We don’t do anything alone.
Our first floor galleries in the Art of the Americas Wing — home of art from the long 18th century — are currently under construction as we install eight newly reenvisioned spaces. To make these visions a reality, we rely on the talents and skills of conservators, registrars, designers, carpenters, art installers, and more. Come see the results of this teamwork starting on June 19th!
#teamworkmakesthedreamwork
New ✨frame✨ acquisition!
Frames were important to modernist painter Harold Weston, who designed and hand carved his own. The MFA’s Weston landscape, “Wilderness-Marcy, Dvorak New World Symphony, Largo” no longer has its original frame, but the design survives in the archives of the Harold Weston Foundation. A gift from the Foundation, this stunning reproduction frame was hand carved by Jared Tuveson of Tuveson Studios, a frame conservator and craftsman working in Maine.
See “Wilderness-Marcy” transformed, on view in Gallery 334 @mfaboston !
🎬Please consider joining us on Sunday, September 28th at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (@mfaboston@americasmfa ) for a viewing of the Oscar-nominated “Sugarcane”. Link to the event is in our bio.
📣Win a free ticket to the film screening by commenting “#Sugarcane” on this post.
**Tickets are limited and will be given in a first come first serve basis**
🟠With Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Sept. 30th) soon upon us, we hope you will find time to honour the children who never returned home as well as the Survivors of residential schools as well as their families and communities.
🔍This powerful film investigates the historical and ongoing abuse at an Indian residential school and its connection to a nearby reserve, exploring the community’s journey to uncover the truth about the past and address its impact.
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🎬Rejoignez-nous le dimanche 28 septembre au Musée des beaux-arts de Boston (@mfaboston@americasmfa ) pour une projection du film « Sugarcane », nominé aux Oscars. Le lien vers l’événement se trouve dans notre bio.
📣Gagnez une entrée gratuite pour la projection du film en commentant « #Sugarcane » sur cette publication.
**Les billets sont limités et seront attribués selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi.**
🟠À l’approche de la Journée nationale de la vérité et de la réconciliation au Canada (le 30 septembre), nous espérons que vous trouverez le temps d’honorer les enfants qui ne sont jamais rentrés chez eux, ainsi que les survivants des pensionnats indiens, leurs familles et leurs communautés.
🔍Ce film poignant enquête sur les abus historiques et actuels commis dans un pensionnat indien et leur lien avec une réserve voisine, explorant le parcours de la communauté pour découvrir la vérité sur le passé et en traiter les conséquences.
A recap about last night’s conversation between @mfateens and @americasmfa ! Teen Arts Council spoke with a panel of curators to provide our insights on the major reinstallation of the 18th-century Art of the Americas galleries, set to reopen in 2026 for “America at 250.” This project is a reimagining of eight galleries exploring themes including History and Myth, Boston’s World, Home and Families, John Singleton Copley, Communities of Makers, Asian Influences in the Americas, Power and Resistance, and Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, and Maté. Stay tuned for more information on the project!
Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico from 1864 until his execution in 1867, was famously vain about his lush blond beard, meticulously groomed and parted in the middle. Sebastián Navalón, professor of engraving at the Academy of San Carlos, carefully rendered the beard in his design for imperial medals and coins. Maximilian’s thick waves of facial hair are set against his smooth face and neck. In a rejection of tyranny, the government eliminated images of leaders from Mexican coins in 1824. The reintroduction of this portrait in 1866 was controversial—it heightened tensions between Maximilian’s loyal imperialistas and the republican supporters of Benito Juárez (Zapotec), who continued to mint their own coins.
See this rare coin on view now as part of “Imagining an Execution: Maximilian and the End of an Empire in the Americas” Gallery 232 @mfaboston !
