The European Collection
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
The European Art department at the AGO works to highlight a global, interconnected history of art—one that reflects our diverse communities by presenting a broad and inclusive view of European art and artists across the centuries.
The European art collection showcases works from the Middle Ages to the early 1900s, created in Europe or influenced by its artistic traditions. Highlights include Italian Renaissance masterpieces, Baroque art from Italy, the Netherlands, and Flanders, and British and French works from the 1700–1800s, along with Impressionist paintings.
Notable artists include Jacopo Tintoretto, Jacopo Sansovino, Barbara Longhi, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Jean-Siméon Chardin, Thomas Gainsborough, Rosa Bonheur, Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, and Claude Monet. Recent acquisitions expand the collection’s reach with historical artists from Scandinavia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
Distinctive holdings include over 1,000 historic picture frames and North America’s most significant collection of small-scale European sculpture. The Thomson Collection features rare French ivories (1200–1400s) and the world’s largest collection of 1500s Dutch devotional boxwood carvings (insert boxwood database link), offering a glimpse into medieval and Renaissance craftsmanship.
