Boston is most well-known for the Freedom Trail and its other historical sites, as well as its renowned aquarium. But it is also an increasingly important destination for art enthusiasts. Art Revived has put together this list of the best art museums in Boston based on reputation and popularity.
1. Museum of Fine Arts
Boston’s most famous art museum draws over one million visitors every year to see its more than 450,000 works of art which include paintings by Monet as well as American art by Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. It also frequently has innovative and popular new exhibits such as this year’s “Walk this Way,” an exhibit that traces our fascination with footwear all the way from ancient Egyptian and Nubian sandals to the latest heels designed by Miu Miu.
2. Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum is one of the United State’s most notable small art museums. The paintings, including works by Matisse, Sargent and Botticelli are housed in an intimate setting with low lights and frequently without descriptions, giving its guests the feeling of observing these masterpieces in a private residence. Isabella Stuart Gardner’s will contained several quirky provisions for the management of the museum such as free admission for anyone named Isabella or anyone celebrating their birthday on that particular day.
3. Institute of Contemporary Art
The ICA started its permanent collection in 2006, which includes works by German painter Kai Althoff and sculptor Anish Kapoor, when it moved from its Back Bay location to its current building in the Seaport district. The museum also hosts renowned exhibits such as this year’s controversial Shepard Fairey exhibition.
4. Harvard Art Museum
The Harvard Art Museum’s collections, which are organized into three distinct museums housed under the same roof, focus on Islamic and Indian art in addition to Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Stand-outs works include Ancient Greek pottery as well as paintings by Degas, Picasso and Renoir.
5. Rose Museum of Art
The Rose Museum of Art, while technically twenty minutes outside of the city in Waltham, is owned by Brandeis University and considered one of Boston’s best art museums. It has been mired in controversy ever since Brandeis’s president announced that the Museum would be closed and its art put up for sale in response to the university’s recent downturn in financial circumstances. When faced with an eruption of protests and lawsuits by donors, the University backpedaled and announced that the Museum would be kept open and only some of its works sold. What was all the fuss about? The Museum’s internationally recognized permanent collection includes works by Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning and Andy Warhol.
6. McMullen Museum of Art
Boston College’s art museum’s permanent collection focuses on Gothic and Baroque tapestries as well as Italian paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries and American paintings from Hudson River School artists including James McDougal Hart and James Gale Tyler. It has also hosted several well-received exhibits recently such as a collection of Jewish mosaics from the Roman Empire.
