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Bowdoin GallerySelected Objects
A Triptych: The Adoration of the Magi, The Nativity at Night, with the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and The Flight into Egypt, oil on panel, by The Master of the Von Groote, Netherlandish, active, Antwerp ca. 1515–1520. Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, Jane H. and Charles E. Parker, Jr. Art Acquisition Fund and Laura T. and John H. Halford, Jr. Art Acquisition Fund. 2018.25
America, from The Four Continents, ca. 1653, engraving by Claes Jansz. Visscher, Netherlandish (ca. 1550—ca. 1612). Gift of David P. Becker, Class of 1970. 1994.10.337
The Doctor's Surgery, ca. 1665-167, oil on canvas by Egbert van Heemskerck, Dutch, 1634—1704. Contributed in memory of Dr. Bernard & Mrs. Jeanette Gordon Halperin, a gift from their children. 2020.4
Portrait of Reverend Samson Occom, ca. 1751—1756, oil on canvas by Nathaniel Smibert, American, 1735–1756. Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III. 1813.4
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, ca. 1805—1807, oil on canvas by Gilbert Stuart, American, 1755 – 1828. Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III. 1813.55
Newburyport Marshes: Passing Storm, ca. 1865-1870, oil on canvas by Martin Johnson Heade, American, 1819-1904, Museum Purchase, with the aid of the Sylvia E. Ross Fund. 1964.45
Wabanaki Birchbark Covered Box, 1834, birchbark and split spruce root by Ambroise St. Aubin family, Known as the Bear Family, American, Wabanaki.
About
Based on the permanent collection, this exhibition of art in the Atlantic World considers empire-building across Europe, North America, and their colonies, and how it shaped interconnected global networks from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Artists celebrated leaders and victories and depicted scenes of exploration and colonization. The exhibition also traces the rise of the Enlightenment beginning with the Renaissance. Paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts illuminate how Western and Euro-American cultures developed economically, artistically, and intellectually. The desire for material goods by a growing middle class intensified the need for labor, which resulted in the enslavement of Africans and others. The art also shaped ideas and justifications for continued colonization and expansion into new territories, including Manifest Destiny in the United States. This adversely affected Indigenous communities. These works also reveal the development of the Museum's collection, beginning over 200 years ago with the 1813 bequest of James Bowdoin III, and continuing to major acquisitions today.
The exhibition was made possible with the support of the Riley P. Brewster ’77 Fund for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Read the illustrated exhibition labels.
Installation Views
