Fenimore Art Museum completes purchase and installation of 27 major works of art for its American art collection for $33.8 million

The group of new acquisitions includes oil paintings and pastels by American artists, including Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Singer Sargent and others.

COOPERSTOWN, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 10, 2024 / The Fenimore Art Museum announced that the purchase and installation of 27 major works of American art valued at $33.8 million has been completed. The final two works, both pastels, were recently installed. The Bell Tower of Lido (1879) by James McNeill Whistler and Still life with fruit, vase and cup (1910) by Max Weber can be seen until December 29, 2024 as part of the exhibition American Masterpieces. The purchase of these works was generously funded by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

In the past nine months, 25 oils and two pastels have been added to the Fenimore Collection of American Art. The group includes works by Albert Bierstadt, Theodore Earl Butler, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Frederic Edwin Church, Samuel Colman, Frederick Carl Frieseke, William Glackens, Childe Hassam, Martin Johnson Heade, Robert Henri, George Inness, David Johnson, Eastman Johnson, Joshua Johnson, Ernest Lawson, Thomas Moran, Georgia O’Keeffe, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, Joan Sloan, Max Weber and James McNeill Whistler. The acquisitions underscore the museum’s efforts to expand its already significant collection. This group expands the scope to include major works created from the 1850s to about 1930, allowing the museum to tell the story of American art and culture as it evolved after the Civil War.

“With the addition of these new acquisitions, Fenimore now presents a comprehensive collection of American art representing a group of artists considered masters,” said Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio, president and CEO of the Fenimore Art Museum. “The new works build on the early and mid-19th century works left to the museum by our original benefactor, Stephen C. Clark. Similarly, we continue the legacy of the generous gift of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art given to us by the Thaws in 1995 and housed in a new wing funded by Clark’s granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark.”

All new acquisitions can currently be viewed at the museum exhibition. American Masterpieces.

In 2025, the Fenimore Art Museum will present an exhibition Mary Cassatt / Berthe Morisot: Allies in Impressionism (24 May – 1 September 2025) presenting one of the museum’s new acquisitions, a painting Madame de Fleury and her child (c. 1890-1891) by Mary Cassatt. The exhibition explores the relationship between Cassatt and Berthe Morisot and how they both moved within the male-dominated Impressionist circle in Paris.

More information about American MasterpiecesVisit FenimoreArt.org.

ABOUT THE FENIMORE ART MUSEUM

The Fenimore Art Museum, located in historic Cooperstown, New York, presents changing exhibitions each season. The museum houses an extensive collection of American art, including folk art; important American landscape, genre, and portrait paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries; and the noted Eugene and Clare Thaw collection of Native American art.

Contact Information

Todd Kenyon
Marketing and Communications Director
[email protected]
607-547-1472

SOURCE: Fenimore Art Museum

The original press release can be read at newswire.com.