The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the

Houston Museum District The Houston Museum District is an association of 19 museums, galleries, cultural centers and community organizations located in Houston, Texas, dedicated to promoting art, science, history and culture. The Houston Museum District currently inc ...

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building in 2020, it is the 12th largest art museum in the world based on square feet of gallery space. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 6,000 years of history with approximately 70,000 works from six continents.

Facilities

The MFAH's permanent collection totals nearly 70,000 pieces in over of exhibition space, placing it among the larger art museums in the United States. The museum's collections and programs are housed in nine facilities. The Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus encompasses 14 acres including seven of the facilities, with two additional facilities, Bayou Bend and Rienzi ( house museums) at off site locations. The main public collections and exhibitions are in the Law, Beck, and Kinder buildings. The Law and Beck buildings have over of exhibition space.

The Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus

* Caroline Wiess Law Building – the original neo-classical building was designed in phases by architect

William Ward Watkin William Ward Watkin (January 21, 1886 – June 24, 1952) was an architect primarily practicing in Houston, Texas. He was the founder of the Architecture Department of Rice University in 1912, and remained on the Rice faculty until his death. ...

. The original Caroline Wiess Law building was constructed in 1924 and the east and west wing were added in 1926. The Robert Lee Blaffer Memorial Wing was designed by Kenneth Franzheim and opened to the public in 1953. The new construction included significant structural improvements to several existing galleries—most notably, air conditioning. Two subsequent additions, Cullinan Hall and the Brown Pavilion, designed by

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

were built in 1958 and 1974 respectively. This section of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston campus is the only Mies-designed museum in the United States. The Caroline Wiess Law building provides an ideal space in which to exhibit temporary and traveling exhibitions, as well as installations of Islamic art, Pacific Island and Australian art, Asian art, Indonesian gold artworks, and Mesoamerican and sub-Saharan African art. Of special interest is the Glassell Collection of African Gold, the largest assemblage of its kind in the world. Also the Nidhika and Pershant Mehta Arts of India, the only space in Houston for Indian Arts Culture. *

Audrey Jones Beck Audrey Jones Beck (March 27, 1924 – August 22, 2003) was an American art collector and philanthropist who donated her personal art collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection included impressionis ...

Building – Opened to the public in 2000, the Beck Building was designed by

Rafael Moneo José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born 9 May 1937) is a Spanish architect. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996, the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003 and Venice Biennale, La Biennale's Golden Lion in 2 ...

, a Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. The museum Trustees elected to name the building after

in honor of the large collection she had donated to the museum several decades prior. In addition to traveling exhibitions and rotating temporary shows of photography, prints and drawings on the lower levels, the building displays the permanent collections of antiquities, European, and American art up to 1900, including the Impressionist. * Nancy and Rich Kinder Building – In 2012, the museum selected Steven Holl Architects to design a expansionPei-Ru Keh (January 19, 2015)
Steven Holl Architects' dramatic expansion design for The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston
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Wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...

''. that primarily holds galleries for art after 1900. Opened to the public in November 2020, the new building occupies a two-acre site north of the Caroline Wiess Law Building. The new MFAH building is adjacent to Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden and an expanded Glassell School of Art. In addition to a theater, restaurant, café, and seven small gardens and reflecting pools inset along the building's perimeter, the 237,213 square-foot Kinder building increases the museums overall exhibition space by nearly 75 percent. In 2021
The Bastion Collection
opene
Le Jardinier
a contemporary French restaurant emphasizing the highest-quality, seasonal ingredients from Michelin-starred chef Alain Verzeroli, and Italian-inspire
Cafe Leonelli
*

The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden is a sculpture garden located at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) in Houston, Texas, United States. Designed by artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi, the garden consists of 25 works o ...

