The Terra Foundation for American Art announced today the recent acquisition of five major paintings:

• Romare Bearden, After Church, 1941;
• Arthur Dove, Boat Going Through Inlet; c. 1929;
• John Haberle, One Dollar Bill, 1890;
• John Frederick Peto, Old Time Letter Rack, 1894; and
• William Merritt Chase, Untitled (Harbor Scene), c. 1888 (gift of Jamee and Marshall Field).

“These newly acquired paintings help extend the foundation’s mission of fostering the exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for audiences across the globe,” explained Terra Foundation President and CEO Elizabeth Glassman. “The acquisition of important pictures by Bearden and Dove add further complexity to the foundation’s significant holdings in American modernism, and the works by Haberle and Peto represent outstanding examples of trompe l’œil still-life painting from the late nineteenth century.”  

The Terra Foundation collection consists of nearly 800 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures by artists such as John Singleton Copley, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe.

“Works of art are an important catalyst for bringing together people from varying cultural backgrounds and helping them discover the beliefs and traits that both distinguish and unify them,” said Marshall Field V, an art collector, philanthropist, and former president and chairman of the foundation’s Board of Directors. “The Terra Foundation is particularly good at employing American art to stimulate those rich and meaningful cross-cultural conversations, and this gift will aid them in that pursuit.”

“We are especially grateful to Marshall Field for his generous contribution to our continually growing collection of iconic works by some of America’s finest artists,” added Glassman. The Terra Foundation collection spans more than 250 years of American history, beginning in the colonial period with a painting created around 1741. The vast majority of the collection consists of paintings and works on paper produced prior to 1950, with the deepest concentration and strength in work created between 1860 and 1930, particularly American Impressionist painting.  

“Although our focus is the historical art of the United States, we activate works in the collection by lending them to exhibitions that resonate with contemporary issues,” stated Terra Foundation Curator Peter John Brownlee. “Bearden’s After Church, for example, was included in the recent exhibition One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North at the Museum of Modern Art, where it provided depth and richness to diverse narratives about race and the Great Migration.” 

The Terra Foundation ensures its collection is widely accessible by maintaining a comprehensive database of the collection on the foundation’s website and lending artworks to exhibitions that travel internationally, as well as collaboratively organizing focused shows with partner institutions.   “For example, six works by Chase—three pastels and three paintings—from the collection will be included in the 2016–17 retrospective William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master, which we co-organized in close collaboration with the Phillips Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia, all of which will host the exhibition,” said Terra Foundation Curator Katherine Bourguignon.

Since 2005 more than 800 Terra Foundation objects have been loaned to nearly 150 projects at venues around the world. On average, 20% of the Terra Foundation’s collection is on view annually, compared to the general average of 5% for most museums. Additionally, approximately 35 paintings from the collection have been on long-term loan to the Art Institute of Chicago and are currently on view in the museum’s American galleries. Together, the collections of the Terra Foundation and the Art Institute provide one of the nation’s most comprehensive presentations of American art.