Art Eyewitness Review: Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Philadelphia Museum of Art 

June 6 - October 11, 2026

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

Two of Vincent van Gogh's paintings are currently hanging side-by-side in Gallery 251 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Colket Gallery 251 is a relatively small display space and the two paintings by Van Gogh are the only actual works of art currently on view there. The accompanying wall text is complemented by several illustrations of other sunflower paintings by Van Gogh. 

That's all you'll see in Gallery 251, making this a perfect example of what museum curators call a "focused exhibition."

The two paintings, depicting earthenware vases filled with sunflowers, rank very high among Van Gogh's masterpieces. Moreover, each of these oil paintings is a signature work for their home museum, the National Gallery, London, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA)

 The Sunflowers from the National Gallery (London) appears at left;

at right, the Sunflowers from the PMA collection.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers are presented simply, even modestly, together. There is no room for elaborate or intriguing display techniques in Gallery 251. Nor is there any need. These powerful works of art - dare I say "icons" - can speak for themselves. And they do speak, directly to us and on several levels of communication.

The two Sunflowers in Gallery 251 date from the Dutch painter's sojourn in Provence, 1888-1889. Technically speaking, these paintings are very much of the still-life genre. Nature morte is how they would be described in French. Dead nature.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026)

Gallery view of Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the PMA

Very few people crowding into the PMA's Gallery 251 would, I think, categorize either of the two Sunflower paintings as examples of "dead nature." 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Gallery view of Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the PMA. Illustrations of all seven of   

Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers are shown here.

These remarkable works of art and five other paintings of sunflowers were executed in two bursts of creative energy. The first occurred in August 1888, with Van Gogh painting four works intended to decorate the Studio of the South in Arles. All four were painted within the span of a single week.

Later, following the disastrous break with Gauguin, Van Gogh painted three additional Sunflowers in January 1889. These were repetitions of the earlier works from the summer, done from memory!

The seven Van Gogh Sunflowers confound their status as still-life paintings. Yes, they are depictions of flowers, severed from their roots, and placed in a vase. Yet, as the two paintings on view in Gallery 251 demonstrate, they exude a life force that is palpable.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers from the PMA collection

Standing in front of the Philadelphia Museum's Sunflowers can be an uncanny experience. There is a sense of "being" to the painting, difficult to locate but very much there. It is like feeling the presence of another person or creature before you see them. 

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Gallery view of Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the PMA

In the case of one of the August 1888 Sunflowers, the work itself no longer exists. The version with a striking dark blue background had been purchased by a Japanese admirer of Van Gogh in 1920. During the final days of World War II, this Sunflowers was destroyed in the bombardment of Osaka by the U.S. Air Force.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026)

A color photo, taken in 1921, of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers,1888.

 The original painting was destroyed in 1945 during World War II.

Incredibly, an early color photo had been taken of the Sunflowers before its destruction. The photo was then lost from view for decades. In 2013, the art scholar, Martin Bailey, discovered the photo while researching his book on Van Gogh, The Sunflowers are Mine.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026)

Gallery view of Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the PMA

Van Gogh's Sunflowers pack incredible power in whatever configuration they appear. These astonishing works of art also show that the emotional highs and lows of Van Gogh's life did not determine the quality - and quantity - of his paintings. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Van Gogh's Sunflowers from the National Gallery (London) collection

The National Gallery's Sunflowers, arguably the most important of the entire series, was painted in August 1888. When Van Gogh set to work on the initial group of Sunflowers, he was in an optimistic mood and at the height of his powers. Plans for the Studio of the South were underway and he was about to paint the luminous Starry Night on the Rhone  and Cafe Terrace at Night.

Van Gogh was in a very different frame of mind in January 1889, when he painted a trio of "renditions" of the summer 1888 Sunflowers. The resulting paintings restated the earlier works without being exact copies. The Philadelphia Sunflowers evokes the version in the Neue Pinakothek Munich, one of the first of Van Gogh's paintings to enter a major museum collection. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Color illustrations contrasting the Sunflowers from the Neue Pinakothek Munich, 1888 (at left), with the PMA's Sunflowers, 1889

Despite the anguish of his time in the mental hospitals of Arles and St. Remy, Van Gogh continued to make plans for new paintings and arrangements of his work.

In a May 1889 letter to Theo, illustrated with a quick sketch, Van Gogh outlined his plans to use his Sunflowers to greater effect.

