Collectors’ Items

Works by Picasso, Homer, Cassatt, Hassam, Rivera, and many more of the world’s most acclaimed artists will take up residence at the McMullen Museum of Art, thanks to a monumental donation from the private collection of Peter Lynch ’65, H’95, P’01 and his late wife, Carolyn. In total, 27 paintings and three drawings worth more than $20 million will make their new permanent home in the stately museum perched atop the Brighton Campus of Boston College. Lynch also donated $5 million to support the ongoing curation and exhibition of what will be called the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch Collection.

“I know that the collection was sought after by other museums, but I wanted it to go to my alma mater, which dramatically improved my life, and where my father taught mathematics and physics, my wife proudly received an honorary degree in 2009, and my daughter Annie spent four wonderful and productive years,” asserts Lynch. “I am an extremely lucky person who has been so blessed in life. Giving this collection to Boston College is a small way for me to give back.”

The quality of the collection has attracted attention outside of Boston College. Notably, Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., the consultative curator of American art at Harvard University’s Fogg Museum and former curator of American paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, described the collection as “an extraordinary compilation of artwork” that includes masterpieces any museum in the nation would desire.

“This collection reflects Peter and his love of the sea and nature,” said Stebbins. “He and Carolyn acquired wonderful seascapes and marine paintings, as well as remarkable non-marines that include some of the masterpieces of the collection such as Martin Johnson Heade’s Orchid and Hummingbirds Near a Mountain Lake, which is an extraordinary painting and the best Heade orchid artwork ever painted.

“Winslow Homer’s Grace Hoops is an unusual, wonderful, touching painting about young women at that age, and Albert Bierstadt’s Newport Rocks is a gem; there is nothing like it. Bradford’s Among the Ice Floes is a stunning painting, representing Bradford at his absolute best. Each painting is beautiful and tells a unique story of American life. It is an extraordinary collection for Boston College and the community.”