| DETAILS: | On Jan. 11, The Catholic University of America will unveil a new exhibit that features an original Rembrandt print discovered on campus by CUA's president, Very Rev. David M. O'Connell, C.M. The exhibit also features two engravings of Abraham Lincoln photos taken by famed Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady as well as several other drawings, etchings, engravings and woodcut prints by American and European artists. Father O'Connell discovered the print by 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt on the bottom shelf of a bathroom cabinet in Nugent Hall, which serves as the office of the president. Of his discovery, Father O'Connell notes, "You never know what you'll find in a pile of junk!" The exhibit also includes two engravings of Brady photos: one by Scottish artist and engraver Alexander Hay Ritchie and the other by American John Chester Buttre, whose work includes a steel-plate engraving of a full-length portrait of President James Buchanan. Additional exhibit pieces include a watercolor copy of a print of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein; two black-and-white engravings by English artist William E.C. Morgan; and six woodcut prints by Julius John Lankes, an American artist whose works are included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and the British Museum. The exhibit is the brainchild of Wes Bush, a doctoral student in history, who collaborated on the project with Leslie Knoblauch, records management archivist, and Nora Heimann, chair of the Department of Art. As part of the project, CUA students will have the opportunity to create their own pieces in response to the exhibit. The student works will be exhibited in the spring at CUA's Salve Regina Gallery. Several awards will be presented for the student artwork. The University Libraries and the University Archives provided funding for the exhibit, which is free and open to the public. |
