Robert Edsel's Blog

James N. Wood, long time director of the Art Institute of Chicago (1980-2004) and more recently President and CEO of the Getty Trust, died recently.  I met Jim Wood more than 3 years ago at the memorial service for one of his great mentors, Monuments Man S. Lane Faison, Jr, his college professor of art history at Williams College.  Jim was one of a group of prominent students who went on to lead some of our nation’s greatest museums including Rusty Powell (Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.), Jack Lane (former Director of the Dallas Museum of Art), and Kirk Varnadoe Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art.

I remember well the moving story Jim Wood told about Lane visiting the Art Institute for a tour of some of the great works and the dramatic moment that brought Lane to his feet when standing before a great work of art.  The esteem and affection this once student felt for his old teacher was still evident after all those years.  Everyone was brought to tears as the telling of this story came alive.

Jim Wood leaves a lengthy and worthy legacy of scholarship and contribution to the arts at these two and other institutions.  His connection to the Monuments Men was considerable as many of his peers once served the MFAA; others studied and worked for men and women who were Monuments officers.  These first line connections to this great part of our history are something to cherish while we still have them.  They underscore the urgency with which we continue to gather all aspects of the story of the Monuments Men.

Today is Monuments Man Mark Sponenburgh’s 94th birthday. He is one of only nine Monuments Men and women who are still with us, so needless to say this is a day worth celebrating. Mark is a great man I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know over the past few years. You can read more about his accomplished life in his biography below.

Mark Ritter Sponenburgh (b. 1916)

A sculptor, historian, and educator, Mark Sponenburgh began his service with the MFAA in late 1945. He was previously enlisted in the Corps of Engineers as part of the 9th Engineers Command. Sponenburgh worked with the cartography section dictating and reproducing maps as the command prepared for D-Day and then crossed France, Holland, Belgium, and the Rhineland. After joining the MFAA, he was initially stationed at the Wiesbaden Collecting Point where he saw the famed Bust of Nefertiti, among other treasures, and was then assigned to the Alt Aussee mine. While at Alt Aussee, Sponenburgh supervised the transportation and packing of artworks and led the first armed convoy to the Munich Collecting Point, driven through the snowy, narrow roads of the Alps.

Prior to World War II, he was graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1940 and then began working as a sculptor. When he completed his military service, Sponenburgh attended the Ecôle des Beaux Arts in Paris. He later received an AM from the University of Cairo in 1952 and his Master’s from the University of London in 1957. In 1970, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the National Council of Arts.

As a sculptor, Sponenburgh focuses the subjects of his works on the relationships of nature to art, in particular those of animals, the sea, and natural phenomena. Found objects and natural materials of the northwest also repeatedly appear in his sculptures. One of his earliest works, Madonna in Walnut, received an award in 1941 at the annual exhibition of Michigan artists, and may now be seen at the Detroit Institute of Art. Sponenburgh’s career has continued for many decades; Eternus, a bronze relief sculpture of waves, was installed in 1985 at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Oregon, and he is currently working on a marble portrait and as well as designing his garden, which celebrates the sea.

Sponenburgh also had a remarkable career as an educator. From 1946 to 1956 he was a professor at the University of Oregon and then spent the next year as a visiting professor at the Royal College of Arts in London. In 1958, Sponenburgh received a Fulbright research fellowship and taught in Egypt and Pakistan, then taught for two more years at the National College of Arts, Pakistan. He returned to Oregon in 1961 and embarked on a lengthy career at Oregon State University, where he was named Professor Emeritus in 1984. A colleague at OSU referred to him as a “superb lecturer and teacher, and most highly respected by undergraduate and graduate students alike.” Today, the university maintains the Sponenburgh Travel Award, which is awarded to an advanced graduate student every year and endowed by Dr. Sponenburgh. In 1990, Mark and Janeth Hogue Sponenburgh donated their art collection to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon http://www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art/collections/ . The collection consists of over 250 Ancient, European, Middle Eastern, and Asian art objects. Dr. Sponenburgh currently resides in Seal Rock, Oregon.

