Collectors

James Bowdoin III

Active
1811-1813
Collecting
European paintings, drawings, and prints
Darkly painted portrait of an older white man with gray hair, a ruffled shirt, and a black jacket.

As the son of an avid arts collector and second governor of Massachusetts, James Bowdoin III built on his father’s important cultural legacy by assembling one of United States most significant collections of paintings and drawings. He eventually bequeathed over two hundred objects to the College forming the Museum’s core collection. Bowdoin’s bequest—which created one of the first public collections in the country—included 141 old master drawings and some six dozen paintings, many of which are inspired by antiquity. Bowdoin’s life, travels, and collecting practices illustrate the trend among American elite society of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries towards classicism as an expression of taste and refinement.

 

Related Essay: James Bowdoin III Sean Burrus James Bowdoin III
Collage of drawings of four busts
Portraits of Greek and Roman figures Johan Faber the Elder 1710
Rough brown ink sketch with several nude classical figures and cherubs.
Copy after the antique Unknown Artist 1500–1600
Delicate red chalk drawing of four female figures looking in shock at something happening outside the image's frame.
The Rape of Europa Pietro Antonio De Pietri 1663–1716
Delicate red chalk drawing of a nude goddess reaching down to a kneeling male accompanied by hunting dogs. A chariot hangs in the sky behind Venus.
Venus and Adonis Francisco Vieira Lusitano ca. 1725
Bluish drawing of five male figures surrounding an obelisk. The primary figure reaches toward its tip while another figure kneels below him.
An Augur and Four Figures Around an Obelisk After Polidoro da Caravaggio 1580–1640
Light ink drawing of a seated male figure gazing at two standing female figures, surrounded by trees.
The Choice of Hercules Taddeo Zuccaro ca. 1543–1566
Painting of a Roman general bowing before a seated figure and a woman while a group of soldiers looks on. Smoke fills the sky from a distant battle.
The Continence of Scipio John Smibert ca. 1726
Alternate view of Painting of a nude woman reaching for a man who holds a spear and two leashed dogs while a cherub watches. A rainbow fills the sky above them.
Venus and Adonis Unknown Artist after 1804
Portrait of a Native American man with long black hair, draped in a blue sheet and posed in front of a tree with blue sky in the background.
Portrait of Reverend Samson Occom Nathaniel Smibert ca. 1751–1756
Portrait of a white-haired man wearing a black suit and sitting upright in a red armchair in front of a column.
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson Gilbert Stuart ca. 1805–1807
Tinted print of the bust of a man with curly hair and a long curly beard, looking at the viewer with sad eyes. "Demosthenes" printed below, above faint text.
Homer Johan Faber the Elder 1710
Tinted print of the bust of a man in profile, with long curly hair and beard. "Plato Aristonis E Atheniensis" printed below, above faint text.
Plato Johan Faber the Elder 1710
1813.61
Demosthenes Johan Faber the Elder 1710
1813.64
Cicero Johan Faber the Elder 1710