– was designed by US-born artist and landscape architect

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several ...

and opened in 1986. The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden houses more than twenty-five works by artists from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries from the MFAH and other major collections. * Glassell School of Art – founded in 1979 and designed by architect S. I. Morris, the Glassell School of Art offers programs under the Studio School for Adults. The Glassell School of Art serves as the teaching wing of the MFAH, with a variety of classes, workshops, and educational opportunities for students diverse in age, interests, experience, and needs. In 2014, Steven Holl designed a new L-shaped building for the school, featuring a ramped amphitheatre that leads up to a walkable rooftop garden. In addition to opening onto Noguchi's sculpture garden and providing added outdoor space for programs and performances, the building also sits atop an extensive underground parking garage. The school offers classes at the Studio School for Adults and the Glassell Junior School, as well as Community Bridge Programs, special programs for youths, and the Core Artist-in-Residence Program. * Central Administration and Glassell Junior School of Art Building – The building, opened in 1994 and designed by Texan architectural designer Carlos Jimenez, houses the museum's administrative functions as well as the Glassell Junior School. The MFAH is the only museum facility in the United States that has a special building dedicated solely to art classes for children. *The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation – is a 37,864-square-foot conservation center designed by Lake-Flato Architects that was completed in 2018. It is home to conservation labs and studios located above the museum's parking garage. It is not open to the public.

Other facilities

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, located in the River Oaks community in Houston, Texas, United States, is a facility of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) that houses a collection of decorative art, paintings and furniture. Bayou Bend is th ...

– features a collection of American

decorative art ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

and

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

. The Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, former home of Life Trustee

Ima Hogg Ima Hogg (July 10, 1882 – August 19, 1975), known as "The First Lady of Texas", was an American society leader, philanthropist, mental health advocate, patron and collector of the arts, and one of the most respected women in Texas during th ...

, was designed by architect John F. Staub in 1927. Miss Hogg donated the property to the MFAH in 1957, followed, in 1962, by the donation of its collection of paintings, furniture, ceramics, glass, metals, and textiles. Bayou Bend was officially dedicated and opened to the public in 1966. Situated on of formal and woodland gardens five miles (8 km) from the main museum campus, the historic house museum documents American decorative and fine arts from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. * Rienzi – the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts, Rienzi was donated to the MFAH by Carroll Sterling Masterson and

Harris Masterson III Harris "Harry" Masterson III (1914-1997) was a philanthropist from Houston, Texas. Masterson was born in Houston in 1914. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Rice University in 1955. Masterson made contributions to the arts scene in Houston. Master ...

in 1991. The residence, named for

Rienzi Johnston Rienzi Melville Johnston (September 9, 1849February 28, 1926) was an American journalist and politician. He edited the ''Houston Post'' from 1885 to 1919, and served a 29-day term in the United States Senate in January 1913 after the resignation ...

, Mr. Masterson's grandfather, is situated on in Homewood Addition, surrounded by Houston's River Oaks neighborhood. The structure was designed in 1952 by John F. Staub, the same architect who designed

Bayou Bend Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, located in the River Oaks community in Houston, Texas, United States, is a facility of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) that houses a collection of decorative art, paintings and furniture. Bayou Bend is th ...

. Completed in 1954, Rienzi served as both a family home and a center for Houston civic and philanthropic activity from the 1950s through the mid-1990s. After Mr. Masterson's death, the MFAH transformed the home into a museum and subsequently opened it to the public in 1999.

History

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is the oldest art museum in Texas. In 1917, the museum site was dedicated by the Houston Public School Art League (later the Houston Art League) with the intention of becoming a public art museum. The first museum building was opened to the public in 1924. The original building, designed by Houston architect William Ward Watkin in the Greek Neoclassical style, is the first art museum built in Texas. Today the MFAH encompasses three buildings, the Caroline Wiess Law, Audrey Jones Beck, and Nancy and Rich Kinder buildings, that house its primary collections and temporary exhibitions; two decorative arts house museums; The Glassell studio art school; a sculpture garden; a facility for conservation, storage and archives; and an administrative building with the Glassell Junior school of Art. Prior to the opening of the permanent museum building in 1924, George M. Dickson bequeathed to the collection its first important American and European oil paintings. In the 1930s, Houstonian Annette Finnigan began her donation of antiquities and Texas philanthropist

gave her collection of avant-garde European prints and drawings. Ima Hogg's gift was followed by the subsequent donations of her Southwest Native American and

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United State ...

collections during the 1940s. The same decade witnessed the 1944 bequest of eighty-three

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

paintings, sculptures and works on paper from renowned New York collectors Edith and Percy Straus. Over the next two decades, gifts from prominent Houston families and foundations concentrated on European art from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries, contemporary painting and sculpture, and African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art. Among these are the gifts of Life Trustees

Sarah Campbell Blaffer Sarah Campbell Blaffer (née Campbell; August 27, 1885 May 13, 1975) was an American philanthropist and contributor to the art collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She inherited two fortunes based on oil money – one from her fathe ...

Dominique de Menil Dominique de Menil (née Schlumberger; March 23, 1908 – December 31, 1997) was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune.Helfenstein, Josef ...

and Alice N. Hanzsen as well as that of the

Samuel H. Kress Foundation Samuel Henry Kress (July 23, 1863 – September 22, 1955) was a businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. five and ten cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collections of Italian R ...

. Augmented by museum purchases, the permanent collection numbered 12,000 objects by 1970. MFAH Aerial view

The MFAH collection nearly doubled from 1970 to 1989, fueled by continued donations of art along with the advent of both accession endowment funding and corporate giving. In 1974, John and Audrey Jones Beck placed on long-term loan fifty

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

masterpieces, augmenting the museum's already strong Impressionist collection. This collection would never leave the MFAH, formally entering its holdings in 1998 as a gift of Life Trustee Audrey Jones Beck. The collection is permanently displayed in the building that bears her name. On the heels of the Cullen Foundation's funding of the MFAH's first accessions endowment in 1970, the Brown Foundation, Inc., launched a challenge grant in 1976 that would stay in effect for twenty years raising funds for both accessions and operational costs in landmark amounts and providing incentive for additional community support. Also in 1976, the photography collection was established with Target Stores’ first corporate grant to the museum. Today the museum is the sixth-largest in the country.Rebecca S. Cohen (April 9, 2011)
Replacing a Museum Director Who Was a Rare Find
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New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. In 2001, the MFAH, established the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), the leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art. The ICAA has been a pioneer in collecting, exhibiting and researching the diverse artistic production of Latin American and Latinx communities, including artists from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and artists of Latin American descent living and working in the United States. Through the ICAA, the MFAH brought a long-term transformation in the appreciation and understanding of Latin American and Latinx visual arts in the United States and abroad.Hilarie M. Sheets (November 13, 2020)

Collection

With approximately 70,000 works of art, the largest part of the museum's collection lie in the areas of Italian Renaissance painting, French Impressionism, photography, American and European decorative arts, African and pre-Columbian gold, American art, and post-1945 European and American painting and sculpture. Other facets of the collection include African-American art and Texas painting. Emerging collection interests of modern and contemporary Latin American art, including the artwork of all Texas Latino artists, Asian art, and Islamic art continue to strengthen the museum's collection diversity. As a result of its encyclopedic collection, the museum ranks nationally among the top ten art museums in attendance. Since 2019 Hossein Afshar Collection, one of the world's most distinguished private collections of Persian art, is on loan to MFAH. The museum has organised two exhibitions of this collection.

Claim for restitution

In 2021 the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, Monuments Men Foundation announced that it had located a painting from the collection of

Max Emden Max James Emden (28 October 1874 in Hamburg – 26 June 1940 in Muralto, Switzerland) was a German chemist, wholesale merchant, art collector and from 1926 owner of the Brissago Islands on Lake Maggiore. Some of Emden's properties, including valu ...

in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). According to the foundation, the painting by

Bernardo Bellotto Bernardo Bellotto (c. 1721/2 or 30 January 172117 November 1780), was an Italian urban landscape painter or ''vedutista'', and printmaker in etching famous for his ''vedute'' of European cities – Dresden, Vienna, Turin, and Warsaw. He was ...

, called ''The Marketplace at Pirna'', had an inaccurate provenance that concealed the history of the painting. After the MFAH refused to restitute the painting the Emden heirs filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Texas. The museum, which had rejected the Emden heirs’ claims since 2007, disagreed with the characterization of the painting as having been subject to a forced or duress sale due to Nazi persecution. MFAH director Gary Tinterow stated that Emden sold the painting voluntarily and, that after consulting provenance and legal experts, “we concluded that we had good title.” The museum also states that the Bellotto is one of multiple nearly identical versions by the artist, and was bought by

Samuel H. Kress Samuel Henry Kress (July 23, 1863 – September 22, 1955) was a businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. variety store, five and ten cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collection ...

in 1952 and later donated to the museum in 1961.

