Hendrick Avercamp was the leading painter of winter scenes in Holland in the early 17th century. This large and beautiful example features people of all ages enjoying skating, fishing, kolf (an early version of golf), refreshments, and conversation on the ice. The popularity of paintings of ice scenes coincided with a cold spell in Northern Europe, known as Little Ice Age, which lasted from the 1560s to the 1720s.

Oil on panel.

Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art.

2023.486

At first glance it is hard to identify the jaunty, overlapping shapes on this narrow canvas. In time one discerns a cup and saucer, bottle, pipe, and a folded newspaper, all placed on a round tabletop. María Blanchard was one of very few women in the first generation of Cubists, and surely the only Spanish woman. In this Still Life, she distills household objects and presents them as if seen from multiple angles. This painting is unapologetically bold, exemplifying Blanchard’s deep exploration of Cubism from about 1917 to 1920 while living in Paris.

Oil on canvas.

Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund.

2024.2329

Self Portrait is one of John Wilson’s earliest and most compelling oil paintings. The closely cropped, monumental figure sits in a sparsely painted, nearly abstract interior and stares outward with a piercing, almost solemn intensity. Wilson defined his subject with an unusual volume and weight that presages the artist’s work in sculpture, for which he is best known. Though Wilson was only 21 years old in 1943, when he painted Self Portrait, and still a student at the SMFA, he was already making his mark in the art world.

Oil on canvas.

Museum purchase with funds donated by Patti and Jonathan Kraft.

2024.2191

In fall 1927, Ford Motor Company commissioned Charles Sheeler to photograph the company’s River Rouge Plant outside Dearborn, Michigan, to mark the introduction of the new Model T. The photographer, who was fascinated by cars and American industry, claimed it was “a job made to order.” Sheeler spent about six weeks at the massive factory, which spanned 1,100 acres and employed about 75,000 people. In the end he made fewer than 40 photographs of the plant and several of them, including Criss-Crossed Conveyors, are regarded as icons of Machine Age–photography.

Gelatin silver print.

The Lane Collection.

2024.2131

Japanese sheet music covers from the early 20th century attracted consumers of musical scores by reflecting the zeitgeist of the time. Saitō Kazō’s portrayal of a modern woman with short hair and a work uniform represents the shifting gender roles in a period of rapid change and industrialization in Japan. The subject’s upper body emerges from the meshing gears as if she were part of the machine. This gift from Mary and Robert Levenson underscores the importance of the study of nontraditional formats in expanding our recognition of art and artists at the MFA.

Color lithograph; ink on paper

Gift of Mary and Robert Levenson.

2023.1209

In the late 1960s, Bobby Seale, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, invited Stephen Shames to document the movement’s activities, making Shames the official party photographer between 1967 and 1973. Shames created hundreds of powerful images during this time, many featuring the women who comprised over 65 percent of party membership. Shames captured both the everyday lives of these women as well as the critical work they and their “comrade sisters” carried out at schools, free medical clinics, voter registration sites, community nutrition programs, and elder care centers across the country.

Gelatin silver print.

Gift of Lizbeth and George Krupp.

2023.990

Martin Puryear primarily works in wood, often on a large scale, but the artist has also long explored how formal practices such as minimalist sculpture align with traditional crafts like woodworking and basket weaving. Puryear initially designed this functional bench for the courtyard of Manhattan’s New School for Social Research—the artist completed the MFA’s bench seen here a year before installing its twin at the New School in 1997. The bench was fabricated from stainless steel plate that was cut then welded to create the lattice pattern that invites air and light into the work.

Stainless steel.

Gift of Ann and Graham Gund.

2023.490

Cy Twombly is renowned for lyrical, gestural paintings and works on paper, but he also periodically engaged in sculpture during his long career. The artist’s evocative three-dimensional constructions speak to his fascination with fetish objects, tomb architecture, and ancient bas-reliefs, as well as an interest in myths, religious rituals, and storytelling. Untitled is a nearly human-scaled bronze cast from an original Twombly made with found pieces of wood. A viewer could see this piece as abstract, but the form also evokes the hieratic figures of ancient Egyptian sculpture the artist greatly admired.

Bronze.

Gift of the Cy Twombly Foundation.

2023.964

John Cooqus was the son-in-law of famous Dutch silversmith Christiaen van Vianen and succeeded his father-in-law as royal silversmith in England in 1671, serving under both Kings Charles II and James II. This vessel, which holds the host as part of the Catholic ritual ceremony of Holy Communion, may have been made for James II, as he was one of the only Catholic patrons who could have commissioned something of such quality. Although this very finely decorated ciborium was made in London, it reflects important Anglo-Dutch links.

Silver.

Theodora Wilbour Fund in memory of Charlotte Beebe Wilbour.

2023.481a-b

The Small Relic Bearer presents one of George Minne’s most characteristic subjects—a slender kneeling youth, nude and deep in thought. Minne was one of only a few sculptors working in the Symbolist style and had a strong impact in Belgium and beyond, including in Vienna around 1900. Remarkable for its Belgian blue limestone, this sculpture is distinguished by the mesmerizing patterns of tool marks that shape forms and enliven the surface, edging toward abstraction.

Blue limestone.

William Francis Warden Fund, Tamara Petrosian Davis Sculpture Fund, John Lowell Gardner Fund, and H.E. Bolles Fund.

2024.2795

Born on the border of Latvia and Lithuania, Bloom immigrated with his family to Boston in 1920, settling in the West End’s Jewish community. In 1942 MoMA recognized Bloom as one of the country’s most important emerging artists, which allowed him to enjoy early patronage and notice; however, a variety of factors—the rise of abstraction, regional bias, anti-Semitism, and his sometimes-difficult subject matter—combined to obscure his impressive achievements. This superb example of Bloom’s landscape painting shows how the artist explored the boundaries between figuration and abstraction.

Oil on canvas.

Gift of Stella Bloom.

2024.2546

This window-shaped brooch was designed to resemble an Indian jali—an ornamental window screen traditionally made of stone with repeated natural or crafted motifs. The small wonder employs a gold framework, emerald orbs, and geometric diamonds that shimmer and sparkle in the sun, mimicking larger screens and glass panes of a window. The brooch is a quintessential example of the groundbreaking art of Mumbai-based artist Viren Bhagat, and the MFA is the first museum in the world to welcome an example of this extraordinary artist’s work into its collection.

18-karat gold, diamond, and emerald.

William Francis Warden Fund. © BHAGAT.

2024.2331