Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts Artworks

Cornelia Mother Of The Gracchi Angelica Kauffman

• Date created: 1785
• Dimensions: 101.6 × 127 centimeters

Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures is the full title of a painting by Kauffman, the Swiss-born artist who became one of the leading Neoclassical artists of her time. She traveled extensively and even became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in London.

Just like Poussin, Angelica Kauffman painted numerous large oil paintings that depict stories derived from classical antiquity. This work depicts the family portrait of a Roman woman named Cornelia who was the mother of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. They both became political leaders in the Roman Republic in the 2nd century B.C.

Ideographs Of Eight Confucian Virtues

Favorite of Kenneth Kim, Web and Digital Marketing Manager.

Ideographs of Eight Confucian Virtues is one of my favorite works in the VMFA collection. I am Korean American, and this work has allowed me to connect with my heritage in a way that I had not before. I visited the museum with my mother and the fact that our culture was represented in an art museum was a highlight during our time there. Seeing this work really creates a feeling that my culture truly exists in a very real way, and allows me to feel a larger connection to that culture and where I come from.

Rumors Of War And Another Expansion 2010

In 2019, Rumors of War was installed on the front lawn of the museum facing Arthur Ashe Boulevard after being displayed in Times Square.

In June 2021, the VMFA announced that architect firm SmithGroup was designing a $190 million expansion of the museum and a renovation of current spaces such as the Evans Court and Leslie Cheek Theater.

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Vmfa Staffs Favorite Artworks

No one knows a museums collection better than its staff. People who spend several hours every day with artworks have enough time to observe them really closely. Besides, they are the best specialists on these particular branches of art, which they research in the museum. They know every detail and they have a chance to see beyond the spaces where visitors are allowed. Thats why we asked the VMFA employees to share their favorites from the museums collection.

Virginia Museum Of Fine Art Receives Paintings Valued At $60 Million

The Virginia Museum of Fine Art has received a gift of funding and artworks from longtime patrons James W. McGlothlin and Frances Gibson McGlothlin, the Associated Press reports.

Valued at nearly $60 million, the largest private gift in the museums expansion campaign includes a significant contribution to the museums expansion campaign and 15 paintings by prominent American artists such as Milton Avery, Albert Bierstadt, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Marsden Hartley, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent, John Sloan, and Andrew Wyeth. In recognition of the gift, a second wing in the museum will be named after the donors.

will help the museum tell a more nuanced and complete story of the nations artistic contributions and ensure that these works will continue to be accessible to all Virginians, said VMFA director and CEO Alex Nyerges.

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Farewell From The Interns

Hello! For the past 8 weeks we have been the faces behind all of the social media for the VMFA and sadly yesterday was our last day. We appreciate all of your support on our journey and will greatly miss this chapter of our lives. We are thankful for the experience that we gained and hope that someday we will have the opportunity to do this again.

Farewell,

The Faberg And Russian Decorative Arts Gallery Casework

Thanks to the generosity of Lillian Thomas Pratt and other donors, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts owns one of the finest Fabergé collections in existence. The Russian jeweler Karl Fabergé crafted objects for the Russian imperial family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including specially commissioned Easter eggs. VMFAs collection, the largest public collection of Fabergé outside of Russia, includes five of the thirteen Russian imperial Easter eggs that are in the United States. Five new galleries have been prepared to showcase 280 Fabergé objects and other Russian decorative arts. The galleries feature both innovative displays and a range of interactive components designed to inform, engage, and delight.

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Week Of Art: South Asian Art #5

The Image of Sri Nathji Enshrined at Nathadwara |Unknown |South Asian |opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper| ca. 1830-1840|Image: 9 11/16 × 6 ½ in.

Sri Nathji is a form of the Hindu god Krishna, manifested as a young boy. Shrinathjis idol was brought to Rajasthan from Govardhana near Vrindavan to protect it from the hands of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who in 1665 was bent upon vandalizing the area of Vrindavan by widespread destruction of Hindu temples. When the Mughal army came to Govardhana, the devotees of the Lord showed them the titles and gifts given to the temple by the previous Mughal

Dr Peter Justin Moon Schertz

Dr. Peter Justin Moon Schertz has served as curator of Ancient Art since October 2006 and the Jack and Mary Ann Frable Curator of Ancient Art since 2007. Dr. Schertz received his BA in classical languages and literature from the University of Chicago and his PhD in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Southern California . In addition to his museum work, Dr. Schertz worked as an editor for the Israel Antiquities Authority and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Association of Art Museum Curators.

