Van Gogh to Munch: European Masterworks from the Armand Hammer Foundation and Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation

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The paintings on view from the Hammer Foundation represent just a small fraction of the ravishing collection put together by Dr. Armand Hammer (1898-1990), perhaps best known for the extraordinary works of art he gifted to his namesake, the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1965 through 1990. The works on loan complement beautifully many of the most beloved works of art in the Museum’s collection of 19th-century French art and have been installed so as to demonstrate this easy dialogue. Works by Corot, Chagall, Degas, Fantin-Latour, Morisot, and Renoir from the Hammer Foundation are presented side-by-side with canvases by the same or related masters from the Museum’s own collection or from area private collections. Native Texan Sarah Campbell Blaffer (1885-1975) formed her Foundation in 1964. Its collection, much of which is on semi-permanent display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, comprises mostly old master paintings dating from the Renaissance through the 18th century. The large canvases by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) are powerful embodiments of Western sensibilities at the turn of the last century, and the paintings by Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) and Max Beckmann (1884-1950) exemplify the German adaptation between the World Wars of French avant-garde technique. IMAGE: Berthe Morisot, Young Girl with a Dog (Jeune fille au chien), c. 1887. Oil on canvas. Michael Armand Hammer and the Armand Hammer Foundation.