Zhan Wang

Artificial Rock #85

2005
Chrome-plated stainless steel

In China, distinctive geological stones have been collected and contemplated as “scholar’s rocks” for thousands of years. Called jiashanshi, or “artificial mountains,” the largest rocks were placed in private or public courtyards to allow city dwellers a spiritual experience of “being in nature” through the miniature mountainscape. Wang recreates—in sleek and mirror-like stainless steel—a celebrated scholar’s rock used for meditation and contemplation.

Gift of Ann and Graham Gund in honor of Malcolm Rogers and to celebrate his remarkable accomplishments as Director of the MFA, Boston
Reproduced with permission

Lorna Simpson

The Clock Tower

1995
Serigraph on twelve felt panels with one felt text panel

The Clock Tower by acclaimed artist Lorna Simpson explores issues of identity, memory, race, gender, class, and the nuance of language, and is recognized as one of the pivotal works of her career. Although devoid of figures, the large-scale work printed on felt contains an imaginary narrative, its mood akin to film noir. On an accompanying text panel written by Simpson, we read a phone conversation between two colleagues planning an illicit assignation in the tower’s rooftop conference room.

Museum purchase with funds donated by Joyce Linde in honor of Malcolm Rogers
Reproduced with permission

Teresita Fernández

Ghost (Vines)

2013
Laser-cut stainless steel with green silkscreen ink on reverse

Teresita Fernández’s Ghost (Vines) references nature’s fleeting presence. Layers of precision-cut mirrored stainless steel are backed with bright green silkscreen ink. As light hits the steel, a green dappled shadow is cast behind and around the metal panels mimicking the pattern and softness of moss. Fernández describes such works as “landscape sculpture,” and they reflect a fascination with evoking the natural world through unexpected materials at odds with the illusions they create.

William Francis Warden Fund, Towles Contemporary Art Fund, and funds donated by Joyce Linde, Vance Wall Foundation, Erica Gervais Pappendick and Ted Pappendick, The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, Joy and Doug Kant, and Shelly and Bruce Eckman

Photo by Will Lytch. Courtesy of the artist and Lehman Maupin, New York and Hong Kong

Edouard Vuillard

Child and Nurse in the Garden. Project for a screen.

About 1892
Ink and watercolor with graphite underdrawing

The Van Otterloo gift is rich in prints by 19th-century French artists, including a design for a Japanese-style folding screen by Edouard Vuillard depicting a child and nurse in the garden. With its obvious references to Japanese art, this drawing was featured in the MFA’s traveling exhibition “Looking East: Western Artists and the Allure of Japan.”

Gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo in honor of Malcolm Rogers

Giovanni Battista Fontana, after Domenico Campagnola

The Bearing of the Cross

Later 16th century
Engraving and etching

Although the Van Otterloos’ gift is especially rich in 19th-century prints, it features a number of very important earlier works as well. This large, dramatic scene of Christ’s Passion is the first work by Giovanni Fontana to come to the MFA.

Gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo in honor of Malcolm Rogers

Andrea Mantegna

Bacchanal with Silenus

1470s
Engraving

Among the earliest works in the Van Otterloo gift is this 15th-century engraving by Andrea Mantegna that depicts the raucous celebrations of a bacchanal with Silenus, companion of the god of wine Dionysos.

Gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo in honor of Malcolm Rogers

Jacob Jack Friedrich Bollschweiller

Sommer in Graubünden (Summer in Graubünden)

1898
Poster, color lithograph

This poster is an enticement to stylish travelers to while away the summer in the Swiss valley of Graubünden.

Gift of Leonard A. Lauder in honor of Malcolm Rogers

Enoch Fairhurst

The London, Midland & Scottish Railway. Over a century of progress from the "Rocket" to the "Princess Royal"

1933
Poster, color lithograph

This 1930s poster for the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway celebrates the railway’s rich heritage, and its up-to-date locomotive, the Princess Royal.

Gift of Leonard A. Lauder in honor of Malcolm Rogers

Roger de Valerio

Southern Railway Chemins de fer de l'Etat

1920s or 30s
Poster, color lithograph

Before the days of the “Chunnel,” travelers would dash back and forth between London and Paris on the boat-trains of the Southern Railway.

Gift of Leonard A. Lauder in honor of Malcolm Rogers

Yamamoto Baiitsu

Three Friends of Winter

Edo period, 1852
Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper

For centuries, the “three friends of winter” (pine tree, bamboo, and plum tree) were a favored theme for paintings in East Asia. The trees’ characteristics—pine and bamboo retaining their green, and plum blooming despite the cold—were also seen as symbolic of high-mindedness, an ideal of literati men.

