Aimé Maeght (1906–1981), founder of the famed Galerie Maeght in Paris (pronounced mahg), transformed the sale and promotion of modern art in post-war France. Among his innovations, he made fine print and book publishing an important artistic and promotional feature among the artists he represented. In 1946, the Galerie published the first volume of Derrière le miroir (Behind the Mirror), a beautifully designed modern art periodical that accompanied each of the Galerie’s exhibitions and included original prints, usually lithographs, by featured artists. Over the next thirty-five years, the Galerie produced 253 issues of Derrière le miroir. In addition to the fine prints, the publication included essays, poetry, and art criticism by leading contemporary writers. The issues were produced by Aimé and his son Adrien, both accomplished lithographers. Aimé and Adrien worked with the finest graphic workshops in France, including Imprimeurs Mourlot, to produce the early issues of Derrière le miroir.
Alexander Calder, untitled, lithograph
For Derrière le miroir (173), 1968. 1969.1.15.77 Gift of Drs. Meyer P. ’32 and Vivian O. Potamkin
The Benjamin Rush Gallery, located in the Archives and Special Collections of the Waidner-Spahr Library, features Thomas Sully's brilliant portrait of the co-founder of Dickinson College. Painted for Benjamin Rush during the final years of his life, the canvas represents the revolutionary figure seated before a study, amid books, documents, and a distant view of the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he served on the medical staff from 1783 until the time of his death in 1813. The portrait is one of Sully's finest works and reveals the artist's fluid brushwork and command of the leading trends in European portraiture. The work boasts an incomparable provenance, having passed from the hands of the artist to Benjamin Rush and has since remained in the Rush family until its acquisition in 2009 by the Trout Gallery. The portrait is the centerpiece of an exhibition gallery that features a revolving selection of artifacts associated with Benjamin Rush and the founding of Dickinson College.
Gallery Hours
Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thomas Sully, Portrait of Benjamin Rush (detail)
Oil on canvas
Tools in Motion brings together a clever selection of art that incorporates everyday tools and hardware. Drawn from the Hechinger Collection, the works in this exhibition toy with many of the forms and ideas pioneered in Pop Art, but with an ironic playfulness. The works in Tools in Motion demonstrate how everyday tools take on a life of their own when seen from a new perspective, combined with other objects, or presented in conjunction with like works. The exhibition features the work of forty-one artists, including Armand P. Arman, Jim Dine, Jacob Lawrence, Marte Newcombe, Claes Oldenburg, and Maria Porges.
Exhibition organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC and featuring works from International Arts & Artists’ Hechinger Collection.
Armand P. Arman, School of Fishes
1982, welded steel and vice-grips