Van Gogh explained that he intended to use two of the paintings in tandem with a portrait of the wife of Joseph-Etienne Roulin, the postal inspector from Arles. The triptych. would evoke the reverence to motherhood accorded to the Virgin Mary, albeit arranged in a more secularized format.

With either the Munich or the PMA version to one side and the National Gallery painting on the other, Madam Roulin is placed in the middle. She is shown holding the rope used in rocking an infant's cradle, earning her the title of "berceuse." This can be translated as "lullaby" or singer of a lullaby.

Vincent van Gogh, La Berceuse, 1889

 Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Van Gogh never had the opportunity to publicly display his triptych. That had to wait until 2024, when the National Gallery in London celebrated its bicentennial.  

The British art community had been slow to appreciate the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Vincent van Gogh. As the 100th anniversary of the venerable museum on Trafalgar Square approached in 1924, the National Gallery's director, Charles John Holmes, determined to rectify the situation.

With the financial support of the textile magnate Samuel Courtauld, Holmes entered into negotiation with Van Gogh's sister-in-law and guardian of his oeuvre, Jo van Gogh-Bonger. The complicated incident is best described in the recent biography of van Gogh-Bonger by Hans Luijten.

When the ink dried on the contract, the National Gallery had succeeded in purchasing Sunflowers and another Van Gogh masterpiece, Van Gogh's Chair. The Van Gogh family was handsomely paid for its treasures. Happy ending!

For its 200th anniversary, the National Gallery mounted Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers. The highlight of the show was the exhibition of the Sunflowers/La Berceuse triptych.  Van Gogh's dream had finally come true.

Yet, Van Gogh would likely have found grounds for comment, if not complaint. Of necessity, the curators at the National Gallery had to display the three paintings in their ornate frames, set at spacious intervals. Van Gogh conceived the arrangement much more simply, the three works grouped closely together.

Anne Lloyd, Photos, left & right (2026)

 An imagined view of Van Gogh's Sunflowers/La Berceuse triptych

To provide closure, I created an imaginative digital display more in keeping with Van Gogh's conception, as outlined in his letter to Theo.

The National Gallery has sent its Sunflowers to help the Philadelphia Museum of Art celebrate its 150th anniversary. Jennifer Thompson, the PMA curator of the exhibition, wisely decided against attempting the triptych format again. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Jennifer Thompson, curator of Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Thompson, recently promoted to Deputy Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the PMA, is one of today's great scholars of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. She well knows the "back-story" of the Philadelphia Sunflowers.and the importance of allowing this masterpiece to tell its side of the story.

Unlike London, Philadelphia during the 1920's had plenty of Post-Impressionist paintings. Unfortunately, the majority of these works were in the collection of Dr. Albert Barnes. These were "off-limits" to everyone, except the students enrolled in the Barnes Foundation. We won't repeat this controversial story here, but suffice to say that lovers of Van Gogh's paintings had little to see at the PMA until Carroll S.Tyson Jr. came to rescue.

Tyson (1878-1956) was a cousin of John Singer Sargent. A business and civic leader in Philadelphia, Tyson was also a very accomplished artist. His paintings of American bird species gained him such acclaim that his carefully selected art collection was hardly noticed. Upon his death, Tyson's Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces were donated to the PMA.

With Renoir's Great Bathers, Cezanne's Millstone in the Park of the Chateau Noir and Van Gogh's Sunflowers hanging on its walls, the PMA now ranked as one of the greatest collections of French 19th century art.

With paintings of this caliber from the Tyson Collection, it seems almost a sacrilege to present them except in the direct, unpretentious manner with which the PMA's Sunflowers is currently displayed. The same is true for the National Gallery Sunflowers by its side.

Van Gogh said that he wished to create "a symphony in blue and yellow" with his Sunflowers. He certainly achieved that goal. But, in addition, he managed to capture the golden sun of Provence and added it to his palette. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026)

Gallery view of Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the PMA

Painting on Size 30 canvas sheets, Vincent van Gogh created the two astonishing works of art now hanging on the walls of Gallery 251 of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The sun light of Provence is shining from them still.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Original photography: Copyright of Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Introductory Image: Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. At left, is the National Gallery, London, Sunflowers, August 1888. At right, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Sunflowers, January 1889.

Anne Lloyd (2026) and Ed Voves (2026) Various gallery views of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Colket Gallery 251.

Anne Lloyd (2026) Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, August 1888. Oil on canvas: 36.2 x 28.7 in. (92.1 x 73 cm) National Gallery (London).

Anne Lloyd (2026) Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, January 1889. Oil on canvas: 36 3/8 x 28 in. (92.4 x 73.1 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art collection.

Anne Lloyd (2026) Color illustration of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, August 1888. Oil on canvas, mounted on panel: 36 1/4 x 28 3/8 in. (92 x 73 cm.) Neue Pinakothek, Munich, collection.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Color illustration of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, August 1888. Oil on canvas, mounted on panel: 38 9/16 x 27 1/8 in. ( 98 x 69 cm.) Destroyed 1945 in Allied bombing of Japan. This color photo was published in 1921. Archives of Mushakoji Saneatsu Museum, Tokyo.

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) Excerpt of a letter to Theo van Gogh, from St. Remy, Provence, on or about May 23, 1889. Wikimedia Commons: Letter 592. (Letter is listed as #776 in Vincent van Gogh, a Life in Letters, published by Thames & Hudson, 2020. 

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle, Augustine-Alix Roulin, 1851-1930) Oil on canvas: 36 1/2 x 29 in. (92.7 x 73.7 cm.) Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Art Eyewitness Review: Rising Up - Rocky Statue Exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments

Philadelphia Museum of Art

April 25- August 2, 2026

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original photography by Anne Lloyd

In January 1976, the Chartoff-Winkler Production Company began on-location filming in Philadelphia of a movie devoted to boxing. With a script written by a struggling young actor, Sylvester Stallone, the film was a big-screen adaptation of a familiar Hollywood genre, the "underdog" hero who battles the odds.

Using the recently-invented "steady-cam" motion picture camera, the unforgettable run of Rocky Balboa, a "bum from the neighborhood", up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was recorded. It would prove to be a moment of movie magic.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) 

The fabled "Rocky" steps. Gonna Fly Now!!! 

There was not much attention paid to the film production during the winter/spring months of 1976. It was the year of the Bicentennial. Americans were busy preparing for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the United States.

Rocky, when it was released by United Artists in December 1976, was a popular hit and a critical success. Fifty years on, this Academy Award-winning movie, along with its five sequels and the spin-off Creed series, is one of the most universally embraced films in cinematic history. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (1976 & 2024) 

The view from the "Rocky" steps of Philadelphia's skyline, then and now

The impact of Rocky is so great that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently mounting an exhibition using the film as a "take-off" point. This is a significant point to note, as there is very little in Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments by way of memorabilia from the film - with one very powerful exception. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Rocky, sculpted by A.Thomas Schomberg (1980),

 and given by Sylvester Stallone to the City of Philadelphia

That exception is the statue of Rocky, raising his arms in triumph. Sculpted by A.Thomas Schomberg (born, 1943) in 1980 and then cast in bronze, the statue was originally intended as a movie "prop" for Rocky III, released in 1982.

The statue has been the subject of both adulation and criticism. An initial proposal for the statue to remain at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), following Rocky III, was rejected. But the bronze Rocky eventually made its way back to a street-level sanctuary on the side of the museum, not  - initially - the steps.  A constant stream of visitors over the years turned it into a veritable pilgrimage site.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)

The Rocky Statue, on view on the northwest side of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, before its placement in the Rising Up exhibition

Now the once-spurned movie "prop" is inside the museum. Outside, at the top of the "Rocky Steps" is a second version, owned by Sylvester Stallone and on loan to the PMA. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

A "Rocky" moment on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art 

Thus, people can see the Rocky "twins" and still run-up the steps, raising their arms to the sky like champions. And they do - an estimated 4 million per year, rivaling the number of visitors to the Statue of Liberty.

The Rocky experience is obviously a response to some primal human need or compulsion. Indeed, mythic is not too strong a word to use in relation to the Rocky phenomenon. This is especially true when the statue is contrasted with the images of Greek gods and goddesses, looming above on the pediment of the museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Rocky, with Carl Jennewein's Western Civilization Pediment

The current exhibition at the PMA seeks to address the reason why Rocky has struck such a chord.

Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments investigates the way that the sport of boxing has influenced and inspired popular conceptions of what it means to be a champion and how society regards, rewards or ignores such heroics. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Paul Farber of Monument Lab, with Jacqui Frazier-Lyde,

 daughter of Joe Frazier, at the press preview for

 Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments

Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments is organized by a guest curator, Paul Farber, director and co-founder of Monument Lab. This Philadelphia-based organization is dedicated to re-imagining public spaces and the statues and monuments which are placed there In order to promote social justice and community well-being.

