This lecture will explore two parallel stories. We will look at the history of a French period room, called the 'French Salon' at the MFA, including the early years of its acquisition by the MFA in 1924, its history at the MFA, and recent research and scholarship as part of its reconstruction at the museum between 2019-2021. The French salon period room is home to a magnificent collection of French silver from the late 16th to the 18th century, the Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. silver collection. We will look in depth at a number of masterpieces from this notable collection.

Courtney Harris is Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of Europe at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She received her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art and her BA from Johns Hopkins University. Her most recent project was the multimedia, cross cultural and collaborative exhibition Framing Nature" Gardens and Imagination, which closed at the MFA in June. She has a broad range of interests in the decorative arts. Other recent projects include a monograph on early English pewter (2025) and exhibitions Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore (2024) and Tiny Treasures: The Magic of Miniatures (2023). She has also led a number of gallery renovation projects over the past decade at the MFA, including the French Salon period room reinstallation of French silver (2022) and a new suite of galleries dedicated to Dutch and Flemish art (2021).

RSVP - please email greenwichdecorativearts@gmail.com