Monday Moments for Friends, Fellows, and Partners
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Friends, Fellows, and Partners are invited to enjoy two new exhibitions in a quiet setting while the museums are closed. — We invite Friends, Fellows, and Partners of the museums to explore two fascinating exhibitions at their own pace through a self-guided visit: On Location: Drawing the Outdoors (September 18, 2026–January 17, 2027) and The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection (August 29, 2026–May 9, 2027). In the exhibition On Location: Drawing the Outdoors , discover how an intimate relationship with nature shaped the artistic vision of 19th-century European artists. Featuring approximately 140 sketches, watercolors, and pastels by artists including J. M. W. Turner, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh, the exhibition is organized as a series of thematic journeys through the landscape and explores changing ideas about nature, environmental awareness, and artistic identity. It invites visitors to reflect on why these artists’ experiences of the outdoors continue to resonate today. The Way We Never Were explores how professional photography helped shape Americans’ understanding of life after World War II. Drawn from the Harvard Art Museums’ American Professional Photographers Collection, the exhibition features commissioned photographs of weddings, schools, businesses, and other everyday moments that presented an idealized vision of postwar America. These images not only documented the era but also influenced cultural memory by