At VMFA, Dr. Schertz curated the exhibition The Horse in Ancient Greek Art and has engaged in a number of research projects, including as the co-director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project and as co-director of the NEH-supported study of the Richmond Caligula, now published as New Studies on the Portrait of Caligula in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts . He has also published on the Second Temple in Jerusalem in its Roman context and is currently researching the history and significance of equestrian statues from the Marcus Aurelius statue in Rome to Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War at the VMFA. He is particularly interested in how new technologies can help us understand and interpret ancient art.

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Achilles On Skyros Nicolas Poussin

• Date created: 1656
• Dimensions: 100.3 x 133.3 centimeters

Achilles on Skyros is a painting by Poussin that depicts the ancient Greek fighter Achilles in womens clothes. When his mother had a vision that he would die if he fought in the Trojan War, she set up a situation to prevent this by sending him to the island of Skyros to live with the daughters of King Lycomedes.

Although Nicolas Poussin was a French artist, he lived in worked most of his adult life in Rome. here he became the leading artist of the Baroque era who was inspired by classical subjects. This is one of many famous paintings in his oeuvre that depicts that was derived from ancient poems.

Major Acquisitions And First Addition 19401969

In 1947, the VMFA was given the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of some 150 jeweled objects created by Peter Carl Fabergé and other Russian workshops, including the largest public collection of Fabergé eggs outside of Russia. That year the Museum also received the “T. Catesby Jones Collection of Modern Art”. Further donations in the 1950s came from Adolph D. Williams and Wilkins C. Williams, and from Arthur and Margaret Glasgow. They established the museum’s oldest funds used for art acquisitions.

In 1948 Leslie Cheek, Jr. was selected as director of the museum, where he served until 1968. During these decades, he introduced many innovations and was noted as having had significant influence on the course of the institution. His obituary in the New York Times said that he “transformed from a small local gallery to a nationally known cultural center.” Cheek in 1953 introduced the world’s first “Artmobile”, a mobile tractor-trailer that carried exhibits to rural areas . In 1960, he was the first in the United States to introduce night hours at an art museum.

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Wife Of The Lynch Victim Irwinton Georgia By Marion Palfi

Favorite of Alex Nyerges, Director and CEO.

Wife of the Lynch Victim, Irwinton, Georgia

Marion Palfi was a Hungarian-American photographer in the middle of the 20th century who earned accolades for her socially focused photography. She considered herself a social research photographer with different series of her work that centered on civil rights, Native Americans, aging, abandoned children, and poverty. In the 1940s, LifeMagazine turned down her work on segregation in the south which they deemed TOO CONTROVERSIAL. This is one of the photographs she had proposed for publication. I chose this work for two reasons: I am working on an exhibition and book for 2023 on Hungarian American photographers of the 20th century and Marion Palfi is one of the 35 photographers included in this landmark exhibit. More importantly, in the current era of continued inequality and systemic racism, this work is a reminder that we are not far removed from the rampant lynchings of innocent Black men in the South during the 20th century. Palfis ability to capture the humanity of the victims wife and her grief is palpable.

Washington As Farmer At Mount Vernon Junius Brutus Stearns

• Date created: 1851
• Dimensions: 95.25 × 137.16 centimeters

Washington as Farmer at Mount Vernon is a painting by American artist Junius Brutus Stearns . It was completed shortly after the 50th anniversary of Washingtons death and this sparked renewed interest in the life of the first American President. Many artworks about his life were produced around this time.

This painting depicts a scene in which we can see Washington inspecting his plantation in Virginia during his retirement. This is one of several relatively large oil paintings by Brutus Junus in a series that commemorates this important figure in American history.

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Portrait Of The Comte De Vaudreuil Lisabeth Vige Le Brun

• Date created: 1784
• Dimensions: 132 x 100 centimeters

Portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil is a painting by French artist Vigée Le Brun , a child prodigy who became a successful painter during her teenage years. She was invited to the French court in the early 1780s and was commissioned to paint over 30 portraits of French Queen Marie Antoinette.

This painting was completed around the same time that Vigée Le Brun worked for the French Queen during the final years of the Ancien Régime. This portrait stresses why her work was so admired as it depicts the French aristocrat magnificently. Ironically, this rich plantation owner lived so lavishly that he was partially blamed for the French Revolution.

Congratulations To The 202223 Fellowship Recipients

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program is a vital source of funding for the visual arts and art history in Virginia. VMFA is committed to supporting professional artists as well as art and art history students who demonstrate exceptional creative ability in their chosen discipline and, as such, has awarded nearly $6 million in Fellowships to Virginians.

The Fellowship Program was established in 1940 through a generous contribution made by the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg. 2021 will mark the 81st anniversary! Offered through VMFA Statewide, Fellowships are still largely funded through the Pratt endowment, supplemented by gifts from the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation and the J. Warwick McClintock Jr. Scholarship Fund.

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Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all acquisition of artwork, as well as additional general support.

Considered among the largest art museums in North America for square footage of exhibition space, the VMFA’s comprehensive art collection includes African art, American art, British sporting art, Fabergé, and Himalayan art. One of the first museums in the American South to be operated by state funds, VMFA offers free admission, except for special exhibits.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, together with the adjacent Virginia Historical Society, anchors the eponymous “Museum District” of Richmond, and area of the city known as “West of the Boulevard“.

A Ride For Liberty The Fugitive Slaves Jonathan Eastman Johnson

• Date created: 1862
• Dimensions: 55.8 x 66.4 centimeters

A Ride for Liberty The Fugitive Slaves is a painting by Jonathan Eastman Johnson , an American artist who was one of the co-founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He is most famously known for his genre paintings that were inspired by real-life events.

This fascinating work of art is one of his most famous works as it depicts an African American family who is fleeing slavery during the American Civil War . Eastman Johnson reportedly witnessed this event in the early morning hours of March 2, 1862, near Manassas, Virginia. The painting at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is one of three different versions painted by the artist.

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Art Meets Its Soundtrack Deep In The Dirty South

A big, juicy exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts turns an embracing eye on Black artists in the American South.

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By Holland Cotter

RICHMOND, Va. Some of the countrys most candidly truth-telling museums dedicated to the civil rights movement, and by extension to Black history, are in cities south of the Mason-Dixon line: Jackson, Memphis and Montgomery among them. Which suggests that old, sweeping views of the South as a bastion of stuck-in-past political denial are, and have always been, wrong.

Yet large-scale museum surveys of art from and about the South are scarce. Its as if the mainstream art world specifically navel-gazing, Europhilic New York didnt know, or believe, or care that whole, rich art cultures were unfolding in Atlanta, and Houston, and New Orleans.

One of the few recent broad-spectrum shows to tackle the subject was Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, organized by Miranda Lash and Trevor Schoonmaker at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, N.C. But that was in 2016. Now comes another one, a big, juicy, thought-through thematic sampler here at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse

Through Sept. 6, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 340-1400, vmfa.museum.

Cup With Spiral Of Glyphs

Favorite of Debbie Linn, Assistant Chief Conservator.

This Late Classic period cup from 300900 CE is a wonderful example of the extraordinary craftsmanship, technological advancement, and societal sophistication of the Maya. This vessel is such a beautiful design. I love how the glyphs were specifically positioned and carved to fit within the spiral pattern. This was clearly a very well thought out and carefully executed design, reflecting the skills of its maker, the aesthetics of its time, and the importance of writing and communication to the Maya.

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Cupid And Venus Artemisia Gentileschi

• Date created: 1625
• Dimensions: 96.52 × 143.83 centimeters

Cupid and Venus is one of the most famous Venus paintings ever produced, mainly because of the remarkable position of the Roman goddess. It was painted by a Baroque artist named Artemisia Gentileschi , a female Italian painter who was highly influenced by the paintings of Caravaggio.

The extreme use of chiaroscuro is evident in this remarkable work of art. It highlights the semi-naked body of Venus who wears nothing more than transparent linen around her tighs. The blue sheets on which Venus is lying mean that it was probably commissioned by a rich patron because lapis lazuli was a very expensive pigment.

Top 10 Famous Paintings At The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts

Posted on Last updated: September 7, 2022

If you plan to visit Richmond, Virginia, then theres no better place in the city to enjoy great art than the Museum District or West of the Boulevard.

This area in the northwestern part of Richmond features two major museums that take up 6 blocks, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

The VMFA is managed and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia and first opened its doors in 1936. The museums history dates back to 1919 when a local judge donated 50 paintings to the state.

The main building of the museum features a combination of Colonial and English Baroque architecture and was expanded multiple times. It also includes the Leslie Cheek Theater, a 500-seat performing arts venue.

The collection of the museum has grown to well over 22,000 artworks and the VMFA is considered to be one of the largest museums in North America in terms of floor space.

In this article, youll discover some of the most famous paintings on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

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