There are some works of art every person who comes to the Museum of Fine Arts needs to see: obvious star turns by the likes of John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and John Singer Sargent. And then there are the surprise hits: new acquisitions, great pieces of silver or furniture, and items from Native American, pre-Columbian, or Spanish colonial cultures.
KWAKIUTL CULTURE “Potlatch Figure’’ This huge piece carved by Northwest Coast Native Americans from red cedar was made about 1840. It would have been set up on the shore to welcome guests from neighboring communities to a potlatch feast.
CÉSAR PATERNOSTO “Staccato’’ The strange, mesmerizing color harmonies in Paternosto’s 1965 painting (a recent acquisition) help this little-known Argentine outclass nearby competition in the wing from the likes of Frank Stella, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline.
CHILDE HASSAM “Boston Common at Twilight’’ Despite all the period idiosyncrasies — the gas light, the period clothes, the horse-drawn streetcars — Hassam’s famous image of Tremont Street and the Common remains intensely familiar and evocative for anyone who has experienced Boston in winter.
ELLEN DAY HALE “Self-Portrait’’ A masterpiece by this Boston School painter in which Hale portrays herself with unflinching confidence and electrifying honesty. One of those rare portraits that is at once beautiful and entirely free from sentimentality.
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY “Watson and the Shark’’ Sharks don’t have lips, but that doesn’t stop this enormous painting from quickening your pulse. It was commissioned by Brook Watson, who wanted to commemorate an incident from his youth: He lost his leg to a shark while swimming in the harbor of Havana.
JOHN SINGER SARGENT “The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit’’ Everyone’s favorite. Sargent painted these girls, the daughters of his friend, a fellow artist, in Paris. It’s a captivating painting whose mysterious resonance never seems to fade.
EDWARD HOPPER “Drug Store’’ One of Hopper’s early masterpieces — a more modest and in many ways more satisfying prototype of his more famous later painting “Night Hawks.’’
TAIRONA CULTURE, COLOMBIA Cacique pendant This elaborate gold alloy pendant from Colombia combines unerring symmetry with exquisitely curving ornamentation. It was made sometime between 900 and 1550 and probably represents a chief.
HARRIET POWERS “Pictorial Quilt’’ This dynamic quilt created by an ex-slave from Athens, Ga., has been in storage for most of the past 60 years. Powers is known to have made only five quilts. This one was made between 1895 and 1898, and it’s one of the MFA’s treasures.
MARY CASSATT “The Tea’’ One of the most robust and yet intimate works by this greatest of all American Impressionist painters.
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