The Museum of Fine Arts Boston launches it’s first online catalogue, Paintings of the Americas. on February 20.
The free digital publication, available at www.mfa.org/americanpaintings, will feature a selection of more than 400 paintings from its collection of nearly 2,000 (including new acquisitions) created by artists from the 17th through the 20th centuries. The online catalogue was produced to complement the Museum’s Art of the Americas Wing. This is the first publication in a generation to document the MFA’s world-renowned holdings of American paintings, along with those that represent the broader spectrum of the Americas.
With its elegant design, ease of use, and access to a wide range of information, Paintings of the Americas tells a compelling story through a chronological exploration of diverse works from North, Central, and South America. It also showcases masterworks by John Singleton Copley, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Wifredo Lam. Support for this publication was provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Ann and William Elfers Publication Fund, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, and the Vance Wall Foundation.
“We are especially pleased to introduce to our online visitors—including families, students, and museum lovers—a new way to experience for free one of the world’s finest collections of American paintings in a format that will be regularly added to and updated as new information is entered into our database,” said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum.
In 2000, the MFA was one of only a few museums in the world to make its collection available online, and today, the majority of its 450,000 works can be viewed on the web. Now, with the new online catalogue, readers using a personal computer or tablet, such as an iPad, will be able to dig deeper into information about 425 paintings by browsing artwork by chapter, title, and artist; bookmarking favorites; reading essays; and enjoying interviews with curators and conservators. The catalogue’s online format will allow content to be regularly updated and, in the future, the number of paintings featured will expand, as will the range of scholarly background information.
For more information, visit www.mfa.org or call 617.267.9300