Eva Klabin Foundation - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Eva Klabin Foundation (in Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

, Fundação Eva Klabin) is an art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It is a private institution established in 1990 by the Brazilian collector and philanthropist Eva Klabin (1903–1991), with the purpose of preserving and displaying the art collection gathered together during her life. The collection is open to the public in the house where Klabin lived for over thirty years. It is considered one of the largest classical art collections in Brazilian museums, with over 2000 works spanning almost 5000 years, from Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

to Impressionism

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

Eva Klabin

Eva Klabin, born in São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

in 1903, was the eldest daughter of the Lithuanian immigrants Fanny and Hessel Klabin. Her father was one of the founders of Klabin
Klabin
Klabin is the biggest paper producer, exporter and recycler in Brazil. It is the leading manufacturer of packaging paper and board, corrugated boxes, industrial sacks and timber in logs. It has 17 industrial plants in Brazil and one in Argentina...

, one of the leading paper industries of the country. In her teenage years, she lived in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

with her family. After the World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

erupted, they were forced to move to Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, where Eva attended a school in Neuchâtel. The family returned to Brazil in 1919, but Eva went back to Germany in 1922, escorting her mother, who underwent treatments for her health. Three years after her mother's death in 1926, Eva embarked to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

to complete her studies. There, she attended the New York School of Secretaries and did voice over for a Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

movie called Anybody's Woman.

After returning to São Paulo, she married, in 1933, the Austrian-born Brazilian lawyer and journalist Paulo Rapaport and moved with him to Rio de Janeiro. In 1952, they bought the house where both would live for the rest of their lives, one of the first houses built around the newly-urbanized Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, mostly known as "Lagoa", is a lagoon and district in the Lagoa, Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro. The lagoon is connected to the Atlantic, allowing sea water to enter, by a canal which is bordered by the park locally known as Jardim de Alá.The lagoon is surrounded by the...

. There, Eva started collecting artworks, sometimes relying on her husband support to acquire some objects. After Paulo's death in 1957, Eva wouldn't marry again. Childless, she devoted herself almost exclusively to the habit of collecting, making frequent travels to Europe to acquire new items.

In the 1960s, with the growing of the collection, Eva decided to renovate and expand her house, while maintaining its original style. She would later become a prominent figure of Brazilian cultural and political life, as also a leading hostess in Rio de Janeiro, offering gala dinners to important guests, such as Harry Oppenheimer

Harry Oppenheimer

Harry Frederick Oppenheimer was a prominent South African businessman and one of the world's richest men...

, Juscelino Kubitschek, David Rockefeller

David Rockefeller

David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...

, Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel

Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...

, Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger

Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...

and Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres

GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...

. After the fire which destroyed 70% of the collection of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art in 1978, shocking the Brazilian artistic community, Eva started worrying about the future of her collection. She decided to hire experts to draw up an inventory of her holdings and conduct researches on individual itens. Following the steps of her sister, Ema Gordon Klabin, who had established the Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation

Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation

The Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation is an art museum located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Officially established in 1978, it is a not-for-profit private institution, legally declared as an organization of federal public interest...

in the same year that the fire happened, Eva started taking the legal measures required to establish her own foundation. Eva passed away in 1991, one year after the foundation was established.

The Foundation

Idealized in the 1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

and legally in established in 1990, the Eva Klabin Foundation was officially open for public visitation by Francisco Weffort, Brazil's Minister of Culture at that time, on August 22, 1995. Besides preserving and displaying the collection, the foundation has also the mission of organizing cultural, artistic, historical and scientific activities, such as temporary exhibitions

Exhibition

An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within museums, galleries and exhibition halls, and World's Fairs...

, concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

s, course

Course

Course can refer to:* Course , the path of travel* Course , the principal sail on a mast of a sailing vessel* Course , in the United States, a unit of instruction in one subject, lasting one academic term...

s and conferences

Meeting

In a meeting, two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal setting.- Definitions :An act or process of coming together as an assembly for a common purpose....

. It also has an editorial department devoted to publishing works on the collection. The institution falls into the typology of "house-museum", where artworks are permanently arragend throughout the rooms according to Eva's wish and taste.

The house

The house is located on the banks of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas

, in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. It was built in 1931, in Norman style

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

, which was very much in fashion at the time. In 1952, the Roman architect Gaetano Minnucci was commissioned by Eva and her husband to renovate the house, which gained palatial facades and interiors in classic spirit. The house was expanded in the 1960s

1960s

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

to accommodate the growing collection. The items are arranged throughout nine main rooms, which were named by Eva: Main Hall, Renaissance Room, English Room, Dining Room, Chinese Room, Upper Hall, Green Room, Boudoir and Bedroom.

The yard was projected by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx

Roberto Burle Marx

Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil...

and is very representative of his taste for bright colors and appreciation of tropical plant life.

The collection

The Eva Klabin Foundation collection is one of the most important classic art collections in Brazilian museums. It comprises over 2000 itens from Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

and the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, spanning a time-frame of almost 5000 years. The collection features painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

s, sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

s, antiquities

Antiquities

Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...

, furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

, oriental rugs, silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

ware and decorative objets d’art.

Egyptian collection

The Egyptian collection

Art of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic...

consists of about fifty itens, including some objects which stand out in the context of Brazilian museums, due to their quality and rarity. Since these objects are not related to official archeological excavations, their exact place of origin remains largely unknown. The collection includes a number of large pharaonic statuary, in which a head of a Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...

in a nemes headdress

Headgear

Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head.Headgear serve a variety of purposes:...

is the centerpiece. Among the funerary itens

Funerary art

Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. Tomb is a general term for the repository, while grave goods are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside...

, there is a coffin mask with encrusted glass eyes dating back to the 17th Dynasty

Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period. The Seventeenth Dynasty dates approximately from 1580 to 1550 BC.-Rulers:...

, and other pieces which reflect the importance of animals in Egyptian rituals, such as a coffin of a mummified cat

Animal mummies

Animal mummies were started by Egyptians. They mummified various animals. an enormous part of Egyptian culture, not only in their role as food and pets, but also for religious reasons...

from the Ptolemaic period. The collection also includes reliefs and fragments of architectural decoration, such as a prominent temple bas-relief of a goddess with the body of a woman and the head of a lioness, dating back to the 3rd Intermediate Period

Third Intermediate Period of Egypt

The Third Intermediate Period refers to the time in Ancient Egypt from the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1070 BC to the foundation of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I in 664 BC, following the expulsion of the Nubian rulers of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty....

Greco-Roman collection

Among the highlights of the Greco-Roman

Greco-Roman world

The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman , when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries that culturally were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture,...

collection is a marble head of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

, fragment of a larger statue coming from Magna Graecia

Magna Graecia

Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...

and dating back to 3rd-1st century BC, and a woman’s torso in pentelic marble, from the classic Athenian period

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

. The collection also includes an important group of 24 Tanagras

Tanagra figurine

The Tanagra figurines were a mold-cast type of Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BCE, primarily in the Boeotian town of Tanagra. They were coated with a liquid white slip before firing and were sometimes painted afterwards in naturalistic tints with watercolors, such...

(terracotta figurines) dating back to the 4th century BC, and an assemblage of 58 ancient glass

Roman glass

Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass production developed from Hellenistic technical traditions,...

flasks and small vases provenient from the Mediterranean Basin

Mediterranean Basin

In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...

, under the rule of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. It also comprises red

Red-figure pottery

Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 530 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC. It replaced the previously dominant style of Black-figure vase painting within a few decades...

and black pottery

Black-figure pottery

Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the most modern styles for adorning antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC...

vases, an Attic

Attica

Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...

krater

Krater

A krater was a large vase used to mix wine and water in Ancient Greece.-Form and function:...

from the Classic Period and two Italiote

Italiotes

The Italiotes were the pre-Roman Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Italian Peninsula, between Naples and Sicily.Greek colonization of the coastal areas of southern Italy and Sicily started in the 8th century BC and, by the time of Roman ascendance, the area was so extensively hellenized that...

vases from Apulia

Apulia

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...

and Magna Graecia.

