High Museum of Art

With more than 15,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High has an extensive anthology of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and decorative art, significant holdings of European paintings, a growing collection of African American art, and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography, folk and self taught art, and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists.

The High received its first major art donation in 1949 from J. J. Haverty, an early Museum patron and Atlanta’s foremost art collector at the time. Haverty bequeathed a group of significant late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American paintings by William Merritt Chase, Henry Ossawa Tanner, John Twachtman, and Childe Hassam as well as a select group of sculptures. This formative gift created a strong base for subsequent additions of American art to the Museum’s collection.