Émile-Antoine Bourdelle

Bust of the painter Henri Nazon

1893
Terracotta

This terracotta portrait bust of the painter Henri Nazon by Émile-Antoine Bourdelle records the friendship between these artists, and it remained in Nazon’s family until 2017. Bourdelle explores the older artist’s features with touching empathy, the side-swept hair and roughly modeled beard imparting a sense of energy and emotion. Toolmarks and fingerprints record Bourdelle’s creative process as he worked the clay. This is the MFA’s first sculpture by this important artist who worked at the same time as Auguste Rodin, in fact serving Rodin as a marble carver for many years.

John Lowell Gardner Fund

George Romney

The Fiend Conjured by Bolingbroke (from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2)

About 1790
Pen and black ink and brush with grey wash on paper

George Romney, known for his elegant portraits (see Portrait of Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton), exhibited remarkable freedom in his drawings. Draftsmanship was his primary outlet for an interest in extreme emotional states. As a member of a group of theater aficionados in London, Romney planned a number of works for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, an ambitious project intended to invigorate British painting. The subject of this work is from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2, and was given by artist and collector Joseph Goldyne, whose love of drawings and prints developed during his time at Harvard Medical School.

Gift of Deborah and Joseph Goldyne in memory of Agnes Mongan

Torah finials

Jurgen Richels
1688–89
Silver and parcel gilt

Torah finials (or Rimmonim in Hebrew) decorate the tops of rollers for a Torah scroll. This pair is the earliest known set in an American collection, and one of the MFA’s most important acquisitions of Judaica since it began collecting such materials. Jurgen Richels was a prolific silversmith from Hamburg, Germany, whose works—liturgical, domestic, and Kunstkammer pieces—are in major museums across the world. The sculptural quality of these finials, paired with the decorative shells, acanthus leaves, and trefoils enlivening the surface, reflects the boldness of his style and of German Baroque silver at its best.

Museum purchase with funds donated by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and Jetskalina H. Phillips Fund

Hyman Bloom

Chandelier No. 2

1945
Oil on canvas

One of the most innovative painters of the 1940s and ’50s, Hyman Bloom was fascinated with the relationship between matter and spirit. He captured both in this monumental painting of a chandelier inside a synagogue. The fixture, abstracted from its surroundings, glows with an intensity that almost dissolves its substance; light has become enlightenment. As painter and critic Elaine de Kooning described, “Bloom packs in his colors . . . until the pigment itself seems to assume an extraordinary incandescence. The deep yellows . . . expand and shrink in a flood of multi-colored light which sets every dab of paint in motion before your eyes.”

Gift of the Bloom family in memory of Joan and Barry Bloom.
© Stella Bloom Trust.

Simone Leigh

No Face (Pannier)

2018
Terracotta, graphite, salt-fired porcelain, steel, raffia

Simone Leigh is a Chicago-born, New York–based artist whose work centers on vernacular cultural traditions from Africa and its vast diaspora. This arresting sculpture is a surrealist warrior unabashed in her display of strong-willed femininity. The subject wears a raffia skirt—a nod to conical architecture from Cameroon and Chad, as well to a Southern belle’s hoop skirt—but this powerful figure is no one’s doll. Sans visage, she evades identification; anonymity is her armor against the objectification of our gaze.

Robert L. Beal, Enid L. Beal and Bruce A. Beal Acquisition Fund.
© Simone Leigh. All rights reserved.

Wang Hui 王翚

Ten Thousand Miles along the Yangzi River

Qing dynasty, 1699
Ink and color on paper

Wang Hui was regarded as the finest landscape painter of his time and a favorite of the Kangxi emperor. The creation of this epic 53-foot-long scroll is considered his greatest artistic achievement. The MFA is renowned for its distinguished collection of Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368) masterpiece paintings. The addition of this later masterwork greatly advances the Museum’s collection of Qing dynasty paintings. This painting’s donor is Wan-go H. C. Weng, who, in late 2018, gave the renowned Weng Family Collection of painting and calligraphy to the MFA. Most of the works in the collection came down to Wan-go from his great-great-grandfather, Weng Tonghe, who considered this Wang Hui handscroll his most treasured painting.

