Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Over the course of some 3,000 years, Ancient Egypt fostered a vibrant and dynamic portrait tradition that encompassed innovations, revivals and renaissances. From imposing colossal statues of kings to glamorous sculptures of queens and divinities, to strikingly realistic heads of priests and officials, supremely accomplished artists brought their subjects to life—literally, as statues were places where the spirits of the dead could reside. Faces...

The collection of American pewter in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is listed here in its entirety. This catalogue is intended to serve as a record of the museum’s holdings for comparison with other pewter collections, both public and private. The finest examples of hollowware (pitchers, flagons, tankards, teapots, etc.) are illustrated. Examples of the same type are included in the checklist along with other pieces of little pictorial interest,...

A mother stitches a few lines of prayer into a bedcover for her son serving in the Union army during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved African American woman creates a quilt populated by Biblical figures alongside celestial events. A quilted Lady Liberty, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln mark the resignation of Richard Nixon. These are just a few of the diverse and sometimes hidden stories of the American experience told by quilts and bedcovers...

John Singer Sargent's approach to watercolor was unconventional. Disregarding contemporary aesthetic standards that called for carefully delineated and composed landscapes filled with transparent washes, his confidently bold, dense strokes, loosely defined forms, and unexpected vantage points startled critics and fellow practitioners alike. One reviewer of an exhibition in London proclaimed him "an eagle in a dove-cote"; another called his work "swagger"...

The extraordinary story of a woman who defied tradition, a painter whose work captivated Edgar Degas, and the only American asked to join the French Impressionists. Best remembered for her tender yet unsentimental depictions of mothers and children, Cassatt was also a driving force for women's suffrage and other issues of her day.