ARTISTS
The Sassoons
The exhibition highlights the Sassoon family鈥檚 pioneering role in trade, art collecting, architectural patronage, and civic engagement from the early 19th century through World War II through over 120 works鈥攑aintings, decorative arts, illuminated manuscripts, and Judaica鈥攁massed by family members and borrowed from numerous private and public collections. Highlights include lavishly decorated Hebrew manuscripts from as early as the 12th century; Chinese art and ivory carvings; rare Jewish ceremonial art; Western masterpieces including paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and magnificent portraits by John Singer Sargent of various Sassoon family members. The Sassoons explores themes such as discrimination, diaspora, colonialism, global trade, and war that not only shaped the history of the family but continue to define our world today.
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The exhibition highlights the Sassoon family鈥檚 pioneering role in trade, art collecting, architectural patronage, and civic engagement from the early 19th century through World War II through over 120 works鈥攑aintings, decorative arts, illuminated manuscripts, and Judaica鈥攁massed by family members and borrowed from numerous private and public collections. Highlights include lavishly decorated Hebrew manuscripts from as early as the 12th century; Chinese art and ivory carvings; rare Jewish ceremonial art; Western masterpieces including paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and magnificent portraits by John Singer Sargent of various Sassoon family members. The Sassoons explores themes such as discrimination, diaspora, colonialism, global trade, and war that not only shaped the history of the family but continue to define our world today.
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On view from March 3 through August 13, 2023, the exhibition follows four generations from Iraq to India, China, and England, featuring a rich selection of works collected by family members over time.
With The Sassoons, the Manhattan museum missed an opportunity to look more critically at the family鈥檚 opium trade, and to delve into the lives of its women.
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