Italian collection

The Italian collection is noted for its emphasis in the Renaissance art. Outstanding among the paintings are the panels by Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia

Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia

Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia was an Italian painter.-Biography:Piermatteo was born at Amelia, in Umbria.He is first recorded as being part of the circle of Filippo Lippi, active between 1467 and 1469, working on the decoration of the Spoleto Cathedral...

and Sano di Pietro

Sano di Pietro

Sano di Pietro was an early Italian Renaissance painter and miniaturist from Siena.No works by Sano are known before 1443; he apprenticed under Sassetta and Giovanni di Paolo...

. There are several examples of Madonnas

Madonna (art)

Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...

by Sienese

Sienese School

The Sienese School of painting flourished in Siena, Italy between the 13th and 15th centuries and for a time rivaled Florence, though it was more conservative, being inclined towards the decorative beauty and elegant grace of late Gothic art...

, Florentine

Florentine School

The Florentine School refers to artists in, from or influenced by the naturalistic style developed in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of the world...

and Lombardian

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

schools, including works attributed to Sandro Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...

, Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori , his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci,...

and Antoniazzo Romano

Antoniazzo Romano

Antoniazzo Romano, born Antonio di Benedetto Aquilo degli Aquili was an Italian Early Renaissance painter, the leading figure of the Roman school during the 15th century.-Biography:...

. The large Portrait of Nicolaus Padavinus by Jacopo Tintoretto is the most important canvas in the collection. There are also works by Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi was a prominent and prolific Italian Baroque painter born and active mainly in Genoa, and also active in Venice.-Biography:Strozzi was born in Genoa. He was probably not related to the other Strozzi family....

, Guercino and Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli was an Italian painter of the Baroque.Romanelli was an Italian painter of the seventeenth century and trained in Rome in the studio of Pietro da Cortona, the leading painter of the time....

, epitomizing the Baroque

Italian Baroque

Italian Baroque is a term referring to a stylistic period in Italian history and art which spanned from the late 16th century to the early 18th century.-History:...

.

The Florentine school outstands among the sculptures

Sculpture of Italy

Sculpture of Italy refers to the plastic arts, sculpture and statues in Italy.-Etruscan sculpture:The sculptures are mainly Etruscan terra-cotta or bronze.They modeled the figures of the dead, who appeared lying on the sarcophagus....

: a Madonna by Benedetto da Maiano

Benedetto da Maiano

Benedetto da Maiano was an Italian sculptor of the early Renaissance.Born in the village of Maiano , he started his career as companion of his brother, the architect Giuliano da Maiano. When he reached the age of thirty he started training under the sculptor Antonio Rossellino...

, with a glazed ceramic frame by Andrea della Robbia

Andrea della Robbia

Andrea della Robbia was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, especially in ceramics. He was the son of Marco della Robbia. Andrea della Robbia's uncle, Luca della Robbia, popularized the use of glazed terra-cotta for sculpture...

, a pair of angels by Luca della Robbia

Luca della Robbia

Luca della Robbia was an Italian sculptor from Florence, noted for his terra-cotta roundels.Luca Della Robbia developed a pottery glaze that made his creations more durable in the outdoors and thus suitable for use on the exterior of buildings. His work is noted for its charm rather than the drama...

, Madonna with Swaddled Child by Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

, another Madonna by the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti , born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking.-Early life:...

are the main highlights, along with Mars, a bronze sculpture attributed to Giambologna

Giambologna

Giambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, incorrectly known as Giovanni da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna , was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.- Biography :...

