{"id":4305,"date":"2026-07-05T08:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2026-07-05T08:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:37:15","slug":"at-the-mfa-the-past-and-present-converge-in-a-fractious-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305","title":{"rendered":"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

J<\/span><\/span>ohn Singleton Copley\u2019s \u201cWatson and the Shark\u201d is the first thing you see through the doors of the freshly-redone 18th-century American galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts. As it should be, you might think. The 1788 painting is likely Boston-born Copley\u2019s most famous and accomplished work: A young man thrashes in the water, grasping in terror for a rope dangled overboard by his shipmates as the open jaws of a shark bear down. It\u2019s a moment of intense high drama, forever flash-frozen: Did he, or didn\u2019t he? The uncertainty is permanent and intentional, leaving you on the knife\u2019s edge: rescue or disaster. Either is possible, neither assured. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Filtering America\u2019s 250th anniversary through the best picture nominees of its bicentennial year<\/a><\/p>\n

But whether the museum meant it or not, the work\u2019s atmosphere of urgent peril surely fits the moment. The galleries opened in June as the MFA\u2019s explicit offering for the country\u2019s 250th birthday. That the museum turned down $400,000 in federal funding for the redux for fear of interference from the White House itself is the flashing red signal that nothing about the moment is normal. What happens next is even less certain, with an election looming this fall amid political earthquakes from the highest offices of the Supreme Court and the president himself. The state of the nation has rarely been so precarious. And so the anxious terror of a young man in the grip of calamity is, across the centuries, sadly relatable: Our dear Watson, in too many ways, is us. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In the museum\u2019s actual thinking, \u201cWatson and the Shark\u201d serves as a broader avatar for a young nation coming to be. The fact that these, the museum\u2019s 18th-century American galleries, begin with not so much as a whiff of the Revolution itself feels like a statement of intent. Various 250th efforts touting heroic tales of the battle for independence abound; the MFA has instead chosen to navigate a path more fraught, complicated, and full of truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWatson and the Shark\u201d is its declaration of exactly that: Its magic lives in the communion between the urgency that holds your attention \u2014 shark attack! \u2014 but then, what the painting\u2019s captivating depth does<\/i> with that attention. The dangerous waters here are not American, but in Havana, identified by the Spanish galleons in harbor. The sailors aboard include lower-class deckhands, but also a well-dressed young man wielding a harpoon \u2014 a collision of classes common in an expanding world of trans-Atlantic trade. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dead center of the frame, a Black man casts his gaze at the flailing Watson; never identified, he completes the picture of America in the 18th century \u2014 an expanding world of cultural comingling whether by choice or force, and of burgeoning commerce with human bondage at its core. Not in<\/i> America, \u201cWatson and the Shark\u201d is a quintessential image of<\/i> America in the 18th century, and the discomforting entanglements that remain at its heart 250 years later. <\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure, it\u2019s a tough act to follow. But it sets the tone. The ensuing spaces in the new display are a web of complication, a balance of both wonder and unease. Old favorites are here: Joseph Pope\u2019s 1780 Orrery clock, a wonder of 18th-century technology, ticks quietly away one space, sounding its chime on the quarter hour. The array of time zones it marks \u2014 China, Madagascar, the Solomon Islands, among the usuals \u2014 signals the seafaring trade that made 18th-century Boston the hub of wealth and influence it was. But it comes with new companions: Julia Marden\u2019s \u201cWampanoag Women\u2019s Outfit\u201a\u201d made just this year, is posed nearby in a vitrine; intricately beaded and festooned with silver and shells, it inserts an Indigenous presence into the city\u2019s burgeoning cosmopolitanism. It helps shade the ambitions of commerce and democracy with unease: At what cost, and to whom? <\/span><\/p>\n

A nearby Copley portrait of two young sisters, \u201cMary and Elizabeth Royall,\u201d 1758, shares space with a pair of 1769 paintings of unnamed Black women from Guadeloupe by Joseph Savart. The contrast is jarring \u2014 Savart\u2019s simple, naturalistic images of the women, versus Copley\u2019s opulent, almost unearthly picture of the Royalls \u2014 and that\u2019s before you read the nearby wall text: Savart was painting to help create a taxonomy in the colonies based on skin tone; Copley, painting for wealthy Boston patrons, the Royalls, to exalt their family in the city\u2019s social hierarchy. How they achieved their status is made plain: The Royalls were Massachusetts\u2019s largest slaveholders, their wealth made on Carribbean sugar and human trafficking. <\/span><\/p>\n

