This Month’s Featured Article

Photo above: Two of four pieces from the Springside collection by British artist Henry C. Gritten. Springside was Matthew Vassar’s estate.

Paris. Rome. London. Barcelona. Even New York, Boston, Philadelphia, or Washington, DC. All are great escapes for lovers of culture, and all should be visited. Often. But when time is tight and you don’t want to mess with planes, trains, and Ubers, why not visit the first-rate offerings in one’s own back yard? The Hudson Valley is loaded with them – museums, galleries, theaters, funky neighborhoods, boutiques, and gourmet shops.

A favorite museum of mine for many reasons is the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center that’s part of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie. Its permanent collection is like a group of great friends – it just never gets old to spend time with – and its rotating exhibits continually inspire. The Vassar College Campus is beautiful, too, and it butts up to a neighborhood that is reinventing and re-energizing itself. It’s called Arlington, and it’s home to a growing collection of restaurants, cafes, and stores. Yes, you can go to Poughkeepsie for the day and feel like you’ve really gotten away – and gotten home – with zero hassle. Let’s go!

The Loeb

Getting there is easy. Parking is no problem. It’s open every day except Monday, 10am to 5pm and until 9pm on Thursday nights. It’s so accessible! And it’s beautiful.

The Art Center is an extension of Vassar’s Taylor-Van Ingen Hall, which houses the College’s art department and art library. It was designed by Cesar Pelli, who also designed the expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, among many other notable achievements. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects named Pelli one of the ten most influential living American Architects.

The entrance pavilion is named after Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, class of 1931. It’s a welcoming glass-walled passageway from which there are lovely views of the campus. Most recently a sculpture garden was added, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and named for Hildegarde Krause Baker, class of 1911. It opened in 1993.

And who was Frances Lehman Loeb? She attended Vassar College and was a trustee of the college later in life. She was a distinguished philanthropist and New York socialite who served for years as a liaison to foreign diplomats. She and her husband, John L. Loeb, contributed millions to support education and the arts. Here’s a wonderful quote of hers from her obituary in The New York Times from May 1996: “One thing I had in my mind,” Mrs. Loeb said in 1990 when she announced a $7.5 million gift to Vassar College for construction of an art center, “I’m never going to be the richest person in the cemetery.”

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is not only a museum with an amazing collection. It’s also a teaching museum that supports the college’s educational mission and its communities. While we, the public, can visit and admire the works in The Loeb – and there is a wealth of supporting information around the collection – faculty and students can have even more intimate experiences with the art. Faculty can ask to have works installed in the Loeb’s project gallery for class use. These curated displays help students expand understanding of an artist or a work across other disciplines.

What a gift!

Every time I visit the Loeb I am enchanted, awed, inspired, and grateful, and this visit was no exception. I arrived just after opening time on a brisk but sunny January morning. I was the first visitor. Before going in, I read the prominent sign encouraging people to sign up for the Bloomberg Connects app. It’s designed to function as a private tour guide, providing additional information about select works. Be sure to do this. As I made my way inside, I was happy to hear jazz music playing softly in the background.

The Loeb’s collection spans the history of art and includes over 20,000 pieces. The collection categorizes pieces as antiquities; Medieval & Renaissance; 1600-1900 European; Asian; Hudson River School; photography; international contemporary; international modern; deaccessions; provenance project; recent acquisitions; or on view. At any one time there are about 225 works on display. Many are there permanently, but a number of them are rotated. There are two floors, though most of the galleries are on the main floor.

I consider myself an equal-opportunity indulger when it comes to art, so I visit all parts of the collection when I’m at the Loeb. For me it really is like reconnecting with old friends while at the same time coming across new works that I want to get to know.

Rosa and Caroline together!

One of the biggest delights of this visit was when I turned a corner into another room and came face to face with two paintings of sheep, about the same size, hung one on top of another so that they could easily be viewed simultaneously as well as individually. The top painting was by Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) and the bottom by Caroline Clowes (1838-1904).

Ever since I discovered these women by writing a piece on them for the March issue of this magazine just last year (the article was titled, Transatlantic Cow-Incidence?), I have looked for them everywhere. Clowes lived in Dutchess County, and her work was on display at the Dutchess County Historical Society in late 2023/early 2024. (The DCHS website has videos about the exhibition.) Bonheur lived in France. Both worked and came to prominence around the same time. Both painted beloved animals. Both defied gender stereotypes for their time. I visited the Château de Rosa Bonheur outside of Paris where she lived and worked for years when I was in France this past summer. To say I’m smitten is an understatement.

What made this pairing even more wonderful was commentary about both pieces on the Bloomberg Connects app. In addition to giving background information about the women, the researcher asks the viewer to speculate on how the sheep in Bonheur’s painting was feeling. The animal is leaning against brambles with its head pointed skyward and an expression on its face of … what, exactly? … is the animal stuck and in pain, or is it finally able to scratch an itch and so in pleasure? Take a good look. What do you think?

So many works to admire

Other highlights for me were reconnecting with Shadow Decoration, 1887, by Charles Courtney Curran (1887); the stone carving, Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu with Attendants, dated c 600-1200 CE; seeing the Delauneys and Kandinskys lined up so beautifully; the hypnotic painting by Agnes Martin; and recent acquisitions of paintings by Georgia O’Keefe, including Cottonwood No. 1, 1944 and Blue Morning Glories, New Mexico, II, 1935.