. The collection also includes decorative objects, majolica

Maiolica

Maiolica is Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. It is decorated in bright colours on a white background, frequently depicting historical and legendary scenes.-Name:...

plates and several examples of Renaissance furniture

Furniture

French collection

The French collection is composed by paintings, sculptures, drawings and decorative objects ranging from Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

to the beginning of the 20th century. Outstanding among the paintings are a portrait attributed to François Clouet

François Clouet

François Clouet , son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family.-Historical references:Clouet was born in Tours....

, a mythological scene by Louis Silvestre, two small landscapes by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, a winter landscape by Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...

and head of a woman by Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. -Biography:Laurencin was born in Paris, where she was raised by her mother and lived much of her life. At 18, she studied porcelain painting in Sèvres...

. From the Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

style, there's a drawing by Honoré Fragonard

Honoré Fragonard

Honoré Fragonard was a French anatomist, now remembered primarily for his remarkable collection of écorchés in the Musée Fragonard d'Alfort....

, entitled Le Petit Gourmand.

Among the sculptures, the museum holds a very nice example of medieval stone statuary, Head a Noblewoman. The Renaissance French statuary is represented by a number of wooden carvings

Wood carving

Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...

by anonymous masters. Two small terracotta fauns attributed to Clodion represents the Rococo trend. The collection of decorative arts includes late Gothic furniture, an assemblage of enameled Limoges plaques

Limoges enamel

Limoges enamel was produced at Limoges, France, already the most famous, but not the most high quality, European center of vitreous enamel production by the 12th century; its works were known as Opus de Limogia or Labor Limogiae...

by Léonard Limosin, porcelain

French porcelain

French porcelain has a history spanning a period from the 17th century to the present.-Soft-paste blue-and-white porcelain:Chinese porcelain had long been imported from China, and was a very expensive and desired luxury...

objets, Sèvres

Sèvres

Sèvres is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.The town is known for its porcelain manufacture, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, making the famous Sèvres porcelain, as well as being the location of the International Bureau of Weights...

and Limoges

Limoges

Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....

dinner sets, Baccarat

Baccarat (company)

Baccarat Crystal is a manufacturer of fine crystal glassware located in Baccarat, France. The company owns two museums: the Musée Baccarat in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Galerie-Musée Baccarat, on the Place des États-Unis in Paris...

crystal, etc.

Flemish and Dutch collection

The museum holds a small group of Early Netherlandish painting

Early Netherlandish painting

Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...

s, including works by Adriaen Isenbrandt (Madonna and Child in a landscape), Jan Provost (Madonna and Child with two angels) and a Madonna attributed to Mabuse. Most part of the paintings in the collection, however, are by 17th century Flemish and Dutch masters. The Dutch School

Dutch School

Dutch School may refer to:*Dutch School *Dutch School...

is represented by landscapes

Landscape art

Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

, portraits

Portrait painting

Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...

and still life

Still life

A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

s by artists as Govaert Flinck, Gerard ter Borch

Gerard ter Borch

Gerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....

, Hercules Seghers

Hercules Seghers

Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers or Segers was a Dutch painter and printmaker of the Dutch Golden Age. Segers is in fact the more common form in contemporary documents, and was used by the painter himself...

, Philips Wouwerman, Pieter Steenwyck and Guillaume Dubois

Guillaume Dubois

Guillaume Dubois was a French cardinal and statesman.-Early years:Dubois, the third of the four great Cardinal-Ministers , was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in Limousin...

, besides miniatures by Jan Glauber and prints by Rembrandt. The Flemish school is represented by landscapes of Hermann Naiwinx

Hermann Naiwinx

Hermann Naiwinx was a Flemish engraver and printmaker.-External links :*...

and Jodocus de Momper and a mythological scene by Hendrick van Balen

Hendrick van Balen

Hendrik van Balen was a Flemish Baroque painter.-Biography:Van Balen was born and died in Antwerp. He was a pupil of Adam van Noort and studied art while traveling in Italy...

