The Blushing Blacksmith
As told by Abbot W. Vose, President
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| Unknown Artist Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Great grandfather Seth M. Vose (1831-1910) never approved of nudes. In one shipment of paintings from France, he received a full-length front view of a nude blacksmith (pictured, right). It was a fine painting from the school of Gericault, and couldn’t be discarded! So, he cut the figure off at the hips and sold the upper half to Mrs. Samuel D. Warren, one of Boston’s most prominent collectors, who left it to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Some fifty years later, Seth’s son, Robert C. Vose (1873-1964), found the lower half in one of the gallery’s warehouse rooms. He gave it to the museum, where the two halves were successfully reunited.