Tanagra Figurines in Major Museum Collections

The Museums

The first major exhibition of Tanagra figurines was the display in 1878 at the Paris International Exposition. This exposition returned the long-buried Tanagras to the world stage.

The increasing popularity of Tanagra figurines in the late 19th century led to the establishment of significant collections in museums around the world.

Some of the finest Tanagras can be found at the following museums:

The Louvre is considered to have one of the best collections, and one of the finest examples, of Tanagra figurines in the world.

Its most prominent exhibit of Tanagra figurines is from the Women in Blue workshop and is appropriately called “La Dame en Bleu.”  Accounts dating to the figurine's discovery in the Tanagra necropolis suggest that it was found in a tomb with three other identical figurines. It was acquired in 1876, only a few years after the first Tanagras became mainstream on the international art market. 

The pose and the arrangement of the draperies in diagonal lines are derived from a known statuary type. It was developed by the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles or his immediate circle in the last third of the 4th century B.C.

La Dame en Bleu is tightly swathed in a cloak held in her left hand. The cloak covers her right arm and hand and the way it falls reveals the pleated fall of a chiton. She is also holding a fan in her right hand.

The best Tanagra figurines found in the Hermitage Museum were acquired from the collection of Count Piotr Saburov. Saburov (1835–1918) was a well-known Russian diplomat and statesman. 

Count Saburov formed his collection of Greek and Roman terracottas predominantly in Greece.  He was the Russian ambassador and plenipotentiary minister from 1870 to 1879. 

His entire collection was acquired by the Imperial Hermitage in 1884. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds an extensive and outstanding collection of Ancient Greek figurines. The collection’s core was shaped in the early 20th century.

Approximately 800 Greek terracottas form the bulk of the collection, ranging in date from the Late Helladic period (ca. 1400-1300 B.C.E.) to the late Hellenistic period. Of these, the Tanagras are an important component. Many of the finest Tanagra examples were acquired with the Rogers Fund in 1906 and 1907. Others were gifts of Mrs. Sadie Adler in 1930.

The British Museum also has a notable collection of Tanagra figurines. 

The Fitzwilliam Museum is part of the University of Cambridge Museums. Its acclaimed collection of Tanagra figurines is due to Sydney Cockerell, the former museum director. 

The single most important collection of antiquities arrived at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1937. Formed by Cockerell's old friends, Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, the collection included Egyptian, Greek and Roman artefacts. 

Among these were a fine and extensively studied collection of Tanagra statuettes. 

Today, Tanagra figurines dignify virtually all major museum collections with important Tanagra collections found  from the National Archeological Museum in Athens, the Berlin National Museum to the Museum of fine arts, Budapest and American Academy in Rome. 

The Altes Museum has one of the most prominent collections of Tanagra figurines in the world. Its treasures hold a special place in the entire Greek antiquity scholarship. 

Other important Tanagra collections can be found at the National Archeological Museum in Athens, the Berlin National Museum, and the American Academy in Rome.