THE ROYAL HALF
by Phyllis Tuchman
"Hesse: A Princely German Collection," Oct. 28, 2005-Mar. 19, 2006, at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue, Portland, Ore. 97205
It’s a long way from the central German state of Hesse, which contains the cities of Kassel, Darmstadt and Frankfurt, to the temperate but rainy American metropolis of Portland, Ore. Nevertheless, the Portland Art Museum has landed an exhibition of some 200 artworks from the 800-year-old Hesse dynasty, which currently owns five castles in Germany (three are operated as museums) and is headed by an 80-year-old prince named Landgraf Moritz.
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