AMHERST — For the better part of 100 years, until it was vandalized in 2019, visitors to the Jones Library were greeted in the main hallway by the “Portrait of an English Nobleman,” an oversized 203-year-old painting by Sir William Beechey.
Though the historic painting and its frame have been repaired, refurbished, and displayed in the library’s adult fiction room in recent years, the portrait of an unknown earl could soon be heading to auction, partly out of concern that the piece doesn’t properly represent the Amherst community.
With planning underway for where artwork will be placed inside the expanded and renovated 43 Amity St. building when it reopens in 2027, the library’s Buildings and Facilities Committee is discussing whether to deaccession the portrait of the English nobleman due to limited wall space and a desire to diversify the art on display.
Library Director Sharon Sharry recently told the elected library trustees that conversations are happening about what existing art should be displayed and what new art could be created that better reflects the community, adding that no one thinks the English nobleman does that. Some patrons have mistaken the painting as being Lord Jeffery Amherst, she said.
Sharry said selling the painting could raise money to commission local artists — including children and other community members — to create murals and other works for the library. The discussion also reflects uncertainty over what art should be displayed in the main foyer off Amity Street and near the new garden-level entrance from the parking lot between North Pleasant and North Prospect streets, which will be closest to the Civil War tablets honoring Amherst’s Black soldiers.
Even with the building being enlarged, Sharry said there are only two places the English nobleman could be put up: the main entrance, which is extremely prominent, and the so-called barrel-vaulted reading room, which was originally the library’s auditorium and then its adult fiction room.
“We don’t want it in the front hallway, we don’t want it to be the first thing people see, we don’t want it in the barrel-vaulted reading room,” Sharry said. “If all we can do is hide it in a closet, what’s the point?”
The “Portrait of an English Nobleman” painting is part of the collection from when the library opened in 1928, a donation from the family of William A. Burnett, a New York City businessman who in 1892, with his father, bought the H.D. Fearing Hat Co. in Amherst.
When Burnett died unexpectedly in 1924, his children donated 117 paintings, 18 bronze statues, tables and chairs and 125 art volumes. In 1926, the Jones accepted these for $1, even before the building was opened.
Today, the Jones still holds 49 paintings, five bronzes and several pieces of furniture from the original Burnett collection, Sharry said. All of the bronzes and a few of the pieces of furniture were on display in the library and about half of the paintings were also out for the public to view, including two at the Munson Memorial Library in South Amherst.
Because the painting hasn’t been restored using Community Preservation Act funds, with insurance covering the previous damage and Smith College preservationists handling the frame work, it could be legally sold.
Library officials are talking to curators or auction houses and will soon get an estimate from an appraiser. That could then lead to a decision to consign the painting with that auction house.
With a temporary location on University Drive, the painting has been in a climate- controlled storage, but it is now out so it can be examined.
Farah Ameen, a trustee, said the community has changed, and that what has been in the children’s room for art doesn’t represent the diversity of the town. “Most of the art is stuff that’s been in the library forever,” Ameen said.
But if the library could use proceeds to commission an artist who can help represent the diversity of the community, perhaps working with local students, that would be a positive, she said.
“If some kind of funds could be used by selling this painting, how amazing would it be?” Ameen said.
Trustees President Austi Sarat said he’s not sure, though, and would like to have more discussions about what the painting means. While a majority of trustees seemed OK with the possibility of a sale, Sarat said there has to be attention to the complexities of its history.
“As we think about the new building, and in our rightful desire to make it welcoming, how do we preserve and respect the complicated history of an institution that’s been around for a century,” Sarat said.
And there could be other ways to finance new art.
Objects have been sold before, most notably Albert Bierstadt’s “Platte River, Nebraska,” which was auctioned for $2.4 million to help finance the library addition in the early 1990s. Though the Beechey painting is unlikely to command a similar price, it was appraised at $1,300 a century ago, compared with just $400 for the Bierstadt at the time.
The identity of the English nobleman remains unknown. In 1977, Phillip Cronenwett, who headed the Jones special collections, contacted the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts in London for assistance in determining the identity of the nobleman. A later conversation with the National Portrait Gallery determined that the man in the painting is wearing the parliamentary robes of an earl. This meant he was not Jeffery Amherst.
Sharry said the library has several hundred framed items and it’s unclear how many will be displayed when the library reopens.
Special collections curator Katherine Whitcomb has been drafting a plan, with a broad selection of art that could go up for the children’s and teen spaces, using the Burnett collection in adult reading rooms and possible spaces reserved for staff.
The enlarged building will have more spaces for art, such as the new adult reading rooms on the second floor, though the library is also being mindful of where bookcases will be, Sharry said. The nine pieces that have been conserved using CPA funds will all go back on display, as required.
During a meeting last month, Lisa DeGrace, development director for the capital campaign, suggested that the art in the reopened library should be broader and more inclusive than before. DeGrace suggested commissioning an artist who might be able to be inspired by the Civil War tablets and the 21 Black veterans who served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment and the 5th Cavalry.
