The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced an exceptional bequest of over 375 works from the late Jayne Wrightsman (1919–2019). The bequest includes significant gifts to the departments of Drawings and Prints, European Paintings, and European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, as well as to the Department of Asian Art, the Department of Islamic Art, and The Watson Library. In total, the longtime donor and trustee Jayne and her husband Charles Wrightsman (1895–1986) have given more than 1,275 works to The Met, including masterpieces such as Johannes Vermeer’s Study of a Young Woman and Peter Paul Rubens’s self-portrait with his family.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Queen Henrietta Maria, 1636
Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman in honor of Annette de la Renta, 2019, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A highlight of the bequest is Van Dyck’s portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, in which the pregnant queen of England cradles her arms above her abdomen while standing next to a crown that advertises her rank.
A selection of works from Jayne Wrightsman’s bequest will be on display from 15 November 2019 through 16 February 2020, including 22 paintings by Canaletto, Delacroix, Géricault, van Dyck, Tiepolo, Seurat and others. The Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts will exhibit 55 small objects in Gallery 545, and the Department of Drawings and Prints will present works on paper from the Wrightsman Collection alongside several exquisitely bound rare books.