Rarely seen outside of Los Angeles, 46 paintings and works on paper from the renowned collection of the Hammer Museum at UCLA will tour to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from October 15, 2023, through January 21, 2024. Major works of art from across four centuries will be presented in Rembrandt to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the Armand Hammer Collection. The exhibition reflects the collecting interests of the L.A. museum’s founder, collector Armand Hammer, through outstanding examples of European art dating from the Renaissance to the early 20th century, with additional important works by American artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Armand Hammer had a fascinating career as a businessman and art collector that spanned most of the 20th century,” commented Gary Tinterow, Director, the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “The museum he founded in Los Angeles boasts some of the most important European and American paintings among all the museums in the country. We are pleased to present to our audiences the highlights of that collection, shown together outside Los Angeles for the very first time in this century.” The collection assembled by Armand Hammer (1898–1990) provides a remarkable survey of European and American art. Highlights from the exhibition include:
Titian Portrait of a Man in Armor (c. 1530), a remarkable portrayal by the leading painter of 16th-century Venice, epitomizing Titian’s gift for capturing not only the essence of a sitter’s personality but the sumptuous textures of garments and ornament.
Rembrandt van Rijn Juno (c. 1662–65), the most commanding of a group of female subjects that Rembrandt undertook in his later years, this imposing portrait of Juno, the wife of Jupiter, who is associated with marriage and wealth, is accompanied by a second Rembrandt portrait.
19th-Century French Barbizon School, Symbolist, and Realist Painting Works by luminaries of 19th-century French painting, including Jean Millet, founder of the Barbizon School and chronicler of rural life; Camille Corot, whose poetic, hazy landscapes of light and water convey his nostalgic impressions of favorite sites in Italy and France; Gustave Moreau, known for his meticulously painted, mystical fantasies; and Honoré Daumier, famed for his caustic social critiques caricaturing all levels of French society.
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting Paintings and works on paper by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all feature in this section of the exhibition, as well as three works by Vincent van Gogh,
Hospital at Saint Remy, 1889, Hammer Museum collection
including his iconic 1889 view, through a stand of pine trees, of the hospital at Saint-Rémy, where he painted some of his greatest and best-known works.
18th- and 19th-Century American Painting Portraits by essential figures in the history of American art, including Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Eakins, will also travel to Houston.
