Discoveries

By Carla Herling

2005

December’s Terrace Hill lecture, Art Collecting During the Victorian Age: The Case of Terrace Hill, was given by Maura Lyons, Assistant Professor of Art History at Drake University. To prepare for her lecture, Professor Lyons referenced the archives at the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI), where she found extensive documentation, including the art purchased and commissioned for Terrace Hill during the Hubbell period. When our staff learned of the vast information in the SHSI archives, we were anxious to do our own research research that has already begun a trail of discovery.

In an 1899 photograph of Terrace Hills music room, a large academic painting of the last days of the Venetian Republic is the focal point. Professor Lyons identified the paintings subject and found mention of the work in a 1900 inventory, but could find no other record of it. The painting is not currently part of our collection, and our staff did not know its whereabouts.

I turned to the SHSI archives, where, in a scrapbook belonging to F.M. Hubbell, I found a short, undated article about F.C. Hubbell (F.M.’s son) donating a painting titled The End of the Republic by Francesco Jacovacci to the Des Moines Association of Fine Arts. The description of this work matched the painting in the 1899 photograph. My next stop was the Des Moines Central Library, the former location of the Fine Arts Associations gallery. In the librarys reference collection, I uncovered an exhibit program dated December 1939 with the following listing: “Francesco Jacovacci (1838-1908), The Last Day of the Venetian Republic, 1888. Gift of F. C. Hubbell, 1925 On loan at Cowles Library, Drake University.” There is some title discrepancy, but clearly, I was on the right track.

The Des Moines Association of Fine Arts, later the Des Moines Art Center, loaned the painting to Drake University in 1928 with the approval of F.C. Hubbell. It remained on loan to Cowles Library until 1983, when it was returned to the Art Center. According to the Art Center staff, the painting was in need of conservation and outside the scope of their permanent collection, so it was sold at a Sothebys public auction. A Sotheby’s specialist informed me that the painting had been sold to a private individual on October 29, 1992, for a price of $12,000. I explained what I had learned to the Sotheby’s specialist, who agreed to contact the buyer on my behalf. At press time, I am still waiting to hear from the buyer to make the next discovery in the history of the painting.

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