In the galleries that house the Hudson River School painters and others of their time were four works by the British artist Henry C. Gritten (1818-1873) – the Springside collection. Springside was the estate of Matthew Vassar, with landscapes designed by Andrew Jackson Downing. In its time it was often open to the public and was a beloved meeting place. The Loeb had three of Gritten’s Springside series and just recently acquired the fourth. The Loeb’s exceptionally helpful, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and kind security team during my visit (Peter Daniel and Kim Squillace) let me know that finding and acquiring the fourth painting was a 150-year process. The Loeb celebrated this with an exhibition called Views of Springside Reunited late last year. It’s easy to lose yourself in the bucolic scenes – and it’s always a treat to see the brilliance of the Hudson River School painters.

As part of The Loeb’s commitments to DEAI and the Indigenous people who once lived on what is now the Vassar College campus, its special exhibits often address these themes. When I visited I saw My Grandmother’s Whispers: Indigenous Prints and Beadwork, which was fantastic.

Powerful and profound

I also saw Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency, an exhibit that explored, “the psychological, physical, and emotional realities encountered by women and people assigned female at birth in the years leading up to, during, and after fertility.” Gut-wrenching, courageous, at times sickening, and at others emboldening, this was one of the most powerful exhibits I’ve ever seen. I went through it twice so I could really take it in.

No wonder there was a clearly posted content notice that said, “Before choosing to engage with this exhibition, please know that it includes references to and imagery related to menstruation, fertility, pregnancy loss, abortion, birth, and sexuality. Some of the art on view engages with the history of the gynecological profession and experiences of racial violence.” It was with a heavy heart that I sat at the “read & reflect” table at the end of the exhibition, where people could comment on what they saw and what the topics evoked for them and where there was a collection of books to look at if you wanted to learn more. I shared my thoughts. Kim told me that many viewers left in tears. Huge kudos to the Loeb for not just bringing in this exhibition but also supporting it with the reflection area, with a companion booklet to bring home, and with additional resources.

I also ventured upstairs to the small but important exhibit, An Unfamiliar Place: Modern Landscape in East Asian and Asian American Works on Paper, which is on view through March.

Missing the Madonna

By the time I left, there were plenty of visitors exploring the Loeb, and I eavsedropped on Kim and Peter greeting and explaining things to them. I asked Peter about a favorite piece of mine that I could not find. It’s a petite ivory carving titled simply, Madonna and Child, ca. 1320, just under 8” tall, from France. What I cherish about the piece is the radiant love and tenderness expressed by the childlike Madonna and her beaming baby. I was reassured by Peter that it is part of the permanent collection and will make its way back onto the floor another time.

Where to go for lunch?

I wanted to go somewhere within walking distance of the Loeb, and there were several choices that all sounded very good. Savona’s Trattoria won out, because not only did it have lots of positive reviews and nice pictures online, but I loved the story of how it was started by a family from Sicily. Their tagline is “Italian cuisine the way Nonna made it.” The Savona family history is shared on the restaurant’s website, and says, in part, “On May 5th, 1958, founder Emanuele Savona, then 18 years old, traveled over 4,000 miles by boat from a small town called Villabate on the island of Sicily to Brooklyn, NY in search of a better life. After a few years in America, Emanuele, or ‘Manny’ as everyone has come to know him, met his wife of 50+ years, Cecilia, an Irish girl from the west side of Manhattan. …They married, had children, and saved enough money to buy a bakery on Coney Island in 1966. [The family] moved to the Hudson Valley in 1972. … [and] opened their second family restaurant named ‘Jimbos’ pizza. Fast forward to today, sons Stephen and Daniel Savona are now at the helm of the Savona Family Restaurant Group. … Our parents taught us ‘our restaurants are like our homes, and the front door to the restaurant is the front door to our house … someone comes over you greet them at the door make them feel comfortable sit them down and get them something to drink and eat, make sure they have enough and leave with a full stomach… walk them to the door and wish them well until next time you see them.’”

This was so familiar to me through my years in the DeVito family that I couldn’t resist. And I’m happy to say their philosophy is being carried out. From the enthusiastic welcome at the door, through the caring and cheerful service, through my time there til the chorus of goodbyes when I left, it was a great experience. The design of the restaurant is contemporary but cozy, too, with flowers at the tables and lots of light from the street. Oh, and the food.

I was there for Savona’s Sunday brunch menu. The names of the dishes were connections to the family’s Sicilian roots – a Sicilian street breakfast sandwich, with spinach and mozzarella; eggs in purgatory (Italian shakshuka), featuring eggs with vodka sauce; and breakfast in Palermo, a variation on eggs benedict with prosciutto di parma instead of Canadian bacon. I chose the fried artichoke Benedict with long-stem artichoke slices over the eggs and hollandaise. The dish was generous and included bread and Italian herb roasted potatoes. Multo bene!

I retraced my steps back to the Loeb, a peaceful walk of about 10 minutes straight up tree-lined Raymond Avenue, with the Vassar College campus to admire on the way.

I live in Troy, so it was a solid 90-minute drive to and from Poughkeepsie. The Loeb and lunch? The perfect stay-cation.