Decorative Arts from the Renaissance to Today

The decorative arts section of the Museum came into being in 1916 thanks to F. Cleveland Morgan, one of the most astute connoisseurs in North America. He donated hundreds of objects from around the world. Other donations include Lucile Pillow’s collection of 18th-century English porcelain, Henry Norton’s collection of antique glass and the Georges Clémenceau collection of 3000 Japanese incense boxes, the largest of its kind in the world. Textiles, furniture, European ceramics and 18th- and 19th-century European glassware are also on display.

In 2000, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts received a donation of one of the most important international twentieth-century design collections in North America. This spectacular collection bears the names of the founders of the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Liliane and David M. Stewart. This donation places the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts among the greatest museums of decorative arts in Canada and the United States.

May 2001 represents a landmark in the history of the decorative arts collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, with the opening of the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion. Seven hundred decorative arts objects covering six centuries of design are on display. The installation brings together the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Mrs. David M. Stewart’s gift of the twentieth-century design collection from the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts.

Demonstrating her immense generosity once again, Mrs. Stewart has now donated an outstanding collection of over 900 American industrial design objects to the Museum in 2007. Constituted by American collector Eric Brill, this collection was donated to the Liliane and David M. Stewart Program for Modern Design. This gift will enrich the MMFA’s Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection.