MFA Journey: Explore 150 Years in 15 Works of Art
Mrs. Scales with a class of young girls in a Painting Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, April 1915.
These 15 artworks come from places such as ancient Egypt and modern France, from Greek cities and the New Mexican desert. They are objects of devotion and everyday tools, meant to be worn and worshipped and studied and admired. Each carries its own rich history—a record of a place, a snapshot of a moment, a clue to a culture. Together, they tell their stories, and the story of the MFA. Travel through the Museum, tracking down these objects and discovering how they all came to be here. Your journey connects artistic expression with the people of Boston, past and present, who played a part in creating today’s MFA.
Door, Egypt, 14th–15th centuries, with later additions. Wood (ebony, Aleppo pine, abura, boxwood) and ivory or bone. Gift of Martin Brimmer.
In 1870, founding trustee and the MFA’s first president, Martin Brimmer, was committed to creating an institution that would bring enjoyment and inspiration to the public. He wrote that museums should “open their doors to all the world,” collecting and showing art from across time, across cultures, and across the globe. Brimmer gave this beautiful door to the Museum in 1877.
Level 1, Gallery 175
Arts of Islamic Cultures Gallery
Relief of a protective deity, Iraq, 883–859 BCE. Gypsum. Everett Fund.
In 1876, the MFA opened to the public in Copley Square. From the start, visitors flocked to see works of art from faraway lands, particularly ancient cities from the Bible. MFA trustees had little money for acquiring art, but in 1881 they responded to the public’s enthusiasm for antiquities by purchasing this monumental Assyrian relief from the ancient city of Nimrud.
Level 1, Gallery 110
Ancient Near Eastern Art
In the 1870s and ’80s, Bostonians who traveled to Japan to explore the nation’s history and culture also acquired works of art. The quality and volume of what they bought and brought back to Boston was remarkable. One global traveler, William Bigelow, donated to the Museum more than 50,000 works of art, including this 13th-century bronze sculpture. A new wing was added in 1890 to provide exhibition space for these acquisitions.
Level 2, Gallery 278B
Buddhist Art from Japan
Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head"), Greek, about 330–200 BCE. Parian marble. Bartlett Collection––Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1900.
In the MFA’s early years, its galleries teemed with plaster reproductions of classical sculpture. Curators longed to acquire authentic works, but funds were limited. That changed in 1900, when trustee Francis Bartlett donated $100,000 for the purchase of Greek and Roman antiquities. Among the hundreds of works the MFA acquired over the next three years was the beautiful marble sculpture Head of Aphrodite, known as the Bartlett Head.
Level 2
Upper Rotunda
Front side panel of outer coffin of Djehutynakht (detail), Egypt, 2010–1961 BCE. Cedar. Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition.
From the time of the MFA’s opening, its most popular galleries were those showcasing Egyptian artifacts. The Museum launched its own archaeological expedition with Harvard University in 1905, working at sites in Egypt and northern Sudan. In 1915, the expedition staff discovered in a destroyed tomb the coffins of a local governor and his wife along with fragments of nearly 100 model boats and figures of daily life. Now reassembled, the figures and the coffin are on view in this gallery.
Level 1, Gallery 119
Egyptian Funerary Arts
Claude Monet, Grainstack (Sunset), 1891. Oil on canvas. Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection.
In the late 19th century, the French art world was slow to appreciate the work of the Impressionists, but many Boston collectors were not. Boston and the MFA became a hub of Impressionist exhibitions and collecting. Three siblings, Robert, Hannah, and Grace Edwards, collected 57 paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, and others, which they donated to the MFA in honor of their mother, Juliana Cheney Edwards.
Level 2, Gallery 252
Monet Gallery
February–April 2020
Anthony van Dyck, Isabella, Lady de La Warr, about 1638. Harriet J. Bradbury Fund.
In 1930, with funds from longtime MFA supporter Harriet White Bradbury, the MFA acquired this sumptuous portrait. It was only after her death, and in the depths of the Great Depression, that MFA trustees learned the extent of her generosity when they received Bradbury’s bequest of more than $4.2 million, one of the most generous in MFA history.
Level 2, Gallery 250
European Paintings and Hanoverian Silver
Samuel McIntire, Chest-on-chest, 1806–9. Mahogany, mahogany veneer, ebony and satinwood inlay, pine. The M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts.