“Maximiliano Emperador,” 1866
Silver
Bequest of Miss Rebecca Salisbury, 1992 92.747
A group of people raise their arms as they dance, welcoming the umiak vessels that approach the mountainous shore. On the other side, four caribou trot across the long, narrow surface of this walrus ivory as though traversing a snowy landscape. The cinematic quality of these scenes echo the movement of the bow drill handle on which they are engraved—such tools are rapidly moved back and forth in order to drill holes or start fire.
Iñupiaq artist once known
Bow-drill handle, about 1825–75
Walrus ivory, pigment
Museum purchase with funds donated by Independence Investment Associates, Inc., 1993 1993.3.
ON VIEW
Native North American Art Gallery (Gallery LG34)
At daybreak on June 19, 1867, gunshots exploded from the hills of Querétaro, Mexico. Ferdinand Maximilian of Habsburg, the Austrian archduke installed as emperor after the French invaded Mexico in the early 1860s, was executed alongside his generals, Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía (Otomi). Having regained control, liberal president Benito Juarez (Zapotec) was determined to publically end the foreign threat and restore the Republic. Following a long history of Aztec rulers, Spanish colonizers, revolutionaries, and conservative stalwarts, Emperor Maximilian became Mexico’s last monarch.
In this work—the only known Mexican painting of the event—Mejía, Miramón, and Maximilian stand before a brick wall that evokes the rounded shape of tombstones. Behind the neat row of firing squad soldiers and their commanding officers, a sea of sombreros, top hats, and military caps shows the diverse witnesses to the execution. The composition, in which bodies seem to multiply across the canvas, is based on earlier images that were multiplied and circulated. It is likely copied from a photograph of a different painting, which itself was probably constructed from other photographs and popular prints.
A generous loan from our friends @philamuseum , “The Execution of Maximilian” by a 19th century Mexican artist is now on view as part of the small-but-mighty installation, “Imagining an Execution: Maximilian and the End of an Empire in the Americas.”
Artist Once Known (Mexican, 19th century)
“The Execution of Maximilian,” after 1867
Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950-134-827
David Gilmour Blythe never saw Libby Prison — he created this hellish vision of the Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia based on newspaper reports. Shadowy corners and hunched, overlapping bodies suggest the crowding, squalor, and hunger that plagued Union prisoners of war. The dire conditions— of both the men and the nation — are also expressed through the officers’ uniforms. Once dressed in heroic regalia, they now wear tatters and bandages.
David Gilmour Blythe
American, 1815-1865
“Libby Prison,” 1863
Oil on canvas
Bequest of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815-1865, 1948 48.414
Meet Battleship Kate! ⚓️
A cheap reproduction of Hiram Powers’s famous marble sculpture, “The Greek Slave,” this figure originally served as a retail marketing tool, modeling medical braces and compression garments. In the 1930s, she was repurposed and reimagined by tattoo artist August “Cap” Coleman, who covered the figure from neck to toe with his designs and renamed her “Battleship Kate of Sands Street.” Now recognized as one of the most influential tattoo artists in U.S. history, Coleman displayed the figure in his shop window in Norfolk, Virginia to advertise his skills.
The name “Battleship Kate” would have been familiar to Coleman’s clientele, as it was the nickname of a notorious tattooed sex worker and con artist named Marion Reiss, who swindled sailors and others who frequented Sands Street in Brooklyn in the 1910s and 20s. This figure brings together fine art, popular culture, and the marketplace. Her tattoos include patriotic American icons such as flags, eagles and anchors, as well as Japanese or Chinese-inspired dragons, and cartoon and advertising culture, including Popeye the Sailor Man on her left arm and the athletic female diver on her left shin.
Frank B. Bemis Fund, Morris and Louise Rosenthal Fund, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, Robert M. Rosenberg Family Fund, Susan Cornelia Warren Fund, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, and partial gift of Derin Bray, 2020 2020.263
…not just flowers. Get close to the mother of modernism this Saturday with a brand new doc, GEORGIA O’KEEFFE: THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT.
Tickets: mfa.org/film
