European art from Boston to Tokyo

Monet paintings in Tokyo from MFA Boston. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN

Paintings from the collection of European art from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston have traveled to Tokyo for an exhibition at the Mori Art Center. The exhibition presents 80 masterpieces by about 50 such prominent artists as Rembrandt, Velazquez, El Greco, Picasso and van Gogh.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a collection of about 1,600 European paintings, which normally do not leave the museum.

The exhibition in Tokyo covers 500 years of European art and showcases different themes, including portraits, religious paintings and still lifes. The exhibition has different sections. First is the portrait gallery, with works by Rembrandt, Manet and Picasso.

The next room holds religious paintings by Spanish artists El Greco and Murillo. Impressionism, a well-known movement in Japan, has its own section in the exhibition, which features works by Monet, Degas and Cézanne.

The pieces have been placed strategically to show the relationship between the different artists. For example, Cézanne’s “The Pond” (ca. 1877–79) is next to van Gogh’s “Houses at Auvers” (1890). Cézanne lived in Auvers for two years in the 1870s.

The exhibition is on view through June 20 at the Mori Art Center and will travel to the Museum of the City in Kyoto from July 6 to August 29.