As its title proclaims, the Rocky-inspired exhibition is dedicated to "rising up." This process, ironically, involves many a "knock out." Surveying the sport of boxing, Farber shows how marginalized ethnic groups have won respect due to the courage, grit and fighting skills of heroes from their ranks.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Mahroni Young's Right to the Jaw, 1926-27

A selection of carefully-chosen art works and artifacts illustrates the long historical lineage of Rocky Balboa. 

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Neck Amphora from ancient Greece, 510-490 BC, showing a

 boxing match created in the Archaic Black Figure technique 

In ancient Greece, boxing entered the list of approved sports in the Olympics in 688 BC. As a result, boxers from small city-states could compete - and sometimes beat - opponents from more powerful rivals. The most famous Greek boxer was the undefeated champion, Claucis, c. 520 BC. Glaucis was a citizen of Carystus, often dominated and bullied by Athens - but not in the boxing ring!

During the late 18th and early 19th century, boxing as we know it today was largely created in England. The sport was dominated by Daniel Mendoza (1764-1836), a highly-skilled Jewish fighter, and Tom Molineaux (1784-1818) a rugged African-American boxer. Molineaux fought a highly publicized bout against the reigning champion, Tom Cribb, losing in what many regarded as a "rigged" encounter. But he gained widespread respect, serving as the inspiration for one of the Staffordshire figurines shown below.                                                                        

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Staffordshire Pottery Figurines from England, c. 1815. The African American boxer, Tom Molineaux, at left, vs Tom Cribb.

Closer to our era is Joe Louis (1914-1981). The "Brown Bomber" (as Louis was called) is represented in the exhibition by an unsettling portrait sculpture by Ruth Yates. Louis, a powerful fighter with 66 wins, 3 defeats, held the heavy-weight title longer than any other boxer (1937-1949). He was also a deeply humane and generous man. The stern, emotion-drained countenance of this sculpture is almost unrecognizable compared to the photos of Louis included in the exhibition.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Marble sculpture portrait of Joe Louis, created by Ruth Yates,1940;

 photo of Joe Louis, taken by Carl van Vechten, September 15,1941

Joe Louis became a folk hero to African Americans in the still-segregated U.S. of the 1930's. By virtue of his manifest humanity, not to mention boxing skill, he was embraced by white Americans, too. 

Sadly, Louis became a tragic hero as well. With most of his earnings siphoned-off by dishonest managers, Louis was hounded by the IRS for unpaid taxes. As a result, he was compelled to fight long-after his prime, when two of his three defeats occurred. Eventually, the "Brown Bomber" was reduced to the humiliation of performing in the professional wrestling circuit.

The saga of Joe Louis sets the stage in Rising Up for the story of a real life "Rocky."  The rise to boxing greatness of Joe Frazier and his epic duels with Muhammad Ali are brought to life with a superb array of works of art, photos and memorabilia - including Frazier's boxing gloves. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

Joe Frazier's Boxing Gloves, made by Everlast, 1970. 

As visitors to the exhibition watch a video recording of the 1971"Fight of the Century," a charge of excitement surges through the gallery.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

 Photo by Larry Morris (New York Times) of Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali

 and video recording of the "Fight of the Century", March 8, 1971 

Joe Frazier was born in 1944 to share-cropper parents in the rural South. Just as Joe Louis sought to escape poverty and racism by joining the Great Migration to Detroit, Frazier did the same, in his case to Philadelphia. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Six Headshots of Joe Frazier, by an Unknown Photographer. 

Private Collection of Joe Hand III

Much like the fictional Rocky Balboa, Frazier honed his boxing skill, slugging beef carcasses in the meat-packing plant where he worked in Philadelphia. From this humble start, Frazier went on to win the Gold Medal for Boxing in the 1964 Olympics.

The similarity between these two working-class heroes, Frazier/Rocky, was deliberately underscored by Stallone in the film script, especially in the way that the blue-collar fighter was pitted against the flamboyant Apollo Creed.

Yet, nothing in fiction or fantasy could ever match the drama of the actual Frazier-Ali fights. 

The Frazier-Ali fights were true battles, inflicting brutal physical punishment and lasting scars on both men. What began as a prize fight developed into a grudge match.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Detail of the Madison Square Garden poster for the March 8, 1971

 "Fight of the Century", original artwork by LeRoy Neimann.

This review is not the place to re-fight the three boxing duels from the 1970's. However, the political factors which impinged upon the relationship between Frazier and Ali do require some commentary here. 

