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32 ACQUISITIONS American painter and businessman Lockwood de Forest was widely traveled in this country and abroad. And like the artist his Ramesseum at Thebes had a remarkable journey as well. Ramesseum at Thebes was painted following de Forests rst trip to Egypt in 18751876 and was one of several works created in his studio using oil sketches drawings and profes- sional and personal photographs from his travels. It features the hypostyle of the mortuary temple of Ramesses II 13th century B.C.E with the fallen colossus of the pharaoh in the background an example of orientalist art developed in the 19th century and characterized by Westerners depicting exotic scenes from the East and Middle East. This genre had been missing from Smiths holdings and lling that gap in the col- lection has been a longstanding goal. In an interesting twist SCMAs acquisition represents a home- coming for the painting Ramesseum at Thebes was one of several works originally purchased in 1879 by Smiths founding president L. Clark Seelye and installed in College Hall. In the 1940s however some 100 paintings from Smiths collection including this onewere deemed unimportant and deacces- sioned leaving the fate of de Forests work of art unknown. In fall 2013 Jessica Nicoll and Alice Pratt Brown Profes- sor John Davis together with research assistant Samantha Page 17 began a two-year research project to track down those works. Page discovered a document in the archives about a 1942 sale of 15 paintings to a dealer in Pittsburgh for 150. When Davis looked at the list de Forests name caught his eye as he knew the artist was among Seelyes earliest ac- quisitions he also knew that one of de Forests large canvases was for sale at a New York City gallery. When it was conrmed SCMAs collection rooted in original works of American and European art features works of high quality while recognizing the instructional value of preparatory studies and unnished pieces that reveal an art- ists process. During the last decade the museums collecting plan has signicantly expanded to include African Islamic and Asian art to support the colleges global curriculum. We are pleased to highlight here some of our most recent acquisitions. Lockwood de Forest A Homecoming ACQUISITIONS