HOUSTON, TX.- An elegant portrait of a lady by Joshua Johnson, one of America’s first established Black painters; a pair of drawings by Th閛dore G閞icault that reveal his ideas for what became an iconic painting of the 19th century, his Raft of the Medusa; a stunning Tamara de Lempicka portrait that until this year remained in the same family, a gift from the artist almost 90 years ago—each of these remarkable works of art, and more, are among the roster of recent acquisitions by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, “Each of these acquisitions is extraordinary in its own right, but together they expand the stories that we can tell and deepen the connections that our visitors can make with the art in our galleries. This group includes a fanciful 17th-century French tapestry from a sought-after series; one of the most important rediscoveries from the Grand Ducal workshops of Renaissance Florence; singular works by 19th-century artists Joshua Johnson and Th閛dore G閞icault; sensitive portraits by Joshua Reynolds and by Tamara de Lempicka, whose painting joins its related study, already in our collection; and a recent Angel Otero painting, one of the artist’s signature, dreamlike tableaux of memory and personal history.”

Highlights of this most recent acquisitions roster are below, with images and additional details available in the press kit:

The Medici-Farnese Table. c. 1620. This important rediscovery was commissioned by Cosimo II de’ Medici as a gift to Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma. Designed by Jacopo Ligozzi and made by Giovanni Battista Sassi, the pietra dura table was long known only through archival references and a surviving full-scale design. It is a rare example of the artistic ambitions of the Grand Ducal workshops of Renaissance Florence, at one of their most refined and intellectually fertile periods. Made of marble, it is inset with glass and a range of stones, including jasper, carnelian, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, puddingstone and fluorite. The table will go on view this fall in the European galleries of the MFAH.

The Offering to the God Pan, c. 1690–1730. This French wool and silk tapestry was made by the Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory, established in 1664 by the finance minister to Louis XIV. The tapestry belongs to the Berain Grotesques, a popular series composed of six tapestries presenting scenes linked by a decorative vocabulary rather than a continuous narrative. The fanciful figures in this tapestry from the series include dancing women with tambourines, a goat, and a statue of Pan, the Greek god of fertility and rustic music. They symbolize the sort of revelry inspired by Pan and the wine god Bacchus, who were celebrated at lively feasts during antiquity.

Portrait of a Woman, c. 1770. Sir Joshua Reynolds. This beautifully fluid painting is a rare unfinished portrait by Reynolds. The picture has been dated to around 1770, the moment when the artist secured his reputation as the dominant artistic figure in Britain. It was a reputation made, in part, thanks to his ability to paint women; during the 1770s, Reynolds made a series of spectacular full-length portraits of female patrician sitters which he exhibited to great critical acclaim at the Royal Academy. Unlike those grand, formal works, this intimate study demonstrates Reynolds’s ability to capture character as well as his technical virtuosity. The portrait will go on view at Rienzi, the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts, this month.

Lady on a Red Sofa, c. 1820-25. Joshua Johnson. While the American-art collection of the MFAH already holds paintings by several 19th-century African-American artists, acquiring a work by Joshua Johnson, one of the first known professional African-American artists in the United States, has been a longtime priority. One of his last known portraits, this painting was also one of the earliest to be attributed to Johnson; it was included in the first landmark exhibition dedicated to the artist’s work, at the Peale Museum, Baltimore in 1948. The sitter remains unidentified, but the details of her wardrobe display Johnson’s attention to the fashion and material culture of Baltimore’s middle class of the early 19th century. The painting is on view in the American-art galleries of the MFAH.

Study for the Raft of the Medusa (recto) & Study of a man lying down, left arm raised (verso) c.1818. Theodore G閞icault. One of the pioneers of the French Romantic movement, G閞icault is best known for his monumental history painting of 1819, The Raft of the Medusa at the Louvre, which depicts the aftermath of the 1816 wreck of the French naval frigate M閐use. This double-sided sheet has preparatory drawings for this iconic painting. One drawing reveals how the artist was working out the composition for the painting in its final stage with the sailor atop a barrel unfurling a cloth to signal a distant ship; the other sketch highlights one of its key figures who strains to rise. G閞icault used as his model the young artist Eug鑞e Delacroix.

Monumental Blue-and-White Porcelain depicting Byōdō-in ca. 1900 At some two feet high as well as around, this monumental vessel is an ambitious and technically sophisticated example of Japanese porcelain produced during the Meiji period, when leading manufactories sought to establish Japan’s prominence in the global decorative-arts market. Its large scale, refined underglaze cobalt decoration and sculptural relief elements distinguish it from more standard export wares and reflect the innovation associated with Koransha Co. Ltd., which supplied the Imperial Household. The decoration depicts the Byōdō-in Temple near Kyoto, including the famed Phoenix Hall (Amida-dō). Given its complexity, size and importance, the vessel was almost certainly created for a World’s Fair, most likely the 1914 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.

Her Sadness [Sa tristesse], 1923. Tamara de Lempicka. This pivotal canvas is the second of the many paintings Tamara de Lempicka devoted to her lover Ira Perrot. She chose to sign it, as well as the related study in the MFAH collection, with the masculine version of her name, believing that would give her a better chance of being exhibited at the Paris Salons. Her strategy succeeded, and Her Sadness debuted at the 1923 Salon des Ind閜endants. Lempicka brought Her Sadness to the United States when she sought refuge in 1939, where she gave it to the prominent philanthropist Judith Wertheim Bookman, and it remained in that family’s collection until its acquisition by the museum. The painting and its study are on view in the modern and contemporary galleries of the MFAH.

M鷖ica sin luz, 2024. Angel Otero. Otero paints and collages dreamlike scenes on his vibrant structured canvases, depicting objects and spaces that are loosely based on personal memories. Probing the boundaries of figuration and abstraction, Otero’s most recent works continue to expand the possibilities of painting and materiality. In M鷖ica sin luz, Otero reflects on “Puerto Rico’s blackouts and the glow of candlelight. Water has risen, but not in despair. Instead, the piece radiates quiet hope—a reflection of my island, my past, and how I see and create today. Though the tones are dark, a soft orange-red glow suggests a doorway, an exit, a light.”