Dr. and Mrs. John J. Mayers Collection

Modern Masters

With the acquisition of the Dr. and Mrs. John J. Mayers Collection of Modern Masters in 1989, the Museum acquired a stellar collection of 53 works by many of the greatest European masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries including Braque,

Charles Demuth, Bathers, 1917, Watercolor and graphic on paper, 12 1/4 x 9 inches. The Dr. and Mrs. John J. Mayers Collection

Campigli, de Chirico, Degas, Demuth, Delaunay, Glackens, Picasso, Klee, Leger, Matisse, Modigliani, Pascin, Prendergast, Redon, Rouault and Severini among others. Many are works on paper, allowing the viewer a rare opportunity to examine the "muscle and bones" of these great masters’ styles.

Highlights are four Matisse ink and charcoal drawings and three Picasso works on paper. The Museum’s large 1921 Picasso portrait of the artist’s first lover Fernande Olivier was recently published in the book Portrait Of Picasso As A Young Man: An Interpretive Biography by Norman Mailer (New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995).

The majority of works in the 19th to 20th century European painting collection are by French and English artists. From the robust 19th century French Barbizon realism of Leon-Augustin Lhermitte’s romantic peasant and farm scenes to the depersonalized forms of Fernand Léger's machine age, this collection encompasses some of the Museum’s most visited works. Featured are paintings of the Barbizon School, represented by the landscapes of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, and Charles-François Daubigny; works of the Impressionists and Post Impressionists including drawings by Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, and Suzanne Valadon.

The Museum collection includes four Matisse drawings, three Picassos drawings, as well as a notable group of early modernist works by Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Robert Delaunay, Alberto Giacometti, Paul Klee, and Fernand Léger. Figural works by Amedeo Modigliani, Marcel Gromaire, Bernard Buffet, Marie Laurencin and Raoul Dufy exemplify artists affiliated with the mid-20th century School of Paris.