Anonymous gift in honor of George Abrams

Ike Taiga

Mount Fuji and Miho no matsubara

Edo period, 18th century
Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper

Inspired by the Chinese literati ideals of spiritual nobility and freedom, unconventional attitude, and expressive creativity, Ike Taiga was one of the painters who established this genre in Japan in the 18th century. Taiga painted the famous viewing spot of Mount Fuji from Miho no matsubara, the Pine Forest of Miho, many times. The combination of the lines of pine trees and Mount Fuji became the classic iconography representing this scene.

Anonymous gift in honor of Nina Burr

Henry Tonks

John Singer Sargent Painting

1918
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper

Sargent’s friend Henry Tonks shows him painting determinedly in the midst of ravaged World War I battlefields near Ypres, France. Sargent’s trusty sunshade, white in real life and an item of surprise when it rose from the muddy ground, has been re-imagined by Tonks in a more appropriate army camouflage.

The John Singer Sargent Archive—Gift of Jan and Warren Adelson

Max Beerbohm

Sargent at Work

1907
Offset lithograph

In this humorous caricature illustrating Sargent’s reputation as a sought-after portraitist, Beerbohm shows the artist rushing to his canvas, a brush in each hand, while his elegant fur-draped model awaits her masterful likeness.

The John Singer Sargent Archive—Gift of Jan and Warren Adelson
© The Estate of Max Beerbohm

Sidney Robert Carter

John Singer Sargent

About 1910
Photograph, gelatin silver print

Canadian photographer Sidney Carter took the opportunity to portray Sargent when the painter visited Montreal in connection with his monumental group portrait of 22 British generals who served in World War I. Carter exhibited his likeness of Sargent in London in 1921, and it was published in Vanity Fair in 1924.

The John Singer Sargent Archive—Gift of Jan and Warren Adelson

Armorial bracelet

Designed by Simon Pettiteau
About 1830
Gold, pearl, emerald, ruby, and diamond

French designer Simon Pettiteau was celebrated for his gem-set, artistic jewelry. Likely commissioned for the wife of a high-ranking officer in the French army, this bracelet features symbolic imagery related to the pomp and circumstance of warfare and a central medallion with a baroque pearl used to imitate the shape of a carabineer’s helmet, with diamond and emerald ostrich plumes and a gold and ruby chinstrap to complete the design.

Museum purchase with funds donated by the David and Roberta Logie Department of Textile and Fashion Arts Visiting Committee in honor of Yvonne J. Markowitz, Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator Emerita of Jewelry

Dahlia compact

Designed by Jean Schlumberger
Made by Louis Feron Inc.
Retailed by Tiffany & Co.
About 1951
Gold and sapphire

Mrs. Paul “Bunny” Mellon was an important client of Jean Schlumberger and this cosmetic case belonged to her. This expertly crafted compact compact speaks to Mrs. Mellon’s love of nature—she was so skilled a gardener that Jacqueline Kennedy asked her to redesign the White House Rose Garden in 1961. Like many of Schlumberger’s designs for Tiffany & Co., the compact was fabricated by Louis Feron Inc.

Museum purchase with funds donated by the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation and Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Alexander Calder

Necklace
1941
Silver

American modernist sculptor Alexander Calder, known for his famous mobiles and ingenious wire sculptures, showed jewelry at several important exhibitions in the 1940s. Calder shaped inexpensive silver or brass wire, using simple techniques such as hammering and twisting, to create large-scale works of wearable art. His bold forms were inspired by African and ancient Greek and Roman jewelry, as well as his own fertile imagination, often including kinetic elements related to his mobiles. Calder made this necklace for his sister, Margaret Calder Hayes, on the occasion of her 25th wedding anniversary.

The Daphne Farago Collection—Gift in honor of Malcolm Rogers
© 2015 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Dressing cabinet

Possibly Jerusalem, or Spanish Colonial
About 1720
Mother of pearl, bone, dark wood inlay, cypress, silver

The surface of this dressing cabinet (tocador) is veneered with mother-of-pearl and engraved with the Battles of Alexander after prints by Charles Le Brun, as well as animals and the Four Continents. The cabinet bears the coat of arms of Mendoza, a noble Spanish family that included viceroys of New Spain and Peru. Ongoing research suggests that it may have been made in Jerusalem or Bethlehem. It was probably intended for use on an estrado (raised platform in a salon), a Moorish-inspired feature popular in aristocratic Spanish houses.

Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund

Hanging votive lamp

Mexican
About 1637
Silver, glass

Large silver votive lamps were used in churches and religious buildings, hung beside altars and in private chapels. According to the inscription, this impressive example may have been used originally in the confraternity of Veracruz (“the True Cross”) in Alcázar de San Juan, Spain, given by its donor Doña Magdalena de Valdivieso y Rojas of Madrid in 1637. This lamp was likely shipped from Mexico to Spain shortly after it was made.

