Exhibition dates: November 19, 2002 – February 9, 2003
Exhibition location: Robert Lehman Wing, First floor
Press Preview: Monday, November 18, 10:00-noon
The collection of some 35 Impressionist pictures that graced the walls of Janice H. Levin's Fifth Avenue apartment will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 19, 2002, through February 9, 2003. The intimately scaled exhibition, A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures will include exceptional works by many of the great masters of 19th-century French painting – Bonnard, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Vuillard, among others.
A longtime supporter of the arts in New York, Janice Levin was an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1993 until her death in 2001. A number of significant works from the collection have been bequeathed to American museums, including the Metropolitan. In reuniting these works, the exhibition will offer a unique opportunity for visitors to experience the distinctly personal character of a private collection, which was lovingly acquired over a period of some 40 years for the Levins's appreciation and enjoyment in their New York City residence.
The exhibition and accompanying catalogue are made possible by The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation.
Highlights from the Levin collection include Claude Monet's view of his garden at Argenteuil (1873; now National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) and the
Cliffs at Pourville (1882; now Museum of Modern Art, New York), as well as works by Edgar Degas. Degas's pastel Portraits at the Stock Exchange (1876; now Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) depicts the financier and collector Ernest May, while Levin's three other works by Degas – one pastel and two bronzes – depict ballerinas stretching. (Levin was a longtime board member and benefactor of the School of American Ballet.) The Levin collection also includes lush landscapes by Pierre Bonnard, Eugène Boudin, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as well as charming interior scenes by Berthe Morisot and Édouard Vuillard.
A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, written by Richard Shone, an editor at The Burlington Magazine and author of a number of books, including Sisley (1979) and The Art of Bloomsbury (1999). The catalogue will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press.
The exhibition is organized by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator of 19th-Century European Painting, and Rebecca A. Rabinow, Assistant Research Curator, both of the Metropolitan's Department of European Paintings.
The Metropolitan Museum is grateful to the Robert Lehman Foundation for making the Robert Lehman Wing galleries available for the exhibition.
A variety of educational programs will be offered in conjunction with this exhibition.
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July 29, 2002
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