MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS IN BOSTON TO ESTABLISH JOHN SINGER SARGENT ARCHIVE

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has said that it has acquired an extensive trove of Sargent letters, sketches, and other memorabilia, which it is using to establish the John Singer Sargent Archive, to be hosted in the Forsyth Institute across the street from the museum, reports Boston Globe’s Malcolm Gay. The definitive scholarly resource will complement the museum’s already wide-ranging collection of around 500 Sargent works.

Museum director Malcolm Rogers said, “Boston is Sargent’s city. He had exhibitions here, he painted commissions here, many of his friends were here, so it’s a natural thing for the MFA, which already has a fantastic collection of Sargent material, to add to that.”

The gift comes from Richard and Leonée Ormond and from Warren and Jan Adelson, who’ve been putting together the collection for nearly forty years. The donors said they chose the MFA for the gift, which contains nearly five thousand items, because of the museum’s commitment to establish a study center for Sargent.

“We weren’t getting any younger, and what was going to happen to all these materials? Didn’t want it to die a quiet death in aspic,” said Richard Ormond, a Sargent scholar and the artist’s grandnephew.

Sargent has been in the news lately, with the Los Angeles Times‘ David Ng reporting that Barbra Streisand is donating Sargent painting to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in honor of the organization’s fiftieth anniversary. The work, Cazalet and Her Children Edward and Victor, is a portrait of an aristocratic British family.