Why? The stated aim of the curator of Rising Up, Paul Farber of Monument Lab, is to promote social justice. Unfortunately, it was the crusading ardor of the late 1960's-70's which helped poison the atmosphere of the Frazier-Ali fights.

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali started-out as close friends. When Ali was stripped of his Heavyweight Boxing title in 1967 for refusing to support the Vietnam War, Frazier stood by Ali. Frazier lent Ali money to support his family and petitioned President Nixon to lift the ban and allow Ali to return to the boxing ring.

A critical incident took place during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics with a huge impact on American society at large and, indirectly, on Ali and Frazier.That year, two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their fists during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem. They did this to show solidarity with the Civil Rights Movement and other social activist causes.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Hank Willis Thomas' Solidarity, 2023, Pace Gallery collection

The resulting furor, coming in the wake of protests over the war in Vietnam, promoted an uncompromising mindset on social discourse throughout the U.S. When Muhammad Ali eventually returned to boxing, he embraced this militancy. But instead of focusing his radical comments directly at the White power structure, Ali took aim at Frazier, whom he lambasted as an "Uncle Tom."

Stunned and embittered by this verbal abuse, Frazier fought with exceptional determination in the first of his bouts with Ali, which he won. Ali responded. By the end of the third and last fight, in Manila in 1975, the duel between the two mighty legends of the ring had become a personal feud.

"They did not fight for the heavyweight title of the world," wrote the noted boxing authority, Jerry Izenberg in 1975. "The way they fought, they were fighting for the championship of each other."

Sadly, there was no reconciliation between Frazier and Ali, though Ali did attend Frazier's funeral in 2011. But the great lesson to be drawn from their rivalry is not a negative one. Ultimately, it is a matter of "rising up."  

At the press preview for Rising Up, Joe Frazier's daughter, Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, spoke movingly about her father, who demonstrated how to "embrace the champion in you."

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

Fifty years later, Rocky's appeal is undiminished. 

Words to live by. "Embrace the champion in you." 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

A Rocky enthusiast embracing her inner champion!

Words to exclaim and exult! Race-up the "Rocky" steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, raise your arms to the sky and let your heart and soul arise.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                          

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) A "Rocky" Moment at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (1976, 2020, 2024, 2025, 2026) Photographs of the "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and visitors doing the "Rocky" run.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)The Rocky statue by A. Thomas Schomberg, 1980. Bronze: 8' 6'' x 4' x 2' (base: 1' 6" x 3' 6" x 3' 6") Gift of Sylvester Stallone to the City of Philadelphia.

Ed Voves,  Photo (2026) Paul Farber of Monument Lab, with Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, daughter of Joe Frazier at the press preview for Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)  Mahroni Young's Right to the Jaw, 1926-27. Roman Bronze Works. Bronze: 15 x 21 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches (38.1 x 54 x 25.7 cm) (overall, including base) Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Neck Amphora from ancient Greece, 510-490 BC. Ceramic Black Figure vessel: 29.5 x 18.5 x 17 cm. Collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Figures of Boxers, Tom Molineaux and Tom Cribb, c. 1815. Staffordshire potteries, England. Pearlglazed earthenware with overglaze painted decoration. Collection of the Winterthur Museum, Delaware.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Ruth Yates's Joe Louis,1940. Vermont marble sculpture: 18 5/16 x 13 x 13 3/8 inches (46.5 x 33 x 34 cm) Wolfsonian-FIU, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Joe Frazier's Boxing Gloves, made by Everlast c. 1970. Red leather: 12 (length) x 7 (width) x 5.5 (depth) x 19 (circumference) inches. Atwater Kent Collection, Drexel University.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monument exhibition, showing a large format photograph by Larry Morris, New York Times, of the March 8, 1971 boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)  Six Headshots of Joe Frazier. Photographer unknown. Private Collection of Joe Hand III.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Detail of the Madison Square Garden poster for the March 8, 1971 boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Original artwork by LeRoy Neimann.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Hank Willis Thomas' Solidarity, 2023. Patina bronze: 86.8 x 24.8 x 36.7 inches (220.5 x 62.9 x 93.2 cm) Pace Gallery, Los Angeles.