Museum purchase with funds donated by the Karolik Society, Frank B. Bemis Fund, Marion E. Davis Fund, William Francis Warden Fund, Leigh and Stephen Braude Fund for Latin American Art, and funds donated by Patricia and Robert Lawrence

Snuffbox

French (Paris)
About 1740
Gold, mother of pearl

Snuffboxes were among the most luxurious fashion accessories in 18th-century Europe. The tightly fit lid kept ground tobacco moist for those who preferred to “snuff” a smokeless pinch through the nose. This example with zig-zag panels of mother of pearl framed in gold was owned by the Rothschild family of Vienna.

Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Attributed to Richard Cosway

Charlotte Sophia, Duchess of Beaufort, half-length, reclining, deshabillé

About 1790–1800
Painted on ivory

Cosway was acclaimed for his portrayals in miniature of English and French royalty and aristocracy. Small in scale, portrait miniatures were frequently painted as tokens of friendship or diplomatic gifts for the European elite. Later, they were avidly collected by wealthy connoisseurs like Nathaniel Meyer von Rothschild, to whom this example once belonged.

Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Caspar Hersbach

The Heavens, Showing the Path of the Great Comet of 1618, from Events in the History of the Netherlands, France, Germany, and England, 1535–about 1620

1619
Etching

Among the treasures that came to the Museum from the heirs of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family was a group of nearly 90 illustrated books, dating from the 1500s to the end of the 19th century. One of the rarest was a set of the Hogenberg publishing house’s “history sheets,” issued in Cologne, Germany, between about 1570 and 1620, meant to document major events in the Low Countries during that period of intense religious conflict. This etching, designed by Caspar Hersbach, shows the path of the great comet of 1618, which fascinated people all over Europe.

Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Five Poems from the Lady Ise Volume (Ise-shū) of the Anthology of Thirty-Six Poets (Sanjūrokunin-shū) known as Ishiyama-gire

Japanese, Heian period, about 1112
Book page mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and gold and silver pigments on dyed, collaged paper

This page from the Anthology of Thirty-Six Poets represents the apogee of classical aristocratic Japanese taste. Now mounted as a hanging scroll, it includes elegant transcriptions of melancholic verses by the 10th-century poetess Lady Ise. The thirty-nine volume Anthology of Thirty-Six Poets was originally a gift from the Retired Emperor Shirakawa (r. 1072–1086) to his grandson. Two volumes (from which this page originated) were dismantled in 1929; the remaining ones were designated in Japan as National Treasures.

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto

Calligrapher: Hon’ami Kōetsu
Painter: Tawaraya Sōtatsu

Poem from the Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems (Kokin-shū) with design of wisteria

Momoyama period, early 17th century
Poem card mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and mica on paper

On this sumptuous album leaf, printed in mica with a design of wisteria, calligrapher Hon’ami Kōetsu inscribed lines from a poem that had been included in the 10th-century imperial anthology, the Kokin-shū recalling Japan’s aristocratic past. This leaf was later mounted as a hanging scroll with luxurious textiles so that it could ornament an alcove for a tea gathering.

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto in honor of Anne Nishimura Morse

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Rockefeller Center, 2001

2001
Photograph, gelatin silver print

Hiroshi Sugimoto, who grew up in Japan and spent many years in the US, is best known for his long-exposure photographs of subjects from seascapes, movie theaters, natural history dioramas, Buddhist sculpture, and lightning fields. In the late 1990s he turned to monuments of modernist architecture, using extreme blur to explore the iconic power of their design. Here, the main tower of Rockefeller Center is rendered abstract and timeless—a dreamlike effect.

Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto
Reproduced with permission

Herb Ritts

Madonna (Eyes), Los Angeles

1987
Photograph, gelatin silver print

Ritts photographed Madonna (Eyes), Los Angeles to lure in audiences for the musician’s first world tour.

Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation in honor of Malcolm Rogers
© Herb Ritts Foundation

Herb Ritts

Naomi Campbell, Face in Hand, Hollywood

1990
Photograph, gelatin silver print

For Naomi Campbell, Face in Hand, Hollywood, Ritts photographed the fashion icon in an outdoor set built onto the roof of his Hollywood studio.

Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation in honor of Malcolm Rogers
© Herb Ritts Foundation

Herb Ritts

Fred Back View with Chain, Hollywood

1984
Photograph, gelatin silver print

Herb Ritts’s 1984 assignment for Per Lui magazine marked a turning point for the photographer. It was a moment when he began to trust his own creative instincts and push his artistic vision.

Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation in honor of Malcolm Rogers
© Herb Ritts Foundation