Shipping heir Martha Codman was nearly 70 and Russian émigré Maxim Karolik was 35 when they married in 1928. The couple gave nearly 5,000 works to the MFA’s collection: in the 1930s, they donated 18th-century American paintings and furniture, including this chest-on-chest, and hundreds of 19th-century American paintings in the ’40s. Following Martha’s death in 1948, Maxim continued to collect and donate American watercolors, prints, drawings, textiles, and folk art.
Level 1, Gallery 121D
Oak Hill Bedroom
Wine jar with design from a popular drama, Chinese, mid-14th century. Porcelain, Jingdezhen ware, with underglaze cobalt blue. Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt––Charles Bain Hoyt Collection.
In the 1950s, the Museum’s collection was enhanced by the gift of more than 1,500 works of Chinese and Korean art from Charles Bain Hoyt, including this mid-14th century wine jar. The generosity of Hoyt and other donors bolstered the collection, and in 2018, the MFA received the Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection—the largest and most significant gift of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in the Museum’s history.
Level 2, Gallery 275
Chinese Ceramics
David Smith, Cubi XVIII, 1964. Polished stainless steel. Museum purchase with Centennial funds donated by Susan W. and Stephen D. Paine. Art © Est. David Smith / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
As the MFA’s 1970 centennial approached, despite its impressive holdings in many areas, the Museum did not have a curatorial department devoted to contemporary art. Throughout the 1960s, with increased interest from staff and local collectors in the art of their own time, many contemporary objects were acquired, including Cubi XVIII. In 1971, the first contemporary art curator was hired, and the MFA’s contemporary collection has since grown to more than 1,500 works.
Level 1, Gallery 165
Contemporary Art
Funerary Mask, Panama, 700-1520 CE. Gold alloy. Museum purchase with funds donated by Landon T. Clay.
In 1970, while the MFA celebrated its 100th anniversary, a new focus was placed on the acquisition and exhibition of the arts of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Many fine examples of gold work, including this mask, were acquired in the 1970s. Over the next few years, several exhibitions included the work of ancient Mesoamerican and Native American artists, exploring new perspectives on the arts and cultures of the Americas.
Level LG, Gallery LG33
Pre-Columbian Gold and Andean Civilizations
Henri Hemsch, Harpsichord, probably 1736. Poplar. The Edward F. Searles Musical Instrument Collection; Gift of Edward S. Rowland, Benjamin A. Rowland, Jr., George B. Rowland, Daniel B. Rowland, Rodney D. Rowland and M.A. Swedlund in memory of their father, Benjamin Allen Rowland.
This harpsichord is part of the Edward F. Searles Musical Instrument Collection, donated by his heirs in 1981, one of many gifts made in honor of family members. In 1915, Leslie Lindsey Mason, the daughter of a local manufacturer, was among those who died when RMS Lusitania was attacked by a German U-boat. In 1917, her parents donated 560 musical instruments to honor their daughter, forming the core of the MFA’s collection.
Level 1, Gallery 103
Musical Instruments
Georgia O'Keeffe, Deer Skull with Pedernal, Oil on canvas. Gift of the William H. Lane Foundation. © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.
A gift in 1990 of 90 Modernist paintings and works on paper from William and Saundra Lane transformed the Museum’s collection of mid-20th century art into one of the finest in the nation. Highlights include paintings by O’Keeffe, Sheeler, Davis, Hartley, and Dove. In 2012, Saundra Lane made another remarkable donation of more than 6,000 photographs, including works by Sheeler, Weston, and Adams.
Level 3, Gallery 327
“Women Take the Floor”
Woman's wrapper: Adire Eleko, Nigeria, mid-20th century. Cotton plain weave, paste resist dye. Gift of Olaperi Onipede in memory of her parents, Dr. F. Oladipo Onipede and Mrs. Frances A. Onipede.
This woman’s wrapper, given by Olaperi Onipede in 2007, is an example of Adire Eleko, a dyeing technique popular with Yoruba women artists of southwest Nigeria. The Museum began to actively collect African art in the 1990s, and the collection has grown through the generosity of donors. William and Bertha Teel donated many works on view here; Robert Lehman gave rare objects from the Benin Kingdom, on view in Gallery 172.
Level 1, Gallery 171
African Art
Gerrit Dou, Dog at Rest, 1650. Oil on panel. Promised gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art.
In 2017, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and Susan and Matthew Weatherbie made a promised gift of their exceptional collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art. With more than 100 works, including Dog at Rest, it is the largest gift of European paintings in MFA history. The donors also provided funds to establish the Center for Netherlandish Art, keeping this field of art meaningful and vibrant for future generations.
Level 2, Gallery 242
Art of the Netherlands in the 17th Century
February–June 2020
Mrs. Scales with a class of young girls in a Painting Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, April 1915.
These 15 artworks come from places such as ancient Egypt and modern France, from Greek cities and the New Mexican desert. They are objects of devotion and everyday tools, meant to be worn and worshipped and studied and admired. Each carries its own rich history—a record of a place, a snapshot of a moment, a clue to a culture. Together, they tell their stories, and the story of the MFA. Travel through the Museum, tracking down these objects and discovering how they all came to be here. Your journey connects artistic expression with the people of Boston, past and present, who played a part in creating today’s MFA.
Door, Egypt, 14th–15th centuries, with later additions. Wood (ebony, Aleppo pine, abura, boxwood) and ivory or bone. Gift of Martin Brimmer.
In 1870, founding trustee and the MFA’s first president, Martin Brimmer, was committed to creating an institution that would bring enjoyment and inspiration to the public. He wrote that museums should “open their doors to all the world,” collecting and showing art from across time, across cultures, and across the globe. Brimmer gave this beautiful door to the Museum in 1877.
Level 1, Gallery 175
Arts of Islamic Cultures Gallery
Relief of a protective deity, Iraq, 883–859 BCE. Gypsum. Everett Fund.
In 1876, the MFA opened to the public in Copley Square. From the start, visitors flocked to see works of art from faraway lands, particularly ancient cities from the Bible. MFA trustees had little money for acquiring art, but in 1881 they responded to the public’s enthusiasm for antiquities by purchasing this monumental Assyrian relief from the ancient city of Nimrud.
Level 1, Gallery 110
Ancient Near Eastern Art
In the 1870s and ’80s, Bostonians who traveled to Japan to explore the nation’s history and culture also acquired works of art. The quality and volume of what they bought and brought back to Boston was remarkable. One global traveler, William Bigelow, donated to the Museum more than 50,000 works of art, including this 13th-century bronze sculpture. A new wing was added in 1890 to provide exhibition space for these acquisitions.
Level 2, Gallery 278B
Buddhist Art from Japan
Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head"), Greek, about 330–200 BCE. Parian marble. Bartlett Collection––Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1900.
In the MFA’s early years, its galleries teemed with plaster reproductions of classical sculpture. Curators longed to acquire authentic works, but funds were limited. That changed in 1900, when trustee Francis Bartlett donated $100,000 for the purchase of Greek and Roman antiquities. Among the hundreds of works the MFA acquired over the next three years was the beautiful marble sculpture Head of Aphrodite, known as the Bartlett Head.
Level 2
Upper Rotunda
Front side panel of outer coffin of Djehutynakht (detail), Egypt, 2010–1961 BCE. Cedar. Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition.
From the time of the MFA’s opening, its most popular galleries were those showcasing Egyptian artifacts. The Museum launched its own archaeological expedition with Harvard University in 1905, working at sites in Egypt and northern Sudan. In 1915, the expedition staff discovered in a destroyed tomb the coffins of a local governor and his wife along with fragments of nearly 100 model boats and figures of daily life. Now reassembled, the figures and the coffin are on view in this gallery.
Level 1, Gallery 119
Egyptian Funerary Arts
Claude Monet, Grainstack (Sunset), 1891. Oil on canvas. Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection.
In the late 19th century, the French art world was slow to appreciate the work of the Impressionists, but many Boston collectors were not. Boston and the MFA became a hub of Impressionist exhibitions and collecting. Three siblings, Robert, Hannah, and Grace Edwards, collected 57 paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, and others, which they donated to the MFA in honor of their mother, Juliana Cheney Edwards.
Level 2, Gallery 252
Monet Gallery
February–April 2020
Anthony van Dyck, Isabella, Lady de La Warr, about 1638. Harriet J. Bradbury Fund.
In 1930, with funds from longtime MFA supporter Harriet White Bradbury, the MFA acquired this sumptuous portrait. It was only after her death, and in the depths of the Great Depression, that MFA trustees learned the extent of her generosity when they received Bradbury’s bequest of more than $4.2 million, one of the most generous in MFA history.
Level 2, Gallery 250
European Paintings and Hanoverian Silver
Samuel McIntire, Chest-on-chest, 1806–9. Mahogany, mahogany veneer, ebony and satinwood inlay, pine. The M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts.
Shipping heir Martha Codman was nearly 70 and Russian émigré Maxim Karolik was 35 when they married in 1928. The couple gave nearly 5,000 works to the MFA’s collection: in the 1930s, they donated 18th-century American paintings and furniture, including this chest-on-chest, and hundreds of 19th-century American paintings in the ’40s. Following Martha’s death in 1948, Maxim continued to collect and donate American watercolors, prints, drawings, textiles, and folk art.
Level 1, Gallery 121D
Oak Hill Bedroom
Wine jar with design from a popular drama, Chinese, mid-14th century. Porcelain, Jingdezhen ware, with underglaze cobalt blue. Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt––Charles Bain Hoyt Collection.
In the 1950s, the Museum’s collection was enhanced by the gift of more than 1,500 works of Chinese and Korean art from Charles Bain Hoyt, including this mid-14th century wine jar. The generosity of Hoyt and other donors bolstered the collection, and in 2018, the MFA received the Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection—the largest and most significant gift of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in the Museum’s history.
Level 2, Gallery 275
Chinese Ceramics
David Smith, Cubi XVIII, 1964. Polished stainless steel. Museum purchase with Centennial funds donated by Susan W. and Stephen D. Paine. Art © Est. David Smith / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
As the MFA’s 1970 centennial approached, despite its impressive holdings in many areas, the Museum did not have a curatorial department devoted to contemporary art. Throughout the 1960s, with increased interest from staff and local collectors in the art of their own time, many contemporary objects were acquired, including Cubi XVIII. In 1971, the first contemporary art curator was hired, and the MFA’s contemporary collection has since grown to more than 1,500 works.
Level 1, Gallery 165
Contemporary Art
Funerary Mask, Panama, 700-1520 CE. Gold alloy. Museum purchase with funds donated by Landon T. Clay.
In 1970, while the MFA celebrated its 100th anniversary, a new focus was placed on the acquisition and exhibition of the arts of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Many fine examples of gold work, including this mask, were acquired in the 1970s. Over the next few years, several exhibitions included the work of ancient Mesoamerican and Native American artists, exploring new perspectives on the arts and cultures of the Americas.
Level LG, Gallery LG33
Pre-Columbian Gold and Andean Civilizations
Henri Hemsch, Harpsichord, probably 1736. Poplar. The Edward F. Searles Musical Instrument Collection; Gift of Edward S. Rowland, Benjamin A. Rowland, Jr., George B. Rowland, Daniel B. Rowland, Rodney D. Rowland and M.A. Swedlund in memory of their father, Benjamin Allen Rowland.
This harpsichord is part of the Edward F. Searles Musical Instrument Collection, donated by his heirs in 1981, one of many gifts made in honor of family members. In 1915, Leslie Lindsey Mason, the daughter of a local manufacturer, was among those who died when RMS Lusitania was attacked by a German U-boat. In 1917, her parents donated 560 musical instruments to honor their daughter, forming the core of the MFA’s collection.
Level 1, Gallery 103
Musical Instruments
Georgia O'Keeffe, Deer Skull with Pedernal, Oil on canvas. Gift of the William H. Lane Foundation. © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.
A gift in 1990 of 90 Modernist paintings and works on paper from William and Saundra Lane transformed the Museum’s collection of mid-20th century art into one of the finest in the nation. Highlights include paintings by O’Keeffe, Sheeler, Davis, Hartley, and Dove. In 2012, Saundra Lane made another remarkable donation of more than 6,000 photographs, including works by Sheeler, Weston, and Adams.
Level 3, Gallery 327
“Women Take the Floor”
Woman's wrapper: Adire Eleko, Nigeria, mid-20th century. Cotton plain weave, paste resist dye. Gift of Olaperi Onipede in memory of her parents, Dr. F. Oladipo Onipede and Mrs. Frances A. Onipede.
This woman’s wrapper, given by Olaperi Onipede in 2007, is an example of Adire Eleko, a dyeing technique popular with Yoruba women artists of southwest Nigeria. The Museum began to actively collect African art in the 1990s, and the collection has grown through the generosity of donors. William and Bertha Teel donated many works on view here; Robert Lehman gave rare objects from the Benin Kingdom, on view in Gallery 172.
Level 1, Gallery 171
African Art
Gerrit Dou, Dog at Rest, 1650. Oil on panel. Promised gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art.
In 2017, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and Susan and Matthew Weatherbie made a promised gift of their exceptional collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art. With more than 100 works, including Dog at Rest, it is the largest gift of European paintings in MFA history. The donors also provided funds to establish the Center for Netherlandish Art, keeping this field of art meaningful and vibrant for future generations.
Level 2, Gallery 242
Art of the Netherlands in the 17th Century
February–June 2020