The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), opened the doors of its new wing for the Art of the Americas on Saturday, November 20. 2010. The Art of the Americas Wing allows for the display of more than 5,000 works from the Museum‘s American collections, more than doubling the number previously on view. It represents the most expansive initiative focused on American art and culture happening in the world today, broadening the definition to include works from North, Central, and South America that span the course of three millennia, up to the late 20th century.
The wing was specifically designed for the Art of the Americas collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Many galleries feature walls adorned in rich period colors, sumptuous brocades, and carpeting and wallpapers inspired by 18th- and 19th-century designs. Light oak floors from the Pacific Northwest have been used in most of the galleries. The more than 200 climate-controlled display cases were made by Goppion Museum Workshop, Inc. of Milan, Italy.
Accommodations were made for works large and small. On Level 1, where the ceiling height is 15 1/2 feet, a special niche was created above one wall of the Arts of the New Nation: 1800–1830 gallery for
The Passage of the Delaware
Thomas Sully (American (born in England), 1783–1872)
Conservation Status: After Treatment
1819
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of the Owners of the old Boston Museum
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Passage of the Delaware (1819), Thomas Sully‘s monumental painting. Allowances had to be made for both the canvas (measuring 12 feet high and 17 feet wide) and its massive frame. While the height of most galleries is nearly 16 feet, Level 3 core galleries have a nearly 22-foot-high glass ceiling (with louvered panels to filter light), which allows for the display of large-scale works.
Many masterpieces from the Art of the Americas collection are on view in the galleries, including 500 new acquisitions (many on view for the first time):
New York Harbor
Fitz Henry Lane (American, 1804–1865)
about 1855
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Fitz Henry Lane‘s painting New York Harbor (about 1855) and intricately constructed 18th- and 19th-century ship models in the Ship Models and Maritime Arts gallery (Level LG)
Sons of Liberty Bowl, 1768
Paul Revere, Jr., American, 1734-1818
Silver
Overall: 14cm (5 1/2in.)
Other (Base): 14.8cm (5 13/16in.)
Other (Lip): 27.9cm (11in.)
Object Place: Boston, Massachusetts
Gift by Subscription and Francis Bartlett Fund
Accession Number: 49.45
Paul Revere‘s historic silver Sons of Liberty Bowl (1768), paired with
Paul Revere, 1768
John Singleton Copley, American, 1738 – 1815
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Joseph W. Revere, William B. Revere and Edward H. R. Revere
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
John Singleton Copley‘s portrait (1768) of the silversmith and patriot in the 18th-Century Boston gallery (Level 1)
King Lear
Benjamin West, American, 1738–1820
Oil on canvas
271.78 x 365.76 cm (107 x 144 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Accession Number: 1979.476
Benjamin West‘s monumental painting, King Lear (1788) in the American Artists Abroad around 1800 gallery.
More than 25 paintings, watercolors, and drawings by John Singer Sargent, (see some of the rest here) including his iconic work,
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Mary Louisa Boit, Julia Overing Boit, Jane Hubbard Boit, and Florence D. Boit in memory of their father, Edward Darley Boit
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882), paired with the two large Japanese-style vases pictured in the painting, in the John Singer Sargent gallery (Level 2)
Boys in a Pasture, 1874
Winslow Homer, American, 1836 – 1910
Oil on canvas
The Hayden Collection
Accession Number: 53.2552
Winslow Homer‘s charming canvas, Boys in a Pasture (1874), in the Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins gallery (Level 2)
Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl, about 1893
Designed by: Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848–1933)
Made by: Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (active 1892–1902)
Glass, lead, bronze chain
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Barbara L. and Theodore B. Alfond in honor of Malcolm Rogers
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A brilliant stained-glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl (about 1893), on view for the first time and showcased with two John LaFarge stained-glass windows in The Aesthetic Movement gallery (Level 2)
Old Brooklyn Bridge, about 1940
Joseph Stella, American, 1877–1946
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Susan Morse Hilles in memory of Paul Hellmuth, 1980
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Accession Number: 1980.197
Joseph Stella‘s spectacular Old Brooklyn Bridge (about 1941),
Charles Sheeler‘s View of New York (1931),
Edward Hopper‘s Drug Store (1927), and
Arthur Dove‘s George Gershwin—I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise (1927).
in the 1920s and 1930s gallery.
Art of the Americas Publication
In conjunction with the opening of the new wing, A New World Imagined: Art of the Americas has been produced by MFA Publications. It offers a new look at art of the Americas and its intersections with the world at large. Taking the vast geography and cultural diversity of the North and South American continents as its starting point, it introduces the ways in which American art, broadly defined, has been shaped both by its encounters with cultures around the globe and by its own past—from the ancient and native populations who first inhabited these territories to the European, Asian, Scandinavian, and Latino émigrés who settled here. Edited by Elliot Bostwick Davis, A New World Imagined presents essays by Museum curators who discuss more than 200 works of art from the MFA. The 350-page book, with approximately 300 color images, is available in hardcover.
More Images:
Watson and the Shark, 1778
John Singleton Copley, American, 1738 – 1815
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Mrs. George von Lengerke Meyer
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
White Rose with Larkspur No. 2, 1927
Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986)
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston Common at Twilight, 1885–86
Childe Hassam, American, 1859–1935
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Miss Maud E. Appleton
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Accession Number: 31.952
In the Loge
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
1878
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Room in Brooklyn
Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967)
1932
Oil on canvas
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Valley of the Yosemite
Albert Bierstadt (American (born in Germany), 1830–1902)
1864
Oil on paperboard
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston