THROUGH NOVEMBER 23, 2025
Celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, this eighth iteration of the Explore the Vaults series features gifts from the museum’s formative years. These objects—offered by community members to the fledgling institution—provided the foundation for the current collection. Despite the traditional tastes of the 1960s, these works encompass a remarkable range of materials, periods, and cultures. As the MFA’s first director, Rexford Stead (1923–1983), noted, these gifts of art set the standard for his vision of a permanent collection of “substance and grandeur.”
Because many early gifts to the museum, especially paintings, are already on view, this exhibition mainly emphasizes works on paper. These include an etching by Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669) from our founder, Margaret Acheson Stuart (1896–1980), as well as Japanese woodblock prints, contemporaneous pieces by modern artists, and works that celebrate St. Petersburg’s art and history. Combined with selected paintings, sculpture, and decorative art, these first gifts provide a sense of what the collection looked like in the mid-1960s.
Enhancing these artworks are letters, photographs, and related ephemera that offer insight into how these collectors became donors. Together, these provide a unique and rich context for the shaping of the collection and illuminate its importance to the St. Petersburg community. The impact of this remarkable founding legacy—modest in scope but enormous in ambition—is still felt today as the museum continues to expand, study, preserve, and diversify its global art collection.
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Images:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669, Christ Disputing with the Doctors: A Sketch (detail), 1652, Etching and drypoint on paper, Gift of Margaret Acheson Stuart
François-Marie-Léon de Marliave, French, 1874–1953, Angkor (detail), 1920, Watercolor on paper, Gift of Suzanne Etienne-Koruna
Kitagawa Utamaro II, Japanese, 1750–1831, Chef Preparing a Bonito for a Woman with a Porcelain Dish (detail), 1806–1810, Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, Gift of Horace H. F. Jayne
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American, active in England and France, 1834–1903, La Marchand de Moutarde (detail), 1858, Etching and drypoint on paper, Gift of Margaret Acheson Stuart
Honoré Victorin Daumier, French, 1808–1879, Comment on entrera à l’exposition universelle et comment on en sortira (detail), 1855, Lithograph on paper
