The Bruce Museum has announced the promised gift of a major collection of European and American art – from Winslow Homer to Childe Hassam to Edward Hopper – that will come as a bequest from an anonymous Greenwich couple. The private collection of 70 works, encompassing paintings, sculpture, watercolors, drawings, prints and photographs, will be the largest gift of art in the Bruce Museum’s 112-year history.
“This gift is unprecedented in its scale and quality, and these works will further define the New Bruce as a museum that explores global stories of Modern and Contemporary art,” said Robert Wolterstorff, the Bruce Museum’s Susan E. Lynch executive director and CEO. “We are profoundly grateful to the donors of these magnificent works, who have actively supported the Greenwich community for decades and now can be assured that their generosity will inspire and educate generations to come.”
Coming at a transformative moment for the museum, the announcement of the promised collection accompanies a substantial leadership grant the donors have made to the New Bruce building campaign. The $60 million renovation and expansion project will double the size of the existing building and create new, modern, spacious galleries for exhibitions and installations, as well as state-of-the art spaces for education and community events.
The New Bruce is scheduled to open in March 2023, with the addition of more than 12,000 square feet of gallery space in the William L. Richter Art Wing, including a 4,500-square-foot gallery for changing exhibitions and five new galleries for the growing permanent art collection. The museum’s curator of art, Margarita Karasoulas, who joined the Bruce in November after previously serving as assistant curator of American art at the Brooklyn Museum, will organize an installation of select loaned works from the gift to celebrate the grand opening of the New Bruce. At the time of the gift’s fulfillment, the works will be exhibited in a dedicated gallery in the museum’s Richter Art Wing.
Seen as a whole, the collection principally focuses on the European and American figural tradition from the 1870s to the 1990s, beginning with Winslow Homer’s watercolors “Boy on Dock” (1873) and “Fishergirls Coiling Tackle “(1881), the latter from his “Cullercoats” series, and ending with Andrew Wyeth’s watercolor “Cape May” (1992). Wyeth is also represented by two tempera paintings – “Sheepskin” (1973), from his “Helga” series, and “The Huntress” (1978), a light-filled interior depicting another model, Siri Erickson. These are complemented by watercolors and graphite drawings by the artist.
Among the other works in the collection is Edward Hopper’s “Two Comedians” (1966), the artist’s last creation, capturing the painter and wife Josephine dressed as clowns, or commedia dell’arte characters, on stage against a darkened backdrop. A second Hopper oil, “Bridle Path” (1939), shows a trio of riders in Central Park. Another highlight of the collection is Mary Cassatt’s “Two Little Sisters” (circa 1901-02), which is complemented by a group of Cassatt’s color etchings with aquatint. These are icons of graphic art, revolutionary works that translated the aesthetic of Japanese color prints into the Impressionist idiom.
Other French Impressionist works include Camille Pissarro’s “Le Marché de Gisors, Grande-Rue” (“The Market of Gisors, on the Grande-Rue”) (1885) and “Fenaison à Éragny” (“Haymaking at Éragny”) (1891), both created during the years when Pissarro was most influenced by the Pointillist technique of his friend Georges Seurat.
The collection is particularly strong in sculpture, including Alberto Giacometti’s “Femme Assise” (“Seated Woman”) (1956); several sculptures in various media by Elie Nadelman, including “Circus Performer “of painted wood (circa 1919); and bronzes by the American sculptor Harriet Frishmuth, including “The Star” (1918). Multiple bronzes by Henry Moore, covering a span of more than 30 years, include the early “Family Group” (1946). Together, they will place the Bruce Museum among the forefront of public collections in the United States of Moore’s work.
The promised gift’s other highlights feature oils and watercolors by Childe Hassam, including “Rainy Day on the Avenue” (1893) and “The White Dory” (1895); John Singer Sargent’s oil “Girl Fishing” (1913); a Joan Miró oil, “Femmes et Oiseau dans la Nuit” (Women and Bird in the Night”) (1946); an extremely rare Blue Period watercolor by Pablo Picasso, “Le Guitariste” (“Guitar Player” (1903); and a bold abstract watercolor by Wassily Kandinsky, “Rosa Rot” (“Rose Red” (1927).
“It is an extraordinarily rich collection that will transform the Bruce Museum, giving us a deep stake in European and American Impressionism, Modernism and Realism,” Wolterstorff said. “This visionary gift will make the Bruce a place to experience again and again. Works like these will become old friends that you seek out each time you visit. And they will become vital to our education and public programs. Great works of art such as these will change your life, the lives of your kids, the life of this community.”
“We have collected these artworks, simply because we think they are beautiful and we enjoy seeing them every day in our home,” the donors said. “We have lived in Greenwich a long time and what better place to share our collection with the community than the exciting New Bruce.”
Adds James B. Lockhart III, chair of the Bruce Museum Board of Trustees: “On behalf of my fellow trustees and all who love the Bruce Museum, I am sincerely humbled by the generosity, the foresight and altruism of this local family. The gift of this exceptional collection is truly a game-changer for the museum and our community. We also hope this couple’s commitment to the future of the Bruce will inspire others to endow the museum with their own philanthropic support and consider gifting works of art to the permanent collection.”
For more, visit brucemuseum.org.
