Abecedario: Collecting and Recollecting

an Evening with Curator Emeritus Lawrence W. Nichols

Friday, November 20 | 6:30–7:30 p.m. | GlasSalon

Curator Emeritus Lawrence W. Nichols returns to the Toledo Museum of Art for his fifth lecture since retirement and The Brilliance of Caravaggio: Four Paintings in Focus (2024), offering an engaging and delightfully unconventional look at the art he has spent decades collecting, studying, and remembering. In a lecture encompassing a seemingly haphazard clustering of objects, mostly European paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art’s collection, many featured in the current exhibition TMA Forever, Nichols will reveal the stories and connections behