The Rollins Museum of Art is located on the Winter Park campus of

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

and is the only teaching museum in the greater Orlando area. The museum houses more than 5,000 objects ranging from antiquity through contemporary eras, including rare old master paintings and a comprehensive collection of prints, drawings, and photographs. The museum displays temporary exhibitions on a rotating basis along with the permanent collection.

History

A collection composed of portraits of college notables and natural history artifacts was put together at Rollins College around the turn of the 20th century. In the 1930s, fine arts were added to the collection prompted, in part, by the gifts of two Italian Renaissance paintings from the

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 ...

Foundation. The first purpose-built museum on campus was the Morse Gallery of Art which opened in 1941. It was administered by Jeannette Morse Genius (who also provided the funds for the building) and her husband, Dr. Hugh McKean, who later became president of Rollins College (1951–69). In 1976, George and Harriet Cornell donated the funds to construct a fine arts complex that would include a new museum. The Cornell Fine Arts Museum opened its doors in 1978, and three years later became Florida’s first college art museum to be accredited by the American Association of Museums (today the American Alliance of Museums). The building underwent a significant expansion in 2004–5, and now includes six galleries and a print study room. A satellite exhibition space for the Museum's Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art was introduced in 2013 at The Alfond Inn—a philanthropic boutique hotel owned by Rollins College, whose proceeds help fund student scholarships.

Collection

Collection totals over 5,000 objects ranging from antiquity through contemporary: *Over 500 paintings from the 14th–21st centuries. *Over 1500 prints, drawings and photographs dating from the 15th–21st centuries. *Over 1100 ethnographic objects and object fragments, many from the original natural history museum on campus; some of the items were donated by the Smithsonian after that museum burned in the 1920s. *Over 1200 watch keys ranging from the 16th–late 19th centuries.

Highlights

*1936 General and Mrs. John Carty donate the first old master painting, ''The Dead Christ with Symbols of the Passion'', by Lavinia Fontana. Donations by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1937 and 1938 formally inaugurate fine art collecting. *1948

Grandma Moses Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), or Grandma Moses, was an American folk artist. She began painting in earnest at the age of 78 and is a prominent example of a newly successful art career at an advanced age. H ...

gives to the college the oil painting, ''Out on the Lake''. *1950s George H. Sullivan, a Winter Park resident, made the first major donations to the museum, including works by William Louis Sonntag and Francesco de Mura. *1960s Rollins alumni, Jack and June Myers, donate what would become the backbone of the Cornell’s old master collection, including works by

Gerolamo Bassano Girolamo da Ponte also known as Gerolamo Bassano (3 June 1566 – 8 Nov 1621)Grove Dictionary of Art was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period. Born at Bassano del Grappa 3 June 1566, he was the youngest son of painter Jacopo da Bassa ...

, Jacopo Tintoretto, Thomas Lawrence, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Pieter Claesz. *2000 Kenneth Curry bequeathed over 30

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

paintings and drawings. *2008 The

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

donated 156 photographs and polaroids through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program. *2013 Barbara and Ted Alfond donated The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, which in 2015 included over 230 paintings, photographs, sculptures and mixed media works by established and emerging contemporary artists from around the world.New York Times, March 16, 2015: Cedar Grove, Peabody Essex and Other Niche Museums Foray Into Contemporary Art
/ref> *2021 On July 28, Dr. Ena Heller, director of the museum announced that the Cornell Fine Arts Museum or what has been previously known as CFAM, will be known as the Rollins Museum of Art effective starting fall 2021. The name change is to signify the beginning of a new phase in the museum's 40-year history and a capital campaign for Rollins College as they prepare for a new state-of-the-art multi-million dollar facility in Winter Park across from the Rollins owned Alfond Inn. The capital campaign is known as the Innovation Triangle project which includes a new and larger museum facility with teaching capabilities, a new and permanent location for the Rollins College - Crummer Graduate School of Business, and an expansion of the Alfond Inn.

Selected artists

*Lavinia Fontana *

Cosimo Roselli Cosimo Rosselli (; 1439–1507) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large ...

* Pablo Picasso * Robert Priseman *Francisco Soliment * Alfredo Jaar *

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

*Andy Warhol *

Hermann Ottomar Herzog Hermann Ottomar Herzog (15 November 1831Zivilregister Bremen page 592 No. 1200/1832 – 6 February 1932) was a prominent nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European and American artist, primarily known for his landscapes. He is assoc ...

* Jonas Lie * Kara Walker *William Sontag * Childe Hassam * Tracey Emin * Vanessa Bell * David Hockney *

Norman Daly Norman D. Daly (August 9, 1911 - April 2, 2008), was an American artist who created the fictional ancient Civilization of Llhuros along with hundreds of its artifacts. His work on ''The Civilization of Llhuros'' starting in the mid 1960s makes him ...

* Romare Bearden * Robert Henri *

Francesco de Mura Francesco de Mura (21 April 1696 – 19 August 1782) was an Italian painter of the late- Baroque period, active mainly in Naples and Turin. His late work reflects the style of neoclassicism. Life Francesco de Mura, also referred to as ''Fran ...

* Elizabeth Catlett * Sam Gilliam * Francis Bacon * Albert Bierstadt * William-Adolphe Bouguereau *

Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...

Vik Muniz Vik Muniz (; born 1961) is a Brazilian artist and photographer. Initially a sculptor, Muniz grew interested with the photographic representations of his work, eventually focusing completely on photography. Primarily working with unconventional ma ...

John Frederick Kensett John Frederick Kensett (March 22, 1816 – December 14, 1872) was an American landscape painter and engraver born in Cheshire, Connecticut. He was a member of the second generation of the Hudson River School of artists. Kensett's signature works ...

* Jacob Lawrence * William Kentridge * Jacques Lipchitz * Maya Lin * Thomas Gainsborough *

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

* Robert Motherwell * Claes Oldenburg * Winslow Homer *

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

Notes

External links

The Alfond InnRollins Museum of Art
(official website) {{authority control 1978 establishments in Florida Art museums established in 1978 Art museums and galleries in Florida Buildings and structures in Winter Park, Florida Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Museums in Orange County, Florida Rollins College University museums in Florida