of their collection runs from the romantic naturalism of Turner to the post-Impressionism of Cezanne.
Turner was a British master and one of the greatest landscape painters. He was a precursor to Impressionism.
The Columbia exhibit has five Turner pieces, including “The Storm,” in which a boat is barely distinguishable in an angry green sea, and “Morning After the Wreck,” with a ghostlike ship that seems an apparition in the distance.
Paintings by Honore Daumier comprise the second largest assemblage of works by a single artist in the collection. Daumier’s paintings and drawings represented contemporary life in Paris.
The sisters collected many works by Jean Francois Millet. His painting, “The Gust of Wind” is part of the exhibit. You can almost feel the wind on your face as you view a giant tree being uprooted in a storm.
Other Millet works include “The Seated Shepherdess” and “The Goose Girl at Gruchy,” much more tranquil scenes than the terrifying storm.
Camille Corot, another Frenchman, is well represented in the sisters’ collection.
Corot painted “Distant View of Corbeil” and “The Pond,” along with “Castel Gandolfo, Dancing Tyrolean Shepherds,” all three classical landscapes.
Millet also captured other laborers in “Winter: The Faggot Gathers.” You feel the heavy burden of the workers’ bundles of wood. You wonder what makes someone buy a piece like that ó after all, it’s not something you’d want hanging in your den.
In the same vein, Daumier’s “The Heavy Burden” shows a woman toting a huge bundle of laundry, a small child walking beside her.
He painted “The Night Walkers” with two figures looking at the moon, but originally, the painting featured a solitary figure in the center of the canvas. The form is still just visible, which is intriguing.
Millet’s “The Good Samaritan” features one man, helping another along, perhaps inspired by the Biblical passage.
Alfred Sisley, whom Van Gogh described as “the most discreet and gentle of the Impressionists” painted “Moret-sur-Loing.”
Henri Moret painted “Village in Clohars,” and its broken brushwork is reminiscent of Paul Gaugin and Monet.
A piece from Renoir’s “red period” is called “Conversation.” It’s very loose, as the artist by this time was severely affected by arthritis.
Another striking Renoir is “La Parisienne,” a life-sized portrait of a woman in a blue dress.
The Davies sisters amassed an Impressionists collection which include Edouard Manet, Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Edward Degas and of course, Monet. Monet’s trio of pieces were my favorite of the show.
Monet visited Italy in 1908 ó somewhat late in his life ó and began 37 canvases.
“What a pity I never came here when I was younger, when I was still full of daring!” he wrote.
“The Palazzo Dario” is a lovely scene of the canal in pinks, greens and blues, with a gondola bisecting its center.
Monet’s “Waterlilies” from 1906 was painted at his home in Giverny, France. Up close, the painting is a riot of color in lavenders and blues and yellows. Only when you step back does the lily pond became apparent.
It’s breathtaking and so serene.
It’s no surprise that Monet employed a gardener specifically to tend to his lily pond.
The third work by Monet is “Charing Cross Bridge,” a very subtle painting with only the slightest hint of the bridge in London, with the Houses of Parliament beyond.
The sisters bought a piece Van Gogh painted only two weeks before his suicide in 1890. “Rain-Auvers” depicts a rain-swept field. It is as beautiful as it is disturbing and sad. It is perhaps impossible to separate the tragedy of Van Gogh’s life from the artistry of his work.
The show’s pieces by Cezanne include two landscapes, “The Francois Zola Dam” and “Provencal Landscape.”
Be sure to take your cell phone with you, and take a free audio tour given by two representatives of the National Museum Wales.