The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, commonly known as The Loeb, is a teaching museum, major art repository, and exhibition space on the campus of

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

, in

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

, New York, United States. It was founded in 1864 as the Vassar College Art Gallery. It displays works from antiquity to contemporary times. Vassar was the first college or university in the country to include an art museum as part of its original plan. The current facility was designed by César Pelli and named in honor of the new building’s primary donor Frances Lehman Loeb, a member of the Class of 1928.About the FLLAC
/ref> The Lehman Loeb Art Center’s collections chart the history of art from antiquity to the present and comprise over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, textiles, and glass and ceramic wares. Teaching students and working as an important tangible complement to the curriculum is the main focus of the collection. Notable holdings include the Warburg Collection of

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

prints, an important group of

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area ...

paintings given by

Matthew Vassar Matthew Vassar (April 29, 1792 – June 23, 1868) was an English-born American brewer, merchant and philanthropist. He founded Vassar College, a women’s college, in 1861. He was a cousin of John Ellison Vassar. The city of Vassar, Michigan, ...

at the college’s inception, and a wide range of works by major European and American twentieth century painters.

Significant collections

At the time of its founding, the collection's largest holding was a large group of

paintings. These were donated by

himself who purchased them from the Rev. Elias Magoon of

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

. The collection, named for Magoon, includes the work of

Frederic Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, Asher Durand, and

Joseph Mallord William Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbule ...

. The Warburg Collection of Old Master prints features works by Albrecht Dürer and

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consi ...

. They were given to Vassar's collection in 1941 by

Felix Warburg Felix Moritz Warburg (January 14, 1871October 20, 1937) was a German-born American banker. He was a member of the Warburg banking family of Hamburg, Germany. Early life Warburg was born in Hamburg, Germany, on January 14, 1871. He was a grandso ...

. Perhaps the greatest strength of the art collection housed by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is its 20th-century works by European and American artists. Included in this group are significant works by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Balthus,

Arthur Dove Arthur Garfield Dove (August 2, 1880 – November 23, 1946) was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.. Dove used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinati ...

Ian Hornak Ian Hornak (January 9, 1944 – December 9, 2002) was an American draughtsman, painter and printmaker. He was one of the founding artists of the Hyperrealist and Photorealist fine art movements; credited with having been the first Photor ...

, Alfred Stieglitz and

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and hi ...

Nancy Graves Nancy Graves (December 23, 1939 – October 21, 1995, in Massachusetts) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime-filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in ...

, and

Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was born ...

Architecture

The art center is housed in a structure designed by Argentine architect César Pelli. It features a curved glass entry, and rooms separating covering Asian; Greek and Roman; Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque; 19th-century American; 19th-century European; and the 20th century. Changing print and photographic exhibitions are housed in a separate room.

References

External links

Vassar College Website
{{authority control Vassar College buildings University and college arts centers in the United States Arts centers in New York (state) 1864 establishments in New York (state) César Pelli buildings Art museums and galleries in New York (state) Museums in Dutchess County, New York University museums in New York (state) Art museums established in 1864 Tourist attractions in Poughkeepsie, New York University art museums and galleries in New York (state)

Significant collections

Architecture

See also

References

External links