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The Historic New Orleans Collection

A Most Significant Gift

A bustling outdoor art market scene, featuring people in early 20th-century attire viewing and purchasing paintings displayed on a fence. A large palm tree provides shade, and various art styles are visible.

A Most Significant Gift

The Laura Simon Nelson Collection

May 2 to November 4, 2017

400 Chartres Street

Laura Simon Nelson Galleries for Louisiana Art

The Laura Simon Nelson Galleries will once again showcase selections from the extensive collection of Louisiana art donated to HNOC by Laura Simon Nelson. The largest single donation of visual art ever received by HNOC, Nelson’s collection is a diverse assemblage of more than 425 artworks, including 70 pieces of Newcomb pottery. Compiled with guidance from longtime friend, collector, and dealer George E. Jordan, the collection showcases the talents of many artists who lived and worked in Louisiana.

A bustling outdoor art market scene, featuring people in early 20th-century attire viewing and purchasing paintings displayed on a fence. A large palm tree provides shade, and various art styles are visible.

More than 80 works from the collection will be exhibited in A Most Significant Gift. The featured artists include Wayman Adams, Jacques Amans, Knute Heldner, Morris Henry Hobbs, Clarence Millet, Achille Peretti, Paul Poincy, Ellsworth Woodward, and William Woodward. The Newcomb pottery display will include vessels decorated by Aurelia Arbo, Henrietta Davidson Bailey, Sadie Irvine, Ada Wilt Lonnegan, and Anna Frances Simpson.

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A vibrant, crowded scene depicting a diverse group of people gathered in a lively setting. The backdrop features arches and draped curtains. The individuals are dressed in various colorful, eclectic styles, with expressions suggesting a festive atmosphere.

Burning Orchid Nightclub

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I Am the Black Woman

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Cover of a book titled John Clemmer: A Legacy in Art, featuring an abstract landscape painting with trees and muted colors. The Historic New Orleans Collection is mentioned at the bottom. The background is a textured brown.

John Clemmer: A Legacy in Art

with essays by Judith H. Bonner, John Ed Bradley, and David Clemmer

Cover of Complementary Visions of Louisiana Art features a lush, painted landscape with trees and oranges. The text highlights the Laura Simon Nelson Collection at the Historic New Orleans Collection.

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