Impressionism to 1945

Edgar Degas spent the winter of 1872 in his mother's native city of New Orleans. It was during his sojourn here that he painted a haunting portrait of his cousin Estelle, who was nearly blind, as she arranged flowers in a vase. Degas' Impressionist colleagues, including Monet and Renoir, are well-represented in the collection.
     
Paintings by their successors, the Fauves, Expressionists, Cubists, and explorers of abstraction offer one of the most exciting aspects of the collection. Outstanding canvases by Braque and Picasso, Vlaminck, Derain, Roualt, Chagall, Kandinsky and Kirschner, are on view. Complementing these is a choice group of works by their Spanish contemporaries, Juan Gris and Joan Miró.