Obituary: Jean Sutherland Boggs, former professor in Arts & Sciences, 92

Jean Sutherland Boggs, the first woman appointed to full professorship in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. She was 92.


Born in Philadelphia in 1922, Boggs was raised in Canada and educated at the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College. A specialist in modern art, particularly the work of Degas and Picasso, Boggs came to the university in 1964 as the Steinberg Professor of Art History. In 1966, she was appointed director of the National Gallery of Canada — the first woman to head the institution and the only one at the time to lead a major North American museum.

Boggs would subsequently direct the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Canadian Museums Construction Corp., which oversaw the design of a new Canadian national gallery building in Ottawa as well as the Canadian Museum of Civilization. She also helped to establish photography as a major collecting area at Canada’s National Gallery.

Major exhibitions included “Picasso and Man” (1964), “Picasso and Things: Still Lifes by Picasso” (1992) and “Degas at the Races” (1998).