Highlights of French Painting at the BMA

Chris Boïcos, art historian and director of Paris Art Studies

 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm tour times - tours are 75 minutes each

The BMA is famous for the masterpieces from the Cone collection gifted to the museum in 1949, including such masterworks as Matisse’s Blue Nude (1907) and Large Reclining Nude (1935), Paul Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry (c. 1897), Paul Gauguin’s Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (1892), and Marie Laurencin’s A Group of Artists (1908). The BMA has the largest collection of Matisse works in the world outside of Russia, lovingly collected by Claribel and Etta Cone during their annual visits to France from 1903 to 1929. Our visit will include highlights from the Cone collection and connect them to earlier masterpieces of French art in the museum by Chardin, Nattier, Fragonard Vigée-Lebrun, Gerôme, and more. We will focus most particularly on French artists’ presentation of women and femininity from the 18th century to the early Modern period.

Members-only, registration required (limited to 35 people - approx 18 per tour), no fee. Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration