: The Harvard University Art Museum's collection of American art is
among the most distinguished and yet least known in the United
States. In an effort to share many of these gems with the public,
an exhibition of 64 paintings and sculptures, "Harvard Collects
American Art," will be presented at the Fogg Art Museum through
February 22.
"Harvard Collects American Art," though drawn primarily from the
Fogg's permanent collection, will include a few important loans
of works by Hans Hofmann, Richard Pousette-Dart and Lee Krasner.
The exhibition will highlight key events in the Fogg's history of
collecting American art and will feature Albert Bierstadt's
"Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak," 1863, given by Mrs William
Hayes Fogg, whose bequest of funds founded the Fogg Art Museum in
1895.
"[The exhibit] offers an extraordinary opportunity to examine a
significant selection from our rich collection of American art,"
said Marjorie Cohn, acting director of the museums. "Treasures
such as Copley's portraits of Mrs Thomas Boylston, Sr, and her
son Nicholas Boylston; Homer's 'Pitching Quoits and The Brush
Harrow'; Sargent's 'Man in a Blue Mantle'; a 'No. 2' by Jackson
Pollock are rarely grouped together for all to enjoy."
The university has been collecting portraits of its presidents,
preeminent teachers and other notables since the early Eighteenth
Century. From its early years to the present the Fogg acquired
American art, occasionally making farsighted purchases (Charles
Sheeler's "Upper Deck," 1929, was bought in 1933), but more often
relying on the generous gifts of alumni and other friends.
By far the greatest gift of art in the university's history came
from Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886, who in 1943 left the
museum more than 3,700 works of Asian, American and European art.
Among the 260 American objects were some 45 paintings, drawings
and pastels by James McNeill Whistler, as well as groups of works
by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and John La Farge, several
of which will be on view in this exhibition.
The exhibition coincides with work on the first volume of a
three-volume scholarly catalog of Harvard's American art
collection, including paintings, watercolors, pastels and stained
glass. The hardcover catalog, to be published in 2006, is funded
by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located
at 32 Quincy Street. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located next
door at 485 Broadway. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 am to
5 pm, Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. Admission is $6.50. For information,
617-495-9400 or artmuseums.Harvard.edu.