 

Art Eyewitness Review: A Nation of Artists, 1776-2026

 

A Nation of Artists, 1776-2026

In collaboration:

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The Middleton Family Collection

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) are joining forces to present a complementary exhibition, celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence from the rule of Great Britain. Over one thousand works of art are displayed in long-term installations which will remain on view through the summer of 2027. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

The Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showing  Augustus St. Gaudens' Diana and video highlights of the

 A Nation of Artists exhibition at the PMA

The galleries at both the PMA and PAFA have been refurbished, reorganized and revitalized. Both the post-Civil War American art wing at the PMA and the venerable Frank Furness-designed building at PAFA, closed for renovation during the last two years, are now open! 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists Exhibition

 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

A Nation of Artists is thus a celebration of these two outstanding institutions, along with the Semiquincentennial of the U.S.A.

And what a celebration! Paintings, sculptures, works of art in every medium command the viewer's attention, even if you've seen them before. Indeed, such are the vast holdings of American art at the PMA and PAFA, that quite a number of works of art have been brought out of storage to take a prominent place in A Nation of Artists. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Charles Burchfield's Hill Top at High Noon, 1925

Charles Burchfield's Hill Top at High Noon is a case in point. Painted in 1925, it entered PAFA's collection three years later. Although Hill Top at High Noon is not graced by the ethereal or numinous elements that are such a marked feature of many of Burchfield's other landscapes, this work has a shimmering grandeur all its own.

 

Searching my memory, I can't recall the last time - or ever - that I saw Hill Top at PAFA. Yet, seeing how Burchfield depicted the billowing clouds rising-up over the summit of the hill evokes a thrilling sensation, not unlike the feeling one has glimpsing the real "thing" in nature.

How glad, too, is the sight of a much more familiar PAFA "icon." This is Winslow Homer's somber, late-career masterpiece, Fox Hunt, painted in 1893. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Winslow Homer's Fox Hunt, 1893

During the hiatus of PAFA's renovation, Fox Hunt went on tour to a number of museums. It featured in the outstanding 2022 Winslow Homer exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery in London. And now, bounding through deep snow, the embattled fox has returned to PAFA. Those nasty crows haven't caught up with him yet!

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Kristen Shepard, President & CEO of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Daniel Weiss, Director & CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The joint displays of American art at the PMA and PAFA are intended to complement each other.  Under the dynamic leadership of Kristen Shepard at PAFA and Daniel Weiss at the PMA, each museum takes a different path to reach the same goal: preserving America's heritage as an investment in its future.

A Nation of Artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art takes a chronological approach in presenting the story of American creative genius. As mentioned above, the main focus is the long-anticipated unveiling of the galleries devoted to art from the Civil War-era through the 1960's. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of A Nation of Artists at the PMA.

 The purple color of the silk dress, c.1866-68, known as magenta,

 was achieved by using a recently invented aniline dye.

Building on the success of the early American wing, opened in 2021, these re-envisioned galleries are devoted to life in the modern-day U.S.A. - as it was lived at the time. These splendid configurations of art, artifacts and furniture mark the culmination of the incredible Core Project redesign of the PMA, which began in 2017. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists exhibition

 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts emphasizes a thematic approach which challenges, as well as honors, many of the cherished notions of American freedom, individuality and enterprise. In quite a number of cases, works of art which had been ignored or marginalized in earlier celebrations of "the rising glory of America" are given their due.

There is much to applaud - and to reflect upon - at both museums. Along with masterpiece paintings like Homer's Fox Hunt, there are marvelous examples of American folk art. The carousel horse carved by the greatest master of the genre, Daniel Carl Mueller (1872-1952) is sure to be a crowd-pleasing favorite. In total contrast is the "death cart" used in religious processions by Hispanic-American communities in New Mexico. Both works of art are displayed at the PMA.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of A Nation of Artists at the PMA. In the foreground is a Carousel Horse, carved by Daniel Mueller, c. 1917

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

 Death Cart (Carreta de la Muerta), 1880-1900, from New Mexico

 

Gaps in collection building inevitably occur in even the greatest of museums.  Thanks to a previously untapped source of major works of art, A Nation of Artists has almost every "base" covered in its expansive coverage of visual art in the United States.

The mystery masterpieces come from a local, Philadelphia, source, the Middleton Family Collection. If you are a baseball fan, you are more likely to have a clue to the Middleton family identity than otherwise.

John S. Middleton, whose family has been a fixture of the Philadelphia business community for over a century, is the managing partner of the Philadelphia Phillies. For many years, Mr. Middleton has been addressing social ills and issues facing disadvantaged people in the Philadelphia area with generous financial support. His wife, Leigh, is a major advocate for helping the homeless.  

