For Europeans during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, China—or Cathay as it was sometimes called—was a magical place. This exhibition includes nine Chinoiserie textiles and embroideries from the Museum's outstanding collection.

This exhibition brings together over twenty-five drawings, prints, and watercolor paintings to explore “contemporary” art on the Indian subcontinent over the past century, a period that witnessed dramatic social and artistic transformations.

The mysterious Thomas Chambers arrived in the United States from England in 1832, worked for three decades as a marine and landscape painter, and then disappeared after 1866, leaving behind a boldly expressive and puzzling body of work. This exhibition—the first major survey of Chambers’ work since his rediscovery in 1942—seeks to define his style, examine his sources, and investigate the popular audience for landscape and marine painting in the mid-nineteenth century.

Among the some thirty pieces in this installation are a number with views of Philadelphia landmarks including the Dam and Water Works on the Schuylkill River, the Bank of the United States and the Philadelphia Library Company building.