English collection

Aside from the Portrait of Lady Jane Grey, painted in Mannerist style

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

and dated 1553, the English painting collection consists of 18th century portraits. One of the highlights of is the study for the Portrait of Lady Caroline by Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

, whose final version is displayed at the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...

in Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

. Also important is the Portrait of Mrs. Williams as Saint Cecilia by Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence may refer to:*Sir Thomas Lawrence, British artist, President of Royal Academy*Thomas Lawrence , mayor of colonial Philadelphia*T. E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia"*Thomas Lawrence , U.S. politician...

. The collection also includes Portrait of a Man and a Landscape by Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...

, Portrait of Mr. Hylar by Lemuel Francis Abbott

Lemuel Francis Abbott

Lemuel "Francis" Abbot was an English portrait painter, famous for his likeness of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson and for those of other naval officers and literary figures of the 18th century.-Life and work:He was born Lemuel Abbott in Leicestershire in 1760 or 1761,...

, Portrait of Mr. Critchley by George Romney

George Romney (painter)

George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson....

and Portrait of a Young Lady by John Hoppner

John Hoppner

John Hoppner was an English portrait painter, .-Early life:Hoppner was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of German parents - his mother was one of the German attendants at the royal palace. King George's fatherly interest and patronage of the young boy gave rise to rumours, quite unfounded,...

.

The decorative arts segment includes an important assemblage of silverware

Silver (household)

Household silver or silverware includes dishware, cutlery and other household items made of sterling, Britannia or Sheffield plate silver. The term is often extended to items made of stainless steel...

dating back to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, bearing hallmarks of the leading silversmiths of each period, as well as a number of 17th and 18th furniture itens.

Oriental collection

The oriental collection includes objects from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Burma, Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, ranging from the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

through to the 20th century. The Chinese segment is the most strongly represented. It includes libation

Libation

A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit or in memory of those who have died. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in various cultures today....

chalices and a Kuei ritual vase, dating back to the Shang Dynasty

Shang Dynasty

The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...

, as well as bronze ritual vases, bells and a mirror of the Zhou Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...

. The terracota itens produced during the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

are particularly notable: statuettes representing animals, Court ladies, dignitaries, flute-players, etc. The collection also includes wooden sculptures of Buddhist divinities, like the Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

s, dating back to the Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

. Two large scale statues outstand in the collection: a wooden figure of Guan Yin (Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

) and a metal Worshiping Buddha, produced in Thailand

Thailand

in the early 19th century. Among the other objects, there are pottery vases from the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

, scroll

Scroll

A scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...

s of painted silk on rice-paper, pottery, ceramics, porcelain and lacquer, statuetes of Indian deities, etc.

Pre-Columbian collection

The Pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian art

Pre-Columbian art is the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas until the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and the time period marked by Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas....

collection is mainly composed by objects produced by civilizations living in present day Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, mainly the Nazca

Nazca culture

The Nazca culture was the archaeological culture that flourished from 100 to 800 CE beside the dry southern coast of Peru in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley...

and the Chimú

Chimú Culture

The Chimú were the residents of Chimor, with its capital at the city of Chan Chan, a large adobe city in the Moche Valley of present-day Trujillo, Peru. The culture arose about 900 AD. The Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui led a campaign which conquered the Chimú around 1470 AD,.This was just fifty...

. From Nazca, it conserves anthropomorphic

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

polychrome pottery vases decorated with fantastic animals, as well as fragments of wool and cotton fabric. From Chimu, it includes modeled pottery, such as water-canteens, twinned bottles and whistling vases.

The collection also holds vases from the Yanpara (1470–1538), Lambayeque

Sican Culture

The Sican culture is the name that archaeologist Izumi Shimada gave to the culture that inhabited what is now the north coast of Peru between about AD 750 and 1375. According to Shimada, Sican means "temple of the moon". The Sican culture is also referred to as Lambayeque culture, after the name...

, and Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...

(1000–1200) civilizations of present day Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, as well as four Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

statuettes representing warriors and human figures of unidentified origin. Quero-type wooden vases, a small bone scale, and fragments of cotton and woolen fabrics complete the collection.