Acquisitions

Works of art are acquired by the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum through gifts and bequests from alumnae and other collectors and by purchases from dedicated endowed funds.  Long-term loans of works of art that complement the collection and the curriculum are also accepted by the Museum, normally for a minimum of at least three years.  For information on how to make gifts, bequests, or loans to the Museum, contact Curator Wendy Watson or Director Marianne Doezema at 413.538.2245.
 
Two paintings were recently purchased from the museum’s Warbeke Art Museum Fund: the Temptation of Saint Anthony, a painting on copper, by the Flemish painter David Ryckaert III (1612-1661), and an Amsterdam church interior by the Dutch artist Hendrick van Streek (1659-after 1719).  These two works of art augment the Museum’s growing holdings in Northern European art. 

The Ryckaert shows Saint Anthony with a crucifix and open bible, attempting to maintain his religious contemplation as he is beseiged by demons and monsters.  He is offered a glass of wine by a beautiful temptress whose true nature is revealed by her sinister clawlike feet.  This painting will be a central element of the exhibition Wine and the Human Spirit: Rituals, Remedies, and Revelry which will open at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in fall 2010 and travel to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. 

Van Streek, a student of the better known Emanuel De Witte, depicts a light-filled scene inside the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.  In this house of worship, the adult community comes together to hear a sermon and pray, while children amuse themselves with a game of dice in the left foreground.