`IT'S REALLY A GREAT MOMENT'
Montreal couple thrilled to see their collection at National Gallery
A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada provides an exquisitely detailed view of life in the Netherlands more than 500 years ago.
Entitled The Collectors' Cosmos, the exhibition consists of more than 200 prints collected over 40 years by a husband-and-wife team of respected physicians from Montreal. Dr. Jonathan Meakins, an officer of the Order of Canada, is the former head of surgery at McGill University Health Centre, while Dr. Jacqueline McClaran is the founder and first director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging.
The couple was in Ottawa this week, thrilled to see the results of their collecting efforts displayed on the walls of Canada's most prestigious art gallery.
“It's really a great moment in our lives to be here and to see the fruits of an activity that's almost 40 years long come to a crystallized conclusion,” Meakins said. “To have it exhibited in the National Gallery is really an extraordinary moment for any Canadian, and we feel that very acutely.”
Added McClaran: “It's wonderful to give a big gift and to see it exhibited, but also to do it in your own lifetime, and to contribute. We felt like curators ourselves.”
The couple has donated more than 250 prints from their collection to the institution, an acquisition that means the National Gallery now “basically has the biggest and most important collection of Dutch and Flemish prints of the 16th and 17th centuries,” according to Erika Dolphin, the interim senior curator of prints and drawings.
“It increases the depth of our collection substantially, and there's such a richness of material here,” she said.
“It's something I don't see idling a lot in the vaults. There are years and years of possible exhibitions and loans.”
Instead of arranging the prints chronologically, Dolphin grouped them in themes for the inaugural exhibition — from landscapes and nature scenes to allegorical works that depict everyday life — reflecting the interests of the collectors.
One highlight is The Four Times of Day by Hendrick Goltzius, engraved by Dutch painter and printmaker Jan Saenredam, a series of four prints that depict activities at different times of the day. The prints are filled with astonishing detail, including a cat and mouse, a chamber pot, a candle and much more.
Perhaps even more riveting is the series of engravings of the seven planets by Jan Sadeler I, after Maarten de Vos, which combines allegory with a natural landscape view. In each one, the image is divided: the gods ride their chariots in the sky as the people below pursue their lives among the mountains and rivers.
Another eye-popping standout is a large etching that dates back to 1559. The Kermis of Saint George, by Lucas or Jan Van Doetechum, after Pieter Breugel I, captures an action-packed festival, where villagers dance, fight, perform and otherwise celebrate.
At this point, Meakins leaned in to note some of the detail in this carnival of life, including a commedia dell'arte being performed in one corner, a quack doctor selling snake oil in another and an area where children are playing. Though he has spent hours poring over it with a magnifying glass, clearly the image still fascinates.
The octogenarian physician's in- terest in art was sparked in childhood, starting with regular visits to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. During a school trip to Europe at the age of 15, he was moved by the landscape painting of the influential Dutch master, Jacob van Ruisdael.
“One of the reasons we got into prints is that we didn't think we could ever afford a van Ruisdael painting,” Meakins said. “However, with diligence you can find van Ruisdael prints. On a much smaller scale, they represent his fundamental approach to landscape. We had five (prints) and that's better than a print of a painting.”
The couple used to collect French furniture, but became interested in prints during a sabbatical in Paris in the 1980s. Instead of renting a container to ship furniture home, they began looking at prints, which were far easier to transport.
For her part, McClaran was impressed by the clarity of the lines, and the expressive range of the black-and-white compositions. Being nearsighted, she's drawn to artwork filled with intricate detail, best viewed at close range.
She also has a strong interest in theology, and couldn't resist the religious iconography depicted in works like The Dispute of the Church Fathers over the Holy Sacrament, by Cornelis Cort. Her favourite print of the collection, it was a gift from her husband.
“It's very rare for one of us to buy something for the other without knowing about it, or having looked at it together,” McClaran said. “But he knew I was lusting after this one.”
Also on view are a handful of Rembrandts, a Picasso and a pair of stunning Audubon prints.
In the end, Meakins and McClaran are delighted to get the collection out of their closet and share it with Canadians, while Dolphin hopes it will provide a “summer oasis” for visitors to discover.
“Many of the subjects and themes that emerge in the prints through the ages address universal ideas that we all encounter and think about, such as nature, time, the universe and our place as humans, and the animals around us on this planet Earth,” Dolphin said. “It's an amazing collection.”