Benjamin Champney (1817–1907, United States), “Peace and Harmony, Mount Washington from the Intervale, North Conway,” 1865, oil on canvas; Peabody Essex Museum, the Sheila W. and Samuel M. Robbins Collection. © 2016 Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Kathy Tarantola.

SALEM, MASS. — The Peabody Essex Museum has long benefited from the generosity of longtime art collectors Sam and Sheila Robbins of Newton, Mass., who have already gifted 70 artworks from their collection to the museum.

E. Ambrose Webster (1869-1935, United States), “Webster House, Provincetown,” 1931, oil on board; Peabody Essex Museum, the Sheila W. and Samuel M. Robbins Collection. © 2016 Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Kathy Tarantola.

Breaking the news, the Boston Globe reported this week that the couple have promised the balance of their collection, which numbers 1,000 artworks, to the museum as a bequest.

The couple has spent 60 years collecting a vast trove of paintings, seeking out talented and often overlooked artists with strong connections to the White Mountains and New England — landscape and still life painters, women artists, modernists, according to a museum spokesperson.

An installation of 14 works from the Robbins Collection goes on view in the museum’s American Art Galleries this week.

Peabody Essex is at East India Square. For more information, 978-745-9500 or www.pem.org.

–Andrea Valluzzo