The Fine Arts Museums are proud to celebrate the outstanding contributions to the museums by George Hopper Fitch, an ardent collector of works on paper and longtime trustee of the Fine Arts Museums, by exhibiting approximately 50 American and Mexican artworks collected by him. Over the years, Fitch has helped build the museums’ collections both as a member of the museums’ acquisition committee and through gifts to the museums from his personal collection.

For George Hopper Fitch, the belief in the importance of art in one’s life started in his early life. As a young man living and working in New York City, Mr. Fitch was drawn to the most avant-garde American art movements of the day. His enthusiasm, tempered by his finances, led him to realize that the finest paintings were beyond his means. He could, however, afford great drawings, watercolors, pastels, and prints by the artists he admired. A representative sampling of his achievements as a collector of American and Mexican works on paper is present in this exhibition, which features artists such as James McNeill Whistler, William Merritt Chase, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Arthur Dove, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz Kline, Diego Rivera, Carlos Mérida, and José Clemente Orozco.