Galleries

Arts of Oceania, Africa, & the Americas = mixed media: ** = painted wood: *** = earthenware Arts of Asia and the Islamic World File:Bian Shoumin (Chinese), Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbank (1730), scroll; ink and color on paper, 132.1 × 70.2 cm., MFA, Houston.jpg,

Bian Shoumin Bian Shoumin (Chinese: 边寿民; 1684–1752; original name Bian Weiqi hinese: 边维祺, courtesy name as Yi-gong (颐公) or Jian-seng (漸僧), sobriquet as Weijian Laoren (苇间老人, or "Old man among Reeds"), is a famed Chinese painter i ...

, ''Wild Geese on Sandbank'' (1730), ink on paper, 132.1 × 70.2 cm. File:Ganku Kishi - Screen with Tiger - Google Art Project.jpg,

Kishi Ganku Ganku 岸駒 (1749 – January 19, 1839), or more formally Kishi Ku, was a leading Japanese painter of Kyoto and founder of the Kishi school of painting. He is famous for his paintings of tigers. Ganku was born in Kanazawa as Kishi Saeki, studied p ...

(Japan), ''Tiger in Landscape'' (1770-1839), ink and watercolor on paper, 171.2 × 372.1 × 1.5 cm. File:Indian, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita Cooking and Eating in the Wilderness (c. 1820), gouache with gold on paper, 21.6 × 16.5 cm., MFA, Houston.jpg, Indian, ''Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita Cooking and Eating in the Wilderness'' (c. 1820), gouache & gold on paper, 21.6 × 16.5 cm. Antiquities European and American painting (1400-1899) ll oil on canvas except: ** = tempera & gold leaf on panel; * = oil on panel File:Fra Angelico - Saint Anthony Abbot Shunning the Mass of Gold (MFAH).jpg,

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...

, ''Saint Anthony Abbot Shunning the Mass of Gold'' ** (c. 1435–1440), 19.7 x 28.1 cm. File:Giovanni di Paolo - Saint Clare Rescuing a Child Mauled by a Wolf - 44.571 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg,

Giovanni di Paolo Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (''c.'' 1403–1482) was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts. He was one of the most important painters of the 15th cent ...

, ''Saint Clare Rescuing a Child Mauled by a Wolf'' ** (c.1453-1462), 20.628.1 cm. File:Rogier van der Weyden - Virgin and Child - Google Art Project.jpg,

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

, ''Virgin and Child'' * (after 1454), 31.9 x 22.86 cm. File:Portrait of an Old Woman Hans Memling.jpg,

Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...

, '' Portrait of an Old Woman'' * (c. 1468–70), 25.6 x 17.7 cm. File:Botticelli Houston 116.jpg,

Alessandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...

, ''The Adoration of the Christ Child'' * (c. 1500), 120.7 cm. diameter File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Selbstmord der Lukrezia (1529, Houston).jpg,

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is know ...

, ''The Suicide of Lucretia'' * (1529), 74.9 x 53.9 cm. File:Jacopo Bassano - Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus - Google Art Project.jpg,

Jacopo Bassano Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco t ...

, ''Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus'' (c.1577), 98.4 × 126.4 cm. File:Bartolomeo Cavarozzi - Virgin and Child with Angels - Google Art Project.jpg,

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587–1625),Francucci, Massimo (2012). "Biographies of Artists", 356 p. In Rossella Vodret (ed.) Caravaggio's Rome: 1600-1630. Vol-II. Skira Editore S.p.A., Milan. 854 pp. occasionally referred to as Bartolomeo Crescenzi, ...

, ''Virgin and Child with Angels'' (c. 1620), 155.3 × 125.1 cm. File:Rembrandt van Rijn - Portrait of a Young Woman - Google Art Project.jpg,

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 consid ...

