Magnificent Gifts for the 75th

February 13, 2010— April 4, 2010

European Collection

Marion and I and our children are pleased to know that the paintings we have loved and lived with will become part of the Nelson-Atkins, where others will enjoy them for years to come.
– Henry Bloch

Marion and Henry Bloch’s promised gift of 29 Impressionist masterworks by artists such as Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Pierre Bonnard will dramatically transform the European collection.

First presented to the public in a special exhibition celebrating the opening of the Museum’s Bloch Building in 2007, these magnificent paintings reflect the Blochs’ passion for beauty and reveal the formal innovations of the artists who introduced modern ways of seeing and depicting the world.

Bonnard’s The White Cupboard and Seurat’s The Channel at Gravelines, Petit-Fort-Philippe are two of the paintings on view. Robert and Barbara Bloch’s promised gift of Armand Guillaumin’s Impressionist Landscape, Île de France and Joseph F. McCrindle’s gift of Gaetano Gandolfi’s 18th-century drawing King David have brought additional depth to the European collection.

Click here to read more about the promised gift from Marion and Henry Bloch.

Pierre Bonnard
French, 1867–1947
The White Cupboard, 1931
Oil on canvas
Promised gift of Marion and Henry Bloch, 11.2007.28
© 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.


Eugène Boudin
French, 1824–1898
Boats Decorated with Flags in the Port of Deauville 1895
Oil on panel
Promised gift of Marion and Henry Bloch, 11.2007.3

Jean-Baptiste-Armand Guillaumin
French, 1841–1927
Landscape, Île de France, ca. 1876–1877
Oil on canvas
Promised gift of Robert L. and Barbara Bloch in honor of his parents, Henry and Marion Bloch, and the 75th anniversary of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 27-1989