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Things aren’t always what they seem. And often enough, that signals something really interesting. Right now a curious painting, Gallery of the Louvre by Samuel Morse of Morse Code fame, is visiting the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts. It seems pretty unusual for a single painting to tour museums absent an accompanying exhibit, but more intriguing is the trove of photographs literally hiding behind it. Sarah Kennel, the PEM’s new Curator of Photographs, used this orphan painting as a springboard to create “Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention”, a captivating platform for over sixty photographs from the PEM’s permanent holdings, dating from the 1850’s to today, a secret treasure on exhibit through January 8, 2017.
We owe a debt to Samuel Morse, who pursued training in Europe as a painter, dabbled in photography and finally found his oeuvre as an inventor of the telegraph. While in Paris in 1839, he befriended Louis Daguerre just as he invented the first predominant form of photography, which prompted Morse to popularize the Daguerreotype in the United States. Although the PEM doesn’t have any photographs by Morse, this secluded exhibit begins with a sampling of entrancing Daguerreotypes, from an illustrious shipbuilder’s portrait to topical imagery of foreign trade, the mainstay of the PEM’s celebrated collections.
The darkened passageway of Daguerreotypes opens into a large gallery divided into three categories of photographs related to the shipping trade industry: civilizations and communities, travel and maritime trade, and cultural identities and customs. With an historical sweep of nearly two hundred years, these photographs tell a story of discovery and invention through the PEM’s unique lens of maritime commerce, as well as chronicling the medium of photography with rare and superb examples from its beginnings to the present.
Integrated with the ancient images are delightfully illuminating modern works by photographers such as Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Takashi Arai and Laura McPhee. The surprising parallels, like Kimbei’s 1880’s tattooed horse groom and Neleman’s 1998 portrait of a tattooed Maori New Zealander bring entirely different cultures into an enlightening “family of man” perspective.
The entire thrust of the exhibit is subtly amalgamated in a recently acquired large color photograph by Laura McPhee, displayed on its own wall as you leave the gallery. The opulent entryway to the famed Marble Palace in Kolkota, India shows the architecture and collections of its owner, a wealthy merchant involved in the maritime trade of the 1800’s. The assimilated jumble of Western and Eastern influences is at once a testimony to the universal human endeavor of discovery and an apt reflection of the PEM’s collections and mission. This fascinating exhibit of photographs is merely the tip of its extensive collection, a treasure trove ripe for future explorations. Photography lovers take note.
For more information about this exhibit, go to: http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/194-samuel_f_b_morses_gallery_of_the_louvre_and_the_art_of_invention
Feature Image: “Showing Back Style, late 19th century” (detail), albumen print with hand coloring by (unknown) Artist in Japan (courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA).