The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has acquired the painting “Man at His Bath,” 1884, regarded as one of the greatest works by artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848‱894). This canvas represents the first Impressionist nude to enter the museum’s collection. The almost life-size work, had been on loan at the MFA since April, and displayed in the Esther and Sidney Rabb Gallery for Impressionism until recently.
It will also be among more than 160 works in the upcoming exhibition, “Degas and the Nude,” on view at the MFA October 9⁆ebruary 5.
To purchase “Man at his Bath,” the MFA is deaccessioning eight, late-Nineteenth Century works from its European paintings collection, which will be sold at auction through Sotheby’s New York.
The paintings are: “View from the Artist’s Window,” Eragny, 1885, Camille Pissarro; “Overcast Day at Saint-Mammès,” about 1880, Alfred Sisley; “Gust of Wind,” 1899, Maxime Camille Louis Maufra; “Forest Interior (Sous-Bois),” 1884, Paul Gauguin; “The Fort of Antibes,” 1888, Claude Monet; “Bust Portrait of a Young Woman,” about 1890, Pierre-Auguste Renoir; “Saint-Mammès: Morning (Le Matin),” 1881, Alfred Sisley; and “Pearl Mosque, Delhi,” late 1880s, Vasily Vereshchagin.
The Vereshchagin will be sold November 1 and the seven French works will be in Sotheby’s November 2 sale.
Other funds for the purchase came from the Charles H. Bayley picture and painting fund; Edward Jackson Holmes fund; Fanny P. Mason fund in memory of Alice Thevin; Arthur Gordon Tompkins fund; gift of Mrs Samuel Parkman Oliver⁅liza R. Oliver fund; Sophie F. Friedman fund; Robert M. Rosenberg family fund; and the Mary L. Cornille and John F. Cogan, Jr. fund for the art of Europe.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is at 465 Huntington Avenue. For information, www.mfa.org or 617-267-9300.