, ''Portrait of a Young Woman'' * (1633), 65.2 x 48.7 cm File:Matthias_Stom_-_The_Judgment_of_Solomon_-_70.15_-_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg,

Matthias Stom Matthias Stom or Matthias Stomer (c. 1600 – after 1652) was a Dutch, or possibly Flemish, painter who is only known for the works he produced during his residence in Italy. He was influenced by the work of non-Italian followers of Caravaggio in ...

, '' The Judgement of Solomon'', (c.1640), 152.5 × 204.9 cm. File:Jacob van Ruisdael - Landscape with Cornfields - BF.1977.6 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg,

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achi ...

, ''Landscape with Cornfields'' (c. 1670s), 55.2 x 62.8 cm. File:Jan Weenix - Still Life of Game including a Hare, Black Grouse and Partridge, a Spaniel looking on with a Pigeon ... - Google Art Project.jpg,

Jan Weenix Jan Weenix or Joannis Wenix (between 1641/164919 September 1719 (buried)) was a Dutch painter. He was trained by his father, Jan Baptist Weenix, together with his cousin Melchior d'Hondecoeter. Like his father, he painted various subjects, but ...

, ''Still Life of Game including a Hare, Black Grouse, Partridge, Spaniel, and Pigeon in Flight'' (c. 1680), 157.2 × 182.2 cm. File:Canaletto Entrance to the Grand Canal Venice.jpg,

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

, '' Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice'' (c. 1730), 49.5 × 73.7 cm. File:Giovanni Battista Tiepolo - Juno and Luna - BF.1983.4 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg,

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an impo ...

, ''Juno and Luna'' (1735-1745) 213 x 231.1 cm. File:Chardin, Jean-Siméon - The Good Education - Google Art Project.jpg, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, ''The Good Education'' (c. 1753), 41.4 × 47.3 cm. File:Angelica Kauffmann, Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus, 1774.jpg,

Angelica Kauffmann Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, K ...

, ''Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus'' (1774), 63.8 x 90.9 cm. File:Charles Willson Peale - Self-Portrait with Angelica and Portrait of Rachel - B.60.49 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg,

Charles Wilson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution, and ...

, ''Self-Portrait with Angelica and Rachel'' (1782-1785), 91.8 × 68.9 cm. File:Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sheerness as Seen From the Nore (1808), oil on canvas, 104.5 × 149.6 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.jpg,

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 ...

, ''Sheerness as Seen From the Nore'' (1808), 104.5 × 149.6 cm. File:Francisco de Goya - Still Life with Golden Bream - Google Art Project.jpg,

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...

, ''Still Life with Golden Bream'' (1808-1812), 44.7 x 62.5 cm. File:Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - Orphée.jpg,

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

, ''Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld'' (1861), 112.3 x 137.1 cm. File:William Bouguereau - The Elder Sister - Google Art Project.jpg,

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

, '' The Elder Sister'' (1869), 130.2 × 97.2 cm. File:John Singer Sargent - Mrs. Joshua Montgomery Sears (Sarah Choate Sears) - Google Art Project.jpg,

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

, ''Mrs. Sarah Montgomery Sears'' (1899), 1,476.50 x 968.50 cm. Impressionism, postimpressionism, and early modern art

ll oil on canvas unless noted otherwise Ll/ll is a digraph that occurs in several languages English In English, often represents the same sound as single : . The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or that the "l" sound is to be extended l ...

File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Nature morte au bouquet.jpg,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

, ''Nature morte au bouquet'' (1871), 73.7 × 59.1 cm. File:Camille Pissarro - The Goose Girl at Montfoucault (White Frost) - Google Art Project.jpg,

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

, ''The Goose Girl at Montfoucault'' (1876), 57.8 × 73 cm. File:G. Caillebotte - Les orangers.jpg,

Gustave Caillebotte Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early ...

, ''

Les Orangers ' (English title: ''The Orange Trees'') is an oil painting by French impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. The canvas measures . It was acquired by Audrey Jones Beck and was part of a collection that was on a long-term loan to the Museum of Fine Art ...

'' (1878), 154.9 × 116.8 cm. File:Berthe Morisot - The Basket Chair - Google Art Project.jpg,

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...

