VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Rienzi Center for European Decorative Arts, MFAH presents Monthly Gallery Talks. Rienzi highlights special works in the estate’s collection at these monthly talks – March 17, April 21 and May 19. March 17 the talk is 1914 and Other Poems, Rupert Brooke, 1915.

Enjoy an early afternoon or an after-lunch escape to the MFAH’s Rienzi for a Gallery Talk on the third Thursday of each month this spring. Explore 1914 and other poems by Rupert Brooke (pictured) on March 17.

Edward Lukasek, Catalog Librarian of the Hirsch Library, will discuss the life, poetry, and legend of the English poet Rupert Brooke. Rienzi’s library contains a number of early editions by the poet. Famous during his lifetime as England’s “Handsomest Young Man,” he became famous posthumously for his moving war sonnets written during the First World War.

Upcoming Talks:

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Esmé Stuart, 5th Duke of Lennox and 2nd Duke of Richmond (1649 -1660), Attributed to Jan Weesop, c.1650. Dr. Helga Aurisch, Curator of European Art, will discuss the portrait of Esmé Stuart, 5th Duke of Lennox and 2nd Duke of Richmond attributed to Jan Weesop.

Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tea Caddy, Sugar Basket and Fitted Case, Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp, London, 1765. Misty Flores, former Sterling-Turner Curatorial Fellow for Rienzi, will discuss a remarkable set of George III silver. The silver tea “equipage,” as well as its accompanying sharkskin box, would have been a very refined addition to an 18th-century tea table.

Rienzi is the center for European decorative arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Comprising a remarkable art collection, and a house and gardens, Rienzi was given to the museum by arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III. This handsome residence is named for Mr. Masterson's grandfather, Rienzi Johnston, and is situated on 4.4 acres in Houston's River Oaks neighborhood. The structure was designed in 1952 by John F. Staub, the same architect who designed Bayou Bend.