European Art

Purview

This collection focuses primarily on paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures created by artists who lived in Europe. These works date largely between the Renaissance—beginning in the 13th century—and the 20th century. The Museum’s few examples of medieval art may be found in this collection or in Decorative Arts and Design; Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art; or Arts of the Islamic World. Artwork from Europe before the medieval era is in Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art.

In addition to work from Continental Europe, artworks created in European colonies are in this department, as well as in American Art, Arts of the Americas, and Decorative Arts and Design. Furniture and decorative arts by European designers can be found in Decorative Arts and Design as well.

Artwork by European artists from the 20th and 21st centuries can be found in Contemporary Art, Photography, and Feminist Art.

History

The Brooklyn Institute, a precursor of the Brooklyn Museum, began collecting work by European artists when the building on Eastern Parkway opened in 1897. These were the first objects created outside of the United States to enter the collection. Some of the earliest acquisitions, such as Giovanni della Robbia’s The Resurrection of Christ and James Tissot’s Life of Christ, offer a preview of what would become two of the collection’s strengths: art made in the Renaissance era and in late 19th-century France.

In 1900, after a blockbuster international tour, the institute had the opportunity to acquire Tissot’s series of 350 watercolors depicting the life of Christ and related works. Funds were raised by the Board of Trustees and a public subscription advertised in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Today, works by Tissot make up nearly a tenth of the European Art collection.

Over the 20th century, the Brooklyn Museum built an important collection of early Renaissance paintings, especially those referred to as gold-ground. In 1995, the institution added to that collection Nardo di Cione’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints. Considered one of the most significant 14th-century paintings in the United States, the work reached even greater heights when it was reunited with its long-lost pinnacle, Christ Blessing, which entered the collection in 2000.

As time went on, the institute focused more on Impressionism and other early modern art movements. Today, the collection includes important works by well-known artists, such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. It seeks to expand the popular understanding of these movements by incorporating work from outside of France, especially from Eastern Europe.

The Museum is also working toward a refreshed and reimagined installation of the European Art collection. In the meantime, find some of our stars touring the world as French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950.