A professor of art history at the University of Chicago, he shaped the early years of the Museum, guiding the development of its artistic and academic character through judicious acquisitions of medieval, Old Master, and nineteenth-century paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Together with his wife, Inge, Professor Maser also formed a distinguished personal collection on modest means that was informed by both enthusiasm and a scholar’s eye.
The Masers acquired rich examples of such specialized genres as oil sketches (which served as studies for independent easel paintings and fresco cycles) and small ensembles of works from such celebrated European cultural centers as the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague.
In 2008, the Smart Museum of Art received a bequest of twenty-seven of these paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. The Scholar’s Studio featured not only select pieces from the bequest but also other works in the Museum’s collection the couple donated during their lifetimes. The exhibition examined the scholarly facet of collecting, offering an intimate view of Ed and Inge Maser’s enduring relationship with the Smart.
This was the inaugural exhibition in the Smart Museum’s newly dedicated Edward A. and Inge Maser Gallery for Art Before 1900.