Copley is a major star here, and fair enough: The new galleries put a premium on Boston (and New England more broadly), and in the 18th century no artist mattered here more. An entire room here is given to his pieces; one massive display wall stacks up an array of his society portraits two and three deep. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more In his book \u2018Summer of \u201871,\u2019 veteran Washington journalist John A. Jenkins says we\u2019ve been here before<\/a><\/p>\n

Here you\u2019ll find more famous things: Copley\u2019s hypnotically captivating portrait of Samuel Adams, a beacon of authority in the foreground of a shadowy frame with classical columns behind; it\u2019s his portrayal of the seminal moment on March 6, 1770, when Adams spoke to the crowd at Boston\u2019s Old South Meeting House, demanding the removal of British troops. Also nearby are his portraits of John Hancock and Joseph Warren, revolutionaries both (don\u2019t fret: Paul Revere is here, too, though in a gallery reserved for the tea trade). <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Copley, a chronicler of revolutionary icons, threw in with the other side; he left his native Boston for London after the Tea Party in 1773, never to live here again. It\u2019s a wrinkle in the Revolutionary tale that reveals something, I think. No tale is cut and dried; history is crafted as much as told. The museum finally embraces the Revolutionary spirit deep inside with that in mind: Thomas Sully\u2019s \u201cThe Passage of the Delaware,\u201d 1819, a monster of a painting 12 feet tall and 17 feet wide, sits where it always has, too big to move. <\/span><\/p>\n

But its heroic scene \u2014 General George Washington leading the rebel troops to final, decisive victory \u2014 has plenty to rub up against. I was struck by a slyly assembled wall of pictures, prints, cartoons, busts, dolls, and dollar bills the museum puts under the rubric \u201cThe Cult of George Washington.\u201d The legend favors the man who could be king instead of walking away to leave the fledgling democracy intact; here, we learn of a savvy self-marketer who cemented his legacy with real intent, allowing the reproduction of his likeness in all media, high and low. <\/span><\/p>\n

One piece here, the monumental full-length portrait \u201cWashington at Dorchester Heights,\u201d 1806, by Gilbert Stuart, is almost absurd in its heroic implication \u2014 Washington calming a restless white stallion with one hand while stoically gazing into the distance. Washington had died seven years before, but his job was done; his image \u2014 this image \u2014 would live forever. <\/span><\/p>\n

So there\u2019s something more significant than curiosity, I think, in Stuart\u2019s famously-unfinished portraits of Washington and his wife, Martha, hanging one room away. In the middle of the room is a poem jar by David Drake, the enslaved potter who scored cryptic messages in his outsize vessels, made in forced labor in South Carolina; nearby, a huge vitrine of paintings and objects from Spanish America display the comingling of culture and faith \u2014 Indigenous and European, Animist and Catholic \u2014 a new world taking shape before your eyes. <\/span><\/p>\n

On the nearby wall, Washington, dour and maybe a little dubious, gazes out from a swath of foggy paint poised above raw canvas, almost as if to say: Where could this all be going? It was not his to know. Neither, really, is it ours. The new 18th-century galleries underscore an enduring truth: America will never be finished. It goes on in a frenzy of becoming, then as now, bearing both its rewards \u2014 and its scars. <\/span><\/p>\n

ART OF THE AMERICAS: 1700-1800<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Ongoing. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Before Walter White was a killer, he was just a desperate man with a plan<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The museum rejected federal support for its new 18th-century American galleries. They tell a story the current administration may not like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"\nAt the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The museum rejected federal support for its new 18th-century American galleries. They tell a story the current administration may not like.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-05T08:37:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"headline\":\"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-05T08:37:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305\"},\"wordCount\":1391,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305\",\"name\":\"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment - Boston Relocation Insider\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-05T08:37:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif\",\"width\":1440,\"height\":987},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=4305#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Boston Relocation Insider\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment - Boston Relocation Insider","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment - Boston Relocation Insider","og_description":"The museum rejected federal support for its new 18th-century American galleries. They tell a story the current administration may not like.","og_url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305","og_site_name":"Boston Relocation Insider","article_published_time":"2026-07-05T08:37:15+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e"},"headline":"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment","datePublished":"2026-07-05T08:37:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305"},"wordCount":1391,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif","articleSection":["Arts"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305","url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305","name":"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment - Boston Relocation Insider","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif","datePublished":"2026-07-05T08:37:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/795bdc4275f9ce5b4c40eb5fb1a4bbf3.avif","width":1440,"height":987},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4305#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"At the MFA, the past and present converge in a fractious moment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/","name":"Boston Relocation Insider","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com"],"url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}