
The story
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston has grown into one of the largest art museums in the country, spread across a campus built up by a run of famous architects. The oldest wing was extended by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the German master of steel and glass. A later hall came from the Spaniard Rafael Moneo, and in 2020 a third building opened, designed by Steven Holl with walls of curved, milky glass.
The galleries hold everything from Renaissance gold-ground paintings to a deep collection of Latin American and modern art. But the piece people talk about is underground: to cross between two of the buildings you walk through The Light Inside, a tunnel by the artist James Turrell washed in slow shifts of neon colour, where the floor seems to dissolve and the walls lose their edges.
Collection
19 works
The Elder SisterWilliam-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1869
Les orangersGustave Caillebotte, 1878
The Entrance to the Grand Canal, VeniceCanaletto, 1730
Ariadne Abandoned by TheseusAngelica Kauffmann, 1774
Leda and the SwanPeter Paul Rubens, 1601
Portrait of an Elderly WomanHans Memling, 1485
The Gust of WindGustave Courbet, 1865
RocksVincent van Gogh, 1888
Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the UnderworldJean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 1861
Still Life with Bouquet and FanPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1871
Woman in a Purple CoatHenri Matisse, 1937
Composition with Grid 1Piet Mondrian, 1918
Mademoiselle Boissière KnittingGustave Caillebotte, 1877
Shipwreck on the CoastEugène Delacroix, 1862
Still Life with Golden BreamFrancisco Goya, 1808
The Adoration of the Christ ChildSandro Botticelli, 1500
The Bonaventure PinePaul Signac, 1893
Vicente Osorio de Moscoso, Count of TrastámaraFrancisco Goya, 1786
Young Woman Powdering Herself (Study)Georges Seurat, 1889