Dallas Museum of Art Celebrates the Exciting Addition of Three Major Works of European Art to Its Renowned Collection

Acquisitions Include a Rare 17th-Century Masterpiece by Jacques Blanchard and Significant Works by Modern Masters Piet Mondrian and Pierre Bonnard

Dallas, TX—January 29, 2018—The Dallas Museum of Art is excited to announce the gift of three major works of European art that reflect the extraordinary generosity of Dallas collectors and their dedication to expanding the Museum’s collection in meaningful ways. “These astonishing acquisitions of a seductive painting by the ‘French Titian’ Jacques Blanchard, a monumental double-sided drawing by Piet Mondrian, and an early 20th-century painting by Pierre Bonnard, will invigorate the Museum’s renowned European collection,” said The Eugene McDermott Director of the DMA, Agustín Arteaga.

Jacques Blanchard, ‘Zeus and Semele,’ c. 1632, oil on canvas

‘Zeus and Semele’ is a recently rediscovered masterwork by the important 17th-century Baroque painter Jacques Blanchard. Although not as well known today–a fate related to the artist’s early death at 37 and resulting scarcity of his work—Blanchard was celebrated in his day for his richly hued and sensual subjects inspired by 16th-century Venetian painting. Through the generosity of collectors Thomas C. and Jeanne Campbell, who gifted this exceedingly rare and remarkable painting to the Museum’s Foundation for the Arts Collection, the DMA continues to expand its Old Master collection with exceptional works of art.

Ann Jacobus Folz’s extraordinary gift of two amazing examples of European Modernism reinforces the Museum’s impressive holdings of early 20th-century art. The first is an impressive scaled, double-sided charcoal drawing by the modern master Piet Mondrian, the eleventh example by Mondrian to enter the collection. The DMA has the second largest holdings of his work in the U.S. thanks to the continued generous giving of Dallas collectors. The front side boasts an evocative, almost painterly drawing that relates closely to the painting ‘Farm Near Duivendrecht, in the Evening’ (c. 1916) in the Museum’s collection. On the back, an abstract composition titled ‘The Sea (Ocean 2)’ reveals the beginning of Mondrian’s move away from representational imagery toward the grid structure that would become a hallmark of later works such as the DMA’s ‘Composition with Large Blue Plane, Red, Black, Yellow, and Gray’ (1921) and ‘Place de la Concorde’ (1938–54).

“This crucial intermediary phase of Mondrian’s stylistic development was, until now, missing from the collection,” noted Nicole Myers, the DMA’s Lillian and James H. Clark Curator of European Painting and Sculpture. “With this gift, our visitors will be able to experience the dramatic transformation of Mondrian’s approach—from Post-Impressionism to Abstraction—as it unfolds across the walls of our galleries.”

With Folz’s incredible gift, the Museum also acquired a significant painting by Pierre Bonnard, its seventeenth work by this influential Modern artist. In spite of the Museum’s deep holdings, Woman with a Lamp (1909) is the first acquisition that captures Bonnard’s transition from the decorative Nabi aesthetic of the 1890s to his more abstract, brightly hued paintings from the 1920s on. A combination of both his early and late styles, this luminous painting infused with a sense of quiet mystery connects the Museum’s collection, bridging the gap from ‘Interior: The Terrasse Children’ (1899) to ‘Nude, Yellow Background’ (c. 1924) and beyond.

Pierre Bonnard, ‘Woman with a Lamp,’ 1909, Dallas Museum of Art.