Gift of the Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection and the Weng family, in honor of Weng Tonghe

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

Tribal Map

2000
Mixed media on canvas

The first in her series of works based on the map of the United States, this mixed-media painting by Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith interrogates the place, language, and power—political and intellectual—associated with names and naming. Featuring all the Native American tribes registered in the United States in the early 21st century, Tribal Map’s overlain cartography highlights the presence and present experiences of native peoples throughout the United States. The work is the third by the artist in the MFA’s holdings, joining two pastels.

Museum purchase with funds donated by Barbara L. and Theodore B. Alfond through the Acorn Foundation, Drs. Bruce K. and Shelly Eckman, The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, Gallery Instructor 50th Anniversary Fund, and The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund.
Reproduced with permission

Odilon Redon

L’Ange du Destin (The Angel of Destiny)

about 1899
Oil on canvas

Although a contemporary and colleague of the Impressionists, Odilon Redon found their observation of nature too limiting, preferring instead to create an art of mystery and evocation that touched on the realms of myth and dreams. L’Ange du Destin (The Angel of Destiny) depicts an enigmatic figure at once boldly present and immaterial. In Redon’s work, the naturalistic observation of local landscapes in 19th-century France, whether wild and tangled or lush and verdant, hits up against the stuff of dreams and nightmares. It is the first oil painting by Redon in the MFA’s collection.

Charles H. Bayley Fund

Jarlet

Vietnam, Le Dynasty, 16th–17th century
Stoneware with gray glaze; applied and carved decoration

This jarlet reflects a specific moment in Vietnam’s remarkable ceramics history, when, in the 16th century, Japan became a major market for trade in Vietnamese ceramics. Changing tastes in Japan had spurred the import of new types of tea ceramics, making objects such as this small jar with applied dragons highly desirable. John D. Constable, the donor of this work, was one of the most dedicated US collectors of Vietnamese ceramics. He first encountered them in 1967 when he visited Vietnam as part of a medical team assessing civilian causalities and the effects of Agent Orange. This is one of nearly 200 Vietnamese ceramics that Constable gave to the Museum.

Bequest of John D. Constable

Standing female figurine

Egyptian, Pre-Dynastic, Early Naqada 2, 3700–3450 BCE
Bone

More than 5,000 years old, this is the earliest naturalistic human figure in the MFA’s collection, making it a key element in the Museum’s ability to trace the development of depictions of the human form. Such ancient figures are exceedingly rare. With pendant breasts, a narrow waist, and a highlighted pubic area, this fertility figure either served as a temple offering or accompanied its owner in a grave to ensure rejuvenation in the afterlife.

Walter and Celia Gilbert Acquisition Fund for Ancient Egyptian Art

George Romney

Portrait of Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton

about 1784
Oil on canvas

This portrait of an 18th-century celebrity is a valuable addition to the MFA’s collection of works by English painter George Romney. The painting was first recorded in a letter from the sitter to the artist dated December 20, 1791, in which it is referred to as “the little picture with the black hat.” Emma Hart was mistress to Charles Greville—a friend and patron of Romney—and later to the renowned admiral and national hero Lord Horatio Nelson. In 1791 she married Sir William Hamilton, British envoy at Naples, and Greville’s uncle. Romney once described Hart, whom he painted more than twenty times, as “the divine lady . . . superior to all womankind” for her beauty and expressive ability.

Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Starfish brooch

Designed by Juliette Moutard for René Boivin
1937
18-karat gold, ruby, amethyst

The lifelike construction of this impressively sized brooch (4 x 4 ¼ inches) makes it a truly awe-inspiring piece. Drawn from Asterias vulgaris, a common sea star native to the North Atlantic, the brooch was crafted with dozens of sophisticated joints allowing for lifelike movement when it is held, legs flexing and draping like the marine creature it represents. Designed in 1935, the brooch’s fabrication was completed in 1937; American actress Claudette Colbert purchased it during a trip to Paris the following year.

Museum purchase with funds donated by the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Monica S. Sadler, Otis Norcross Fund, Helen and Alice Colburn Fund, the Curators Circle: Fashion Council, Nancy Adams and Scott Schoen, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, Theresa Baybutt, Emi M. and William G. Winterer, and Deborah Glasser

Centerpiece candelabrum

Designed by John Flaxman
Marked by Paul Storr
1816–19
Silver gilt

A masterpiece of English Regency silver, this is one of two candelabra designs commissioned for John Flaxman by royal goldsmiths Rundell and Bridge and made for the Prince Regent, later George IV. The royal versions are at Windsor; this version with twelve branches was purchased by Sir Richard Sutton of Narford Hall on his 21st birthday. On view in the Angelica Lloyd Russell Gallery, 142, the MFA’s candelabrum stands more than three feet tall. At the center, Mercury flies through grape vines to deliver the infant Bacchus into the arms of nymphs. The three nymphs stand on a columnar base supported by lions and massive scroll feet that were inspired by classical models.

Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously

Max Beckmann

Euretta Rathbone

1947
Oil on canvas

In 1937, faced with mounting threats from the Nazis—who considered his painting style “degenerate”—Max Beckmann fled Berlin for Amsterdam. During the decade he spent there, he was visited by Euretta Rathbone and her husband, Perry, then director of the City Art Museum of Saint Louis and future director of the MFA. By 1947, Beckmann had settled in St. Louis and was a frequent dinner guest at the Rathbone home. This was the first portrait Beckmann completed after immigrating to the United States.

Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously and partial gift of Eliza Euretta Rathbone.
© 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Bag

Unknown Haundenosaunee (Iroquois) artist
1800–30
Wool, silk, cotton, and glass beads

Made by an unknown Haundenosaunee (Iroquois) woman, this bag is an exceptional example of Native American adaptive artistry created when beadwork accessories were fashionable in the growing tourist trade at Niagara Falls and surrounding areas. The artist used glass beads on wool trade cloth to indicate Iroquois symbols. This piece is part of a collection of more than 140 examples of Haundenosaunee beadwork made as souvenir art in the 19th century acquired from Vermont artist-collectors Gerry Biron and JoAnne Russo. The artistic and historic importance of Native American souvenir art from the Northeast Woodlands is of growing interest to scholars, collectors, and museums.

John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, Mary S. and Edward J. Holmes Fund, Frank B. Bemis Fund, Arthur Tracy Cabot Fund, Helen and Alice Colburn Fund, Edwin E. Jack Fund, Frederick Brown Fund, Elizabeth M. and John F. Paramino Fund in memory of John F. Paramino, Boston Sculptor, Harriet Otis Cruft Fund, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, Helen B. Sweeney Fund, Susan Cornelia Warren Fund, Samuel Putnam Avery Fund, Alice M. Bartlett Fund, Jane Marsland and Judith A. Marsland Fund, and Mary E. Moore Gift

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Puns Just Like This: The Fifty-three Cats of the Ailurophile (Sono mama jiguchi: Myōkaikō gojūsan biki)

1847–52
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Vertical ōban triptych

Utagawa Kuniyoshi is well known as the greatest cat lover among ukiyo-e print designers, and this triptych is the ultimate example of Edo-period humor for fans of felines. A parody of the popular theme of the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road—the main highway between Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto—the print features silly puns for each of the 53 stations, plus the cities at either end, all acted out by cats: fat cats, skinny cats, good cats, naughty cats, mousers, kittens, magical cats, toy cats, and more.

Keith McLeod Fund

Charles Nègre

Chartres Cathedral: Porch of the South Transept

about 1857
Photogravure

The Museum is fortunate to have received Charles W. Millard III’s collection of early photography. A distinguished curator who worked at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and who was later director of the Ackland Art Museum at Chapel Hill, Millard placed his collection on long-term loan to the MFA thanks to his close friendship with Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Curator of Prints and Drawings Clifford Ackley. Highlights among the 292 photographs, illustrated books, and photomechanical prints are rare works by Édouard Baldus, André Giroux, and Frederick H. Evans, as well as this mammoth-scale photogravure of Chartres Cathedral by Charles Nègre.

Bequest of Charles W. Millard III