Early European Art August 27, 2008

The Milwaukee Art Museum officially launched its collection of early European art in 1957 when the Board of Trustees made a commitment to enlarge the scope of the Museum's Collection with the grand opening of the new Milwaukee Art Center. Francisco Zurbaran's St. Francis of Assisi in His Tomb was one of the first works acquired for the museum. Today, the Milwaukee Art Museum boasts rich holdings of 17th-century Dutch painting, 18th-century French painting and Sevres porcelain, and 18th-century English portraiture. Notable among the collections are a 16th-century Brabant-Brussels tapestry, Nardo di Cione's Madonna and Child, a Dutch Caravaggesque painting by Mathias Stom, a Shepherdess by Jean-Honore Fragonard, and an engaging portrait of a little girl by Francis Cotes.