Boggs, Jean Sutherland

Biography

Dr. Jean Sutherland Boggs is a prominent art historian and expert scholar on Degas who served as Director of several major North American Museums. She was appointed as the first female Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and served from 1970 to 1982. Part of her legacy was establishing new written Museum policies on important topics and setting into motion long-term plans for the reinstallation of the European galleries. During her tenure, the Museum acquired Degas’ “Red Nude” and installed the Thomas Eakins retrospective. Boggs also mounted two monumental exhibitions of non-Western art, “Manifestations of Shiva” (1981) and “Treasures of Ancient Nigeria” (1982), each of which presented great works of art in a scholarly context, and was well-received by the diverse communities the Museum sought to serve.

Boggs was born in Negritos, Peru, in 1922 and was raised in Canada. She received an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from University of Toronto in 1942, and a Master of Arts and PhD from Harvard University. Boggs also has an extensive teaching career: she taught as an associate professor of art at Skidmore College (1948 to 1949) and at Mount Holyoke College (1949 to 1952); as an assistant professor and later associate professor of art at University of California, Riverside (between 1954 and 1962); as Steinberg Professor of History of Art at Washington University (1964-1966); as professor of art at Harvard University (1976-1978); and as the Sterling and Francine Clark Professor at Williams College (1970). Her directorial career began at the National Gallery of Canada, when was appointed its first female Director in 1966. She remained in the position until 1976, when she resigned due to governmental and bureaucratic difficulties. In 1978, the Philadelphia Museum of Art appointed Boggs as its first female Director, and she remained in this position until 1982. Despite an institutional deficit and little emphasis on fundraising, Boggs managed to accomplish a considerable amount during her tenure.

Boggs left the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1982 to take a position as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Museums Construction Corporation, where she headed up efforts to build two brand new museums, the new National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Dr. Jean Sutherland Boggs has been an active and vital participant as a scholar and administrator in the fine arts community in Canada and the United States for more than half a century. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her work with the National Gallery, and was award honorary degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, Concordia University, and York University. Boggs has published extensively on the life and work of Edgar Degas and organized several exhibitions on the artist’s work, receiving international recognition for her scholarship.

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