Revealed Anew: Selections from the Permanent Collection

Because a number of the key works from the twentieth-century collection were included in a major exhibition in Japan, the staff of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center wanted to take an opportunity to “turn an eye” to their storage vaults to present a sampling of works, most of which had not been on view in recent years. In addition to the works on display in the Permanent Collection Galleries, this roughly chronological exhibition was another opportunity for viewers to further their knowledge of objects in the permanent collection.

The permanent collection has developed from its initial core of a few hundred American and Hudson River School paintings, and 3,000 English drawings and prints, all purchased by Matthew Vassar from college trustee Elias Lyman Magoon. While Hudson River and English art remain concentrations in the collection, other large gifts stimulated and expanded the directions of the collection. For instance, Italian baroque paintings in the early twentieth century and the Felix Warburg Collection of Old Master Prints in the early 1940s provided new tools for teaching at the college. In the mid-twentieth century, numerous gifts of modern works by Vassar alumnae enriched the collection, providing new areas of vital study for students, scholars, and the public at large.