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

John S. Middleton at the press preview for A Nation of Artists

Just as John and Leigh Middleton have quietly worked on behalf of the local community, they have amassed - without fanfare - one of the most impressive collections of American art in private hands. They have now joined with the PMA and PAFA, placing 120 works from their collection on display in both venues for A Nation of Artists.

The first painting purchased by the Middletons was one of the most important portraits in American art history. To use baseball terminology, this "lead-off hitter" of the Middleton Family Collection blasted a "grand-slam" home run.

In 1779, Charles Willson Peale was commissioned by the state government of Pennsylvania to paint a portrait of George Washington. The occasion to be celebrated was both rare and important: an American military victory, the January 1777 Battle of Princeton.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Charles Willson Peale's George Washington at Princeton, 1779

Peale's portrait was such a success that a further eight copies were painted. Several were sent overseas with American diplomats who were seeking military and financial aid for the Patriot cause. The copy which the Middletons purchased was one of these, which the emissary to Spain, William Carmichael from Maryland, took with him on his mission to Madrid.

The Middletons' success with George Washington at Princeton should not obscure the magnitude of their subsequent purchases. Thanks to their acute collecting eye and knowledge of history, several holes in the timeline of A Nation of Artists have been filled with major works of art from the Middleton collection. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

A gallery view of A Nation of Artists, showing (from left) Edward Hopper's The Lee Shore, 1941, and Joseph Stella's The Swan, 1924

It should come as no surprise that one of these Middleton treasures is a signature painting by Edward Hopper. After Hopper died in 1967, the bulk of his oeuvre was bequeathed by his wife to the Whitney Museum. PAFA had been the first museum to acquire a Hopper oil painting, Apartment Houses (1923). The PMA (which has an impressive trove of Hopper sketches and etchings) recently acquired a late Hopper, Road and Trees (1962). But these are the only Hopper oil paintings owned by either Philadelphia museum.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Edward Hopper's The Lee Shore, 1941

Sailing to the rescue is Hopper's The Lee Shore (1941) from the Middleton Family Collection. It is a wonderfully strange painting. 

What seems like a calm day is anything but. Sea and land confront each other at point-blank range. A Queen Anne-style home is perched directly on the shore-line without a hint of sandy beach between its front porch and the water. A schooner looks like it is about to run aground on the shoals in front of the vulnerable dwelling. What happens next? That is left to our imaginations.

Andrew Wyeth is another major artist featured in the Middleton Family Collection. PAFA and the PMA both have important Wyeth paintings in their respective collections. Neither have one of Wyeth's celebrated Helga paintings, which gained such notoriety after Time Magazine did a cover story in 1986 about the series.

  Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Andrew Wyeth's, Crown of Flowers,1974

Crown of Flowers (1974) is a brilliant painting, in its own right, and a fitting exemplar of the nearly three hundred works in the Helga series.

I could continue to comment on "show-stoppers" at A Nation of Artists. Follow-up posts in Art Eyewitness will indeed examine in detail both the PAFA and the PMA presentations. But I want to reflect on the significance of the title, A Nation of Artists, and mention a contemporary African-American artist whose works are currently on view elsewhere at the PMA.

In 1782, Benjamin Franklin, then engaged in negotiating the end of the Revolutionary War, wrote an essay for people in Europe who were considering a move to the newly-independent United States.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) 

Joseph Siffred Duplessis' Benjamin Franklin,1778. This portrait appeared in the Visitors to Versailles exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, 2018.

Among those looking for a fresh start in the new nation were motivated idealists, honorable in their intentions. Others were opportunists and adventurers. Some were artists, with a foot in each camp, seeking patronage and commissions. 

Franklin advised them all:

The Truth is, that though there are in that Country few People so miserable as the Poor of Europe, there are also very few that in Europe would be called rich; it is rather a general happy Mediocrity that prevails. There are few great Proprietors of the Soil, and few Tenants; most People cultivate their own Lands, or follow some Handicraft or Merchandise; very few rich enough to live idly upon their Rents or Incomes, or to pay the high Prices given in Europe for Paintings, Statues, Architecture, and the other Works of Art, that are more curious than useful. 

Franklin went on to note that a number of established American artists - "the natural Geniuses, that have arisen in America with such Talents" - had departed to seek opportunity in Europe. He was no doubt thinking of Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley.

What then would Dr. Franklin say about A Nation of Artists, if he could return to his adopted city for a visit?

