http://artdaily.com/news/75763/Virginia-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-features-new-works-from-the-life-estate-of-Paul-Mellon#.VLkgIFqIfhU[/url

"It is always a privilege to install great works of art in an extraordinary museum such as VMFA, and sometimes it is an honor. This was certainly the case earlier this week as I worked with VMFA’s skilled production team as we entirely reinstalled the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. The gallery walls are now freshly painted and adorned with important, newly acquired works from the life estate of Mrs. Paul Mellon, including masterpieces by Degas, Gauguin, Seurat, Pissarro, Dufy, and van Dongen. Many of the paintings have been put in period frames lovingly fabricated by the firm of Gill & Lagodich in New York. Highlights include nine paintings by Boudin, four by Delacroix, four by Degas, three by Dufy, three by Monet…the list goes on!"   —Dr. Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art. January 2015. 

http://vmfa.museum/connect/mellon-gallery-privilege-honor/

"We recently made improvements to the Mellon French Galleries. While I have received much positive feedback from visitors about the changes, I get the same question again and again: “What’s with that white frame?”   Glad you asked.   Although the simple white frame on Georges Seurat’s Landscape with Houses (which VMFA recently received from the Life Interest of Mrs. Paul Mellon) may seem an anachronism, it’s actually quite appropriate to the period—and particularly the artist. Seurat was partial to this type of frame, as evidenced by the frames in the background of his work The Models (or Les Poseuses) from the Barnes Foundation."

"In fact, this reproduction frame is part of an ongoing project to reframe all of the works in the Mellon French Galleries in authentic period frames. The vast majority of these frames are originals—and fine antiques in their own right—however, there is one other replica . . . but a very impressive one! Made to match the grand period salon frame, circa 1870, on one of the two Boudin seascapes in the first gallery, the reproduction is a dead ringer for the original. Can you tell which is which? I can’t!"  —Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art

VMFA Gallery views above: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture in France — The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Gallery installation, February 2015.  VMFA Photo Archives, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Photo: David Stover.

Entrance to the Port of Le Havre, 19th c., oil on canvas, 35-1/2 x 51-3/8 inches; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period c. 1870-90s French Salon frame; Second Empire style; gilded applied ornament on wood; molding width: 8" “The ambitious proportions of Entrance to the Port of Le Havre and A French Fishing Fleet with Packet Boat suggest that Boudin intended the two paintings for exhibition as a pair at the Salon. They figure among Boudin's most accomplished seascapes. Le Havre is located at the mouth of the River Seine, facilitating the transportation of commercial goods to and from Paris and serving as France’s second-largest seaport by the mid-19th century. Although these developments in trade and industry reflected the country’s growing economic prosperity, Entrance to the Port of Le Havre demonstrates Boudin’s increasing concern that the replacement of sailboats by steamships would “make the sea a very monotonous place.” Behind the rowboats that cut across the foreground and the sailboats with swollen masts approaching from the center of the composition, two steamers pollute the sky with thick black smoke under the darkened clouds of an impending squall. This same motif is present in A French Fishing Fleet with Packet Boat, although the dramatic movement of the fleet of sailboats through the choppy ocean waters in this painting is lent emphasis by the tumultuously clouded sky typical of Boudin’s seascapes.” —museum label

A French Fishing Fleet With A Packet Boat, 19th c., oil on canvas, 34 x 50 inches; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, custom-made replica c. 1870-90s French Salon frame; Second Empire style; gilded applied ornament on wood; molding width: 8 in. “The ambitious proportions of Entrance to the Port of Le Havre and A French Fishing Fleet with Packet Boat suggest that Boudin intended the two paintings for exhibition as a pair at the Salon. They figure among Boudin's most accomplished seascapes. Le Havre is located at the mouth of the River Seine, facilitating the transportation of commercial goods to and from Paris and serving as France’s second-largest seaport by the mid-19th century. Although these developments in trade and industry reflected the country’s growing economic prosperity, Entrance to the Port of Le Havre demonstrates Boudin’s increasing concern that the replacement of sailboats by steamships would “make the sea a very monotonous place.” Behind the rowboats that cut across the foreground and the sailboats with swollen masts approaching from the center of the composition, two steamers pollute the sky with thick black smoke under the darkened clouds of an impending squall. This same motif is present in A French Fishing Fleet with Packet Boat, although the dramatic movement of the fleet of sailboats through the choppy ocean waters in this painting is lent emphasis by the tumultuously clouded sky typical of Boudin’s seascapes.” —museum label

Beach Scene At Deauville, 1865, oil on canvas, 16-1/2" x 25-5/8", period 19th-century French Neoclassical-revival frame, gilded applied composition ornament on wood. “The sea captivated Eugène Boudin, the son of a mariner, and his works depict a wide range of marine interests and activities, from the new fashion of bathing to more workaday pursuits like fishing and boating. In the 1860s, Boudin turned his attention to the visitors populating the new beachside resorts of Trouville and Deauville. With the completion of railway lines into the area, middle-class Parisians could easily reach the channel coast for leisure. Boudin portrayed such subjects with ambiguity—once referring to upper-class Parisians as “gilded parasites”— yet he also remarked, “Don’t the bourgeois . . . have the right to be fixed on canvas, to be brought to the light?” —museum label. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2012.60

L’Atelier au Bouquet, The Artist’s Studio, Perpignan, 1942, oil on canvas, 25-5/8 x 31-7/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th century French Louis XV painting frame gilded carved oak; swept profile, very refined example with exquisite gesso reparure, washed original gilding. molding width: 4-3/4”

Still Life With Bowl, ca. 1889, oil on canvas, 8 x 12-3/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 17th-century Italian frame, reverse profile, gilded hand carved wood, pastiglia and punchwork foliate motifs on central reverse ogee; slubbed silk liner added; molding width: 2-1/2 inches.

Camille at the Window, Argenteuil, 1873, oil on canvas, 23-3/4 x 19-5/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th-century French Regence frame; gilded hand-carved wood, sand panel; molding width: 4-3/8” 

The Royal Palace at the Hermitage, Pontoise (Paysage a Pontoise), 1879, oil on canvas, 21-3/8 x 25-7/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 19th-century French Regence-style painting frame; gilded hand-carved wood; added gessoed flat-and-hollow liner, molding width:  4”

Wildflowers, c. 1875, oil on canvas, 25-3/4 x 19-7/8 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th-century French Louis XIII painting frame; gilded hand carved wood, molding width: 4-1/4”

Haystacks (Les Meules), ca. 1904–05, oil on canvas, 19-5/8” x 25-1/2”. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: David Stover.  Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period c. 18th century Roman molding frame; hand carved ebonized and gilded wood; outer scotia (side view) has original clay finish; molding width: 3-5/8”

Daisies, Arles, Summer, 1888, oil on canvas, 13 x 16-1/2 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Framed by Gill & Lagodich, period 18th-century French Louis XVI-painting frame; gilded carved wood; molding width 4 inches.