Recent Gifts

November 1, 2022 | Claudia Einecke

Regular readers of this magazine will remember the bombshell news, in 2019, that the High had been given an astounding twenty-four French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from the collection of Atlanta philanthropists Doris and Shouky Shaheen. This amazing trove, by such celebrated greats as Claude Monet, Amedeo Modigliani, and Henri Matisse, quickly went on view in the heart of our European galleries, on the Second Level of the Stent Family Wing.

Drawing of a young girl sitting on a green upholstered chair holding a small black dog.

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926), Françoise, Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right, 1909, pastel on paper laid down on canvas, Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection, 2021.66.

Painting of a woman holding a large jug in front of a landscape with a building to her left.

Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895), The Water Jug, 1893, oil on canvas, Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection, 2021.509.

Painting of a woman in high-collared dress seated on a green chair.

Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883), Portrait of Madame Jules Guillemet, ca. 1879–1880, oil on canvas, Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection, 2022.47.

But this story didn’t end there. Almost immediately, the Shaheens took steps to augment their great gift and, in just three years, have added four oils and two pastels—important works by (in the order of their purchase) Camille Pissarro, Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Édouard Manet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir.

Drawing of a nude figure seated in a chair reaching towards the white fabric around her ankle.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919), Nude in a Chair, 1885–1890, pastel on paper, Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection, 2022.114.

Painting of a woman seated at a table, pouring a pot of coffee watched by a small dog sitting in a chair.

Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947), The Cup of Coffee, 1907, oil on canvas, Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection, 2021.1.

Painting of a woman in a bonnet mending clothes in front of a wall of potted flowers.

Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903), Mother Jolly Mending, 1874, oil on canvas, Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection, 2019.222.

When you visit the Shaheen Gallery to scope out these new treasures, you will discover that some of them are installed in a novel way: instead of following the usual linear museum hang, the paintings on one wall are hung more densely, in a dynamic pattern reminiscent of how they might have been presented in a private collector’s home with limited wall space. We hope you will enjoy the multiple visual connections this encourages—formal juxtapositions and parallels that might not be so obvious otherwise.