Judging from his comments, quoted above, I think that Dr. Franklin would have preferred the title A Nation of Artisans.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

        A period room at A Nation of Artists, showing Victorian furniture and the painting, The Lardner Sisters (1848) by Samuel Bell Waugh.

Given the profusion of skillfully-created craft objects on view, Rookwood vases, carved walnut cabinets, oil lamps with glass shades and chimneys and much more, Franklin would likely be pleased  - and impressed. If there are works of art "more curious than useful" displayed in A Nation of Artists, the American genius for combining utility with beauty is everywhere in evidence. 

This American "genius" is evident elsewhere at PAFA and the PMA  - and beyond the doors of these great museums. There is no sense of finality about A Nation of Artists. The exhibits continue and will "keep-on, keeping-on" as long as creative  Americans set to work to make a reality of their visions.

That this is not wishful thinking was brought home to me after my second visit to A Nation of Artists at the PMA. I had been looking forward to visiting the exhibition of paintings of Noah Davis for weeks. A long, cold winter and lots of snow - by Philadelphia standards - kept interfering with my travel plans.

In a way, it was good that I waited until after seeing A Nation of Artists. Noah Davis (1983-2015), I soon realized, was one of the "natural Geniuses, that have arisen in America" as noted by Benjamin Franklin. Davis, moreover, remained on his native soil. 

Noah Davis aimed to present the African-American community of Los Angeles free of stereotypes, filled with down-to-earth humanity and a quiet, unpretentious nobility. Struggling with a rare form of cancer, Davis succeeding in creating an impressive, heart-stirring body of work before he died, aged thirty-seven in 2015. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Paintings by Noah Davis, Pueblo de Rio: Vernon, 2014; Mary Jane, 2008

As long as artists in the U.S.A. devote themselves to their chosen forms of creative expression with the same courage, integrity and skill as Noah Davis, then America is sure to remain "a nation of artists."

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved; Photos: copyright of Ed Voves and Anne Lloyd.                                                   

Introductory Image: Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), showing the artist’s palette of Cecelia Beaux, PAFA collection.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) The Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showing Augustus St. Gaudens' Diana and video highlights of the A Nation of Artists exhibition at the PMA. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA).

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Charles Burchfield's Hill Top at High Noon, 1925. Oil on canvas: 32 × 22 in. (78.7 × 55.9 cm) PAFA collection, #1928.1

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Winslow Homer's Fox Hunt, 1893. Oil on canvas: 38 × 68 1/2 in. (96.52 × 173.99 cm) PAFA collection, #1894.4

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Kristen Shepard, President & CEO of  the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Daniel Weiss, Director & CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists exhibition at the  Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), showing a silk dress, c. 1866-68, colored magenta, by using a recently invented aniline dye. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA).

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the A Nation of Artists exhibition at the PMA, showing a Carousel Horse, carved by Daniel Mueller, c. 1917. PMA collection. #2019-101-1

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Death cart (Carreta de la Muerta), 1880-1900, from  New Mexico. Cottonwood, with spruce wheels: 51 x 25 x 49 inches (129.5 x 63.5 x 124.5 cm) PMA collection. # 2006-85-1.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) John S. Middleton at the joint press preview of A Nation of Artists, April 10, 2026, held at the PMA and PAFA.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Charles Willson Peale's George Washington at Princeton, 1779.  Oil on canvas: 96 1/2 x 61 1/2 in. (243.8 x 156.2 cm.) Middleton Family Collection. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Gallery view showing Edward Hopper's The Lee Shore, 1941, and Joseph Stella's The Swan, 1924.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Edward Hopper's The Lee Shore, 1941. Oil on canvas: 28 ¼ x 43 in. (71.76 x 109.22 cm.) Middleton Family Collection.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Andrew Wyeth's Crown of Flowers, 1974. Dry brush water color: 10 ¼ x 12 ¾ in. Middleton Family Collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018) Joseph Siffred Duplessis' Benjamin Franklin,1778. This portrait appeared in the Visitors to Versailles exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Period room at A Nation of Artists, showing Victorian furniture and the painting, The Lardner Sisters (1848) by Samuel Bell Waugh.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) Paintings by Noah Davis, Pueblo de Rio: Vernon, 2014. Oil on canvas: 69 x 76 in.; Mary Jane, 2008. Oil and acrylic on canvas: 60 x 52 1/4 in. Private collections, on view at the PMA.