100 Paintings From the Boston Museum
100 Paintings From the Boston Museum
Museum of Fine Arts | 1970 | ISBN: N/A | English | 158 pages | PDF | 12.6 MB
Museum collections are usually narratives writ large in the script of a strong personality, or group of such personalities acting together. This is particularly true of the Asiatic, Classical, Egyptian, and Textile collections in the Boston Museum. But no individuals dominate the history of the Department of Paintings. Nor do the merchant princes who enriched the public collections in New York, Chicago, and Cleveland. Rather, the collection has grown from the artistic heritage of Boston itself; the continuing generosity of a host of private collectors; the single forays of a particular and enthusiastic trustee, director, or curator; and the essential ingredient that must supplement the administration of any well-run museum—luck. The collection of paintings, one of the oldest in America, has been in the process of formation for one hundred years. It therefore reflects with singular accuracy the changing tastes of American society, and the individualism of Bostonians.