By Marilyn Bauer
Enquirer staff writer
By Marilyn Bauer
Enquirer staff writer

THREE MUST-SEES

Saint Dominic in Prayer (1600-1610) One of the highlights of the show is this work by the great Greek painter, El Greco (1541-1614) who lived in Toledo, Spain most of his life. In this painting Dominic, eyes downcast in private devotion, kneels before a crucifix in an austere Castilian landscape. This is typical El Greco, with an elongated form, intense lighting and idiosyncratic treatment of the sky. Louise Feeding Her Child (1899) This is a personal favorite by American artist, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Women and children are often found in Cassatt's work and are the source of her inspiration. This pastel is a brilliant example of Cassatt's warm and endearing images of motherhood. Fauve Landscape near Chatou (1907) One of the most spectacular modernist paintings in the Rau Collection. Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958), along with other painters such as Matisse stunned the world at the 1905Salon d' Automne exhibition in Paris with their expressively resonant colored paintings. A critic referred to the artists as fauves (wild beasts) christening the movement. Marilyn Bauer

Dayton Art Institute's Rau Collection: European Masterpieces is a stunning show featuring 100 paintings, spanning more than 500 years by the most important artists of the time.

Included are works by Jean-Honore Fragonard, El Greco, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Half the works are masters from the 15th to early 19th centuries, the other half represents Impressionist, Post Impressionist and early modern art from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.

The Rau collection is one of the most important private collections in the world, consisting of 800 pieces of distinguished art. The majority of the paintings on display in Dayton have never been shown publicly before.

"The Dayton Art Institute is one of a select group of museums to present this magnificent exhibition on its first and only American tour," says Alex Nyerges, director and CEO. Dayton is the only Midwest venue.

The works in the show provide visitors with the history of European painting from 1425 to 1925 with examples of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, German, French and Spanish paintings from the Renaissance until shortly after World War I.

The works are displayed chronologically, so viewers literally walk through history. The earliest works are by Fra Angelico, the Florence-born painter who became a monk in 1418 and the latest by Giorgio Morandi, whose "Still Life with Bottle and Glasses" (1955) illustrates not only the artist's intense meditative approach to painting, but how he renewed the genre of still life painting.

IF YOU GO

When: Through Jan. 16 Where: Dayton Art Institute 456 Belmonte Park North Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, Thursdays until 8 p.m. Admission: $12, $10 seniors and students 19 and over, $5 children 7-18, children under 6 and museum members free Info: (800) 296-4426 or www.daytonartinstitute.org

Of the 15th- and 16th-century Renaissance paintings, the most spectacular is El Greco's "Saint Dominic in Prayer," a commission from the church depicting the friar in prayer and devotion.

We are then drawn into the 17th century with works by the Italian Baroque painters. Guido Reni's (1575-1642) "David Decapitating Goliath" (1606-7) is a dramatic representation of the Old Testament tale focusing on the moment when David is about to behead the fallen Goliath and turn the tide of the Israeli fight against the Philistines.

"It's all about the drama," says Michael K. Komanecky, deputy director of collections. "This is the kind of painting they loved during the Italian Baroque period."

Rau was enamored of 17th century Dutch paintings and the large 1627 "Backgammon Players" is typical of the time. It is a morality tale warning viewers of the dangers of game playing and gambling.

Rau also loved 17th and 18th century portraits - an unusual and rare selection to represent this period. An entire gallery is given over to the most exquisite studio portraits, including Fragonard's "Portrait of Francois-Henri, Duke of Harcourt," done about 1769 in bright colors, brilliant brushwork and a dynamic composition. The elegantly dressed duke looks majestically to his side in a confident expression of nobility.

As Komanecky pronounces it, the next gallery is "a step into fresh air" and another highlight of the show. Here we find 21 French Impressionist paintings by the most important artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are two Monets separated by 30 years; one painted when the artist was only 25. It's of a rustic road cutting through Fontainebleau forest. The other is a wild coastal landscape in Brittany with jagged rocky isles.

Rau also collected Impressionist portraits, another highlight of the show, with Renoir's "Head of a Woman" (1875) and Mary Cassatt's masterpiece on motherhood, "Louise Feeding Her Child" (1899). Degas' self-portrait is haunting in it's portrayal of the artist's progressive loss of vision.

The final gallery in the exhibition has been turned over to the modernists, including Fauvist painter Maurice de Vlaminck whose "Fauve Landscape near Chatou" (1907) is one of the Rau Collection's most important paintings

Dr. Gustav Rau (1922-2002) is as interesting as his collection. The only child of a wealthy German industrialist, he went back to school at 40 to become a doctor while running the family business. When he graduated from Munich University in pediatrics (1969), he sold the factories and opened a foundation "to diminish misery and disease in Third World countries."

Rau went to work in Africa, building the largest pediatric clinic on the Zaire/Rwanda border, distributing food to more than 8,000 people a day.

His only luxury was his art collection. He made three European buying trips a year, storing his paintings in a Swiss vault with the intention of someday making his collection public.

In 1999, he bequeathed his collection to UNICEF of Germany to be exhibited internationally and eventually sold to raise funds for Third World philanthropy.