A Letter From The Publisher, Oct. 12, 1953

Dear Time-Reader

RENOIR’S “VENUS VICTORIEUSE” HAS FINALLY COME OVER THE MOUNTAINS. SALE OF THE REJECTED MAIDEN HAS BEEN COMPLETED. I FOR ONE AM MOST HAPPY THAT THE OLD GIRL HAS FOUND SOMEONE WHO LOVES HER.

RUSS SACKETT

This telegram from TIME’S correspondent in Portland, Ore. refers to the lady pictured above. She has had a stormy career in recent months, and I’d like to tell you how TIME helped bring about a happy ending to her story.

You may remember reading in the Art section (TIME, July 6) that this statue had been purchased from a Manhattan dealer for the city of Salem, Ore. The money was to come from the life savings that Carroll L. Moores, a Salem janitor, had left in trust for the purpose of erecting “a monument…in memory of early Oregon pioneers.” The citizens of modern Salem, however, saw newspaper photographs of the sculpture and protested. The nude bronze figure was a far cry from the sunbonneted frontierswoman they had envisioned. Said a Salem housewife: “I would have a difficult time explaining to my young children why we would have a heathen goddess on our courthouse lawn and why she doesn’t wear clothes.” Result: the committee responsible for the selection withdrew their Venus before she even got to town.

One member of this committee was Thomas Colt, director of the Portland Art Museum. He hoped—as TIME reported—that “some patron would buy Salem’s scorned Venus for Portland’s museum, where…her rich beauty would be appreciated.”

On the very afternoon that the story appeared in TIME a defender arose in the person of Victor M. Carter of Los Angeles, president of two hardware firms, director of the Hollywood State Bank, national president of the City of Hope Medical Center—and amateur art collector.

As soon as he read the TIME article, Carter phoned Colt offering to buy the rebuffed Venus for the same price ($18,000) that the Salem committee had agreed to pay. And he proposed to lend her to the Portland Art Museum.

Explained Carter: “After the people have had a chance to get acquainted with really fine art like this, perhaps they will appreciate other fine art more. We have to live with art in order to understand it.” He started his own collection in 1949 during a tour of the art shops of Europe; it now includes several Renoirs and a Degas.

Collector Carter’s offer was accepted last month by the Pioneer Trust Co. of Salem, trustees of the janitor’s es tate. Declared Museum Director Colt: “The perceptive journalism of a great magazine and the vision of a generous citizen combined to reaffirm my faith that great art will always call forth strong champions, who will prevail over confusion.”

The statue arrived for dedication ceremonies last week, and Venus may now be seen in a place of honor among the prized sculptures of the Portland Art Museum.

Cordially yours,

James A. Linen

P.S. The same man who created the controversial sculpture of Venus Victorieuse is evidently your favorite among painters, new and old. How do we know? His works have appeared most often in TIME’S “Public Favorites” series. And when readers write us to comment on TIME’S news of art and to ask where they can buy reproductions of paintings, the name they mention most frequently is that of Pierre Auguste Renoir.