"Never before," announces the voice of the young art guide in the exhibition, "has Edward Hopper been shown together with Old Masters." Now one could say that hardly anything else would have been possible in the Dresden Old Masters Gallery, but one Hopper could have shown it in the local Albertinum, the local house for modernism.
But the entrance to the current scene was prepared for Hopper with a lot of aplomb.
In the catalog for the spectacular Vermeer exhibition in Dresden last fall, none other than the director of the Galerie Alte Meister, Stephan Koja, stated in his comments on Vermeer's composition: "Many of these will be taken up by Edward Hopper almost 300 years later and will give his paintings that mysteriousness , which accounts for their unbroken fascination.”
Wrote it and pointed in a footnote to the very same exhibition his house is currently running for, for which Hopper's famous picture “Morning Sun” traveled from Columbus, Ohio to Dresden.
There is this profile view of a lady in a negligee hanging on the bed in a sun-drenched room and opposite on the wall (so that both women are facing the same direction) Vermeer's "Girl reading a letter at the open window", an icon of the Dresden collection.
One can imagine that Columbus must have been flattered when this meeting was promised to his own image.
It's just that the real Vermeer was not attached to the Hopper, but a copy from the depot, of which all we know is the approximate date of origin: "ca.
1910”.
The only authentic thing about this picture is the gallery frame, in which the real girl reading a letter hangs.
But after the Vermeer exhibition closes, it's been loaned to Japan for the rest of the year, where it'll be shown in four cities (and is expected to bring in money for the pandemic-stricken museum).
So much for Dresden's appreciation for Hopper.
And so much for respect for an audience that is enticed with an old master encounter with something modern that doesn't even take place.
The decor, consisting of two well-hung Dresden collection pieces from the Dutch Golden Age and the Italian Early Renaissance plus a few Rembrandt etchings and a total of ten graphic works by Hopper alongside “Morning Sun”, rather speaks of curator twilight.
Especially since two Hopper etchings from an unnamed private collection are only shown in the exhibition as facsimiles, which is unbelievable for a respected house, so there are even more reproductions.
Rarely has a good art historical idea been implemented more poorly.
Incidentally, what the art guide advertised was more realistically assessed by the lady at the cash register: “You do know that there is only one picture there?” Strictly speaking, there are nineteen, but eighteen can be forgotten.
Unforgettable, however, the museum cheekiness.