, ''The Basket Chair'' (1882), 61.3 x 75.5 cm. File:Monet Water lilies 1907.jpg,

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, ''

Water Lilies ''Water Lilies'' (or ''Nymphéas'', ) is a Serial imagery, series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionism, Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The paintings depict his Fondation Monet in Giverny, flower garden at Fond ...

'' (Nympheas) (1907), 92.1 × 81.2 cm. File:Paul Cézanne - Madame Cézanne in Blue - Google Art Project.jpg,

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

, ''Madame Cézanne in Blue'' (1888-1890), 74.1 × 61 cm. File:Vincent van Gogh - The Rocks - Google Art Project.jpg, Vincent van Gogh, '' The Rocks'' (1888), 54.9 × 65.7 cm. File:Paul Signac, 1893, The Bonaventure Pine, oil on canvas, 65.7 x 81 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.jpg,

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Biography Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863. H ...

, ''The Bonaventure Pine'' (1893), 65.7 × 81 cm. File:Odilon Redon - Two Young Girls among Flowers - Google Art Project.jpg,

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolism (arts), symbolist painter, printmaker, Drawing, draughtsman and pastellist. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he ...

, ''Two Young Girls among Flowers'' (1912), 62.2 x 51.4 cm. File:Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Moonrise- Soldier and Maiden - Google Art Project.jpg,

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-centur ...

, ''Moonrise: Soldier and Maiden'' (1905), oil on board, 69.9 x: 49.5 cm. File:Vasily Kandinsky - Sketch 160A - 74.140 - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.jpg,

Vasily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, ''Sketch 160A'' (1912), 94.9 × 108 cm. File:Piet_Mondrian_-_Composition_with_Grid_^1_-_63.16_-_Museum_of_Fine_Arts,_Houston.jpg,

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...

, ''

Composition with Grid No. 1 ''Composition with Grid No. 1'' or ''Composition in Grey and Ochre'' is a 1918 painting by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. It is currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Background In 1917, Mondrian was one of the founding ...

'' (1918), 80.2 x 49.9 cm. File:Amedeo Modigliani - Léopold Zborowski - Google Art Project.jpg,

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...

, ''Léopold Zborowski'' (c. 1916), 116.2 × 73 cm. File:Chaïm Soutine, The Chicken (c. 1926), oil on canvas, 102.2 × 76.1 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.jpg,

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a Belarusian painter who made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the ...

, ''The Chicken'' (c. 1926), 102.2 × 76.1 cm.

Management

Philippe de Montebello directed the museum from 1969 to 1974.Douglas Britt (December 12, 2010)
Peter Marzio, 67; transformed Houston museum
''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. During the 28-year tenure of

Peter Marzio Peter Marzio was the former director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for nearly 30 years. He oversaw major changes to the museum and was the author of three books. Early life and career Peter Cort Marzio was born on May 8, 1943 on Governors ...

between 1982 and 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts’ yearly attendance increased to roughly two million from 300,000; its operating budget climbed to $52 million from $5 million, and its endowment reached $1 billion (before the 2008 recession dropped its value to about $800 million). The museum's permanent collection more than tripled in size, to 63,000 works from 20,000. In 2010, Marzio was the sixth-highest-paid charity chief executive in the country, with compensation in 2008 of $1,054,939. A year after Peter Marzio died in 2010, Gary Tinterow was appointed as the museum's director.Carol Vogel (December 1, 2011)
Met Veteran Named Director of Houston Art Museum
''

''. Mari Carmen Ramírez is a Puerto Rican Art curator and the Wortham Curator of

Latin American Art Latin American art is the combined artistic expression of South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico, as well as Latin Americans living in other regions. The art has roots in the many different indigenous cultures that inhabited the ...

at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Notes

External links

*
Photographs from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
hosted by th
Portal to Texas History

International Center for the Arts of the Americas at MFAHVirtual tour of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Texas Museums in Houston Decorative arts museums in the United States Ludwig Mies van der Rohe buildings Rafael Moneo buildings Modernist architecture in Texas Art museums established in 1900 1900 establishments in Texas Museums of American art Asian art museums in the United States Mesoamerican art museums in the United States FRAME Museums African art museums in the United States

Facilities

The Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus

Other facilities

History

Collection

Claim for restitution

Galleries

Management

See also

Notes

External links