March 3 to May 21, 2018
Representing one of the most important donations ever made to a university gallery in Canada, A Cultivating Journey presents five centuries of magnificent art from the McMaster Museum of Art’s Levy Collection and Bequest from Herman Herzog Levy. This exhibition reflects the remarkable acumen of Levy as a collector and explores new scholarship and perspectives on the objects and the collector himself, demonstrating the continuing impact of one man ’s passion for art.
Works by renowned artists such as Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh reflect Levy’s personal taste and interests, which favoured Impressionist and Post - Impressionist landscapes, portraits and still lifes. He followed his donation of artwo rks with a substantial financial bequest specifically for art purchases, through which 219 acquisitions were made. The Levy Bequest made it possible to expand different aspects of the museum's collection and add historical, modern and contemporary works, including those by a range of French, British, Japanese, G erman and Netherlandish artists . Levy ’s collecting interests were broad as reflected in the group of Hiroshige prints, which are offset against masters such as Durer, van Leyden and drawings by Edgar Degas, Walter Sickert and other modernists.
Camille Pissarro, Pommiers en Fleur , 1870, oil on canvas, Gift of Gift of H. Herman Levy, McMaster Museum of Art
Workshop of Adriaen Brouwer The Drinker/The Bitter Draught c. 1635–38 oil on oak panel on oak cradle Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art Maximum
George Romney The Anatomy Lesson , c. 1775–76 oil on canvas Levy Bequest Purchase, 1994 McMaster Museum of Art
Émile Bernard Nature morte à la tasse et à la coupe de fruits [Still Life with Cup and Bowl of Fruit], 1887 oil on canvas Levy Bequest Purchase, 1993 McMaster Museum of Art
Chaïm Soutine Paysage à Céret , c. 1919 oil on canvas Levy Bequest Purchase, 1995 McMaster Museum of Art
Mary Beale Portrait of Charles Beale , c. 1660 oil on paper, later mounted to canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Sir Thomas Lawrence Portrait of William Esdaile , 1829–30 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Walter Richard Sickert Blue Corset , 1906 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Chaim Soutine Portrait of the Painter Richard X , c. 1916–1 7 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Gustave Courbet Environs d’Ornans [Landscape at Ornans], 18 74 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Vincent Van Gogh Untitled, Still Life: Ginger Pot and Onions, 1885 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art Maximum
Gustave Caillebotte Voiliers au mouillage sur la Seine, à Argenteuil [Sailboats at Anchor on the Seine at Argenteuil], 1883 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Claude Monet Waterloo Bridge, Effet de Soleil , 1903 oil on canvas Gift of Herman H. Levy McMaster Museum of Art
Joseph Mallord William Turner Boston in Lincolnshire , c. 1833 watercolour on paper Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992 McMaster Museum of Art