Rembrandt, "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee", 1633, Oil on canvas, inscribed on the rudder, 161.7 x 129.8 cm (Image Courtesy of Isabella Stewart Museum)

Today it has been 20 years since 13 invaluable works of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, in what has been called the largest property theft in recorded history.

Vermeer, "The Concert", 1658–1660 Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 64.7 cm. (Image Courtesy of Isabella Stewart Museum)

On the night of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as Boston police officers gained entry to the museum, handcuffed both night guards, and proceeded to spend about 40 minutes stealing art from 3 different galleries. Among the missing works of art are Vermeer’s The Concert and Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee. A $5 reward is still being offered for information leading to the recovery of the works of art.

For more information on the theft, please visit the museum’s website:
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/information/theft.asp

Monuments Man George Stout (Image Courtesy of National Archives)

The Gardner Museum is one of the premiere museums in the United States, established at the turn of the 20^th century. It houses more than 2,500 works of art in an intimately designed space. Monuments Man George Stout [link to his bio] served as Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from 1955 to 1970.

65 years ago this was the greeting to our troops stationed in France who had just liberated that country 4 months earlier.  It was a fierce winter with more snow and colder temperatures than had been seen in any living person’s memory.  The Battle of the Bulge was raging with desperate conditions for fighting men and the local populace; some feared the outcome of the war hung in the balance.  But our troops then, just as they had in too many conflicts past, endured.  Many found a way, even if for a fleeting moment, to pause and recognize the day and its importance.  Some had the luxury of receiving gifts from home, others  a chance to write a loved one a message on an Army issued Christmas card such as the one below.  We came across this card in the course of my research for The Monuments Men and set it aside for use this year as a way of reminding us all how fortunate we are….to not be in a combat zone, to be able to enjoy this day with family and loved ones without risk of life or hardships of a winter outdoors with no shelter or food.  I also wanted it to serve as reminder to us all about the millions of young men and women in uniform who are stationed all over the world, walking a wall, on duty, doing their best—many at risk of life—to preserve the freedom and way of life we enjoy.

The official U.S. Army Christmas Card that Monuments Man Robert Posy sent home to his wife and son in December 1944.

So this Christmas in particular, on behalf of our team and the Monuments Men and women, we say “Merry Christmas to all; peace and safekeeping”.

Until the new year, be well.

One of the Monuments Men we admire most is Walker Hancock. Walker married his wife, Saima, on December 4, 1943 in a chapel at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He was shipped out to Europe just three weeks later. He wrote her a very touching letter for their first anniversary, which is shown below. This letter, and many others like it, are included in The Monuments Men.

Letter from Walker Hancock

To his new wife, Saima

December 4, 1944

Precious Saima,

This is the great day of our lives—the anniversary of the happiest one in mine. And if I loved you a year ago today, I do so many times more this fourth of December. For even though we have spent such a small part of this year together, we have been together the whole time in the best sense, and you have helped me and nourished me through these interesting but trying months in a way that you would hardly have had the opportunity to do in a happy normal life at home. That will come, and our joys will be boundless, but what you have been to me during these months of separation is something that I never could have imagined without the experience. Your letters have been my mainstay. Just the simple account of what you do and think—and between letters I think about you.

Today has been rather a grind—and one of those days when one seems to have just missed accomplishing something all along the line. But I hope I’ll be able to make up for it during the week. One just has to learn that things have to be done a little bit at a time in the army—and it doesn’t pay to bite off more than can be chewed. The howling mob that moved in on us while we were in Luxuembourg have now left – and  we have a few “casuals” that drift in and out. It’s much better, but I still want those ear plugs. Tonight I’m trying sleeping in a bed with a mattress! What good news about Teddy! I’m so glad he has his wings and i’m proud, though I didn’t doubt for a minute that he would win them.

There’s a Polish soldier sitting on the bunk beside me, saying that this will be his sixth Christmas in the army and away from his people. He’s pretty discouraged—but we are guaranteeing him this will be the last away from home.

Tomorrow or the next day I expect to see George Stout. I wonder if he will be coming back to the First Army. I hope so, for there is more work than I can keep up with at present. Worlds of love to you—you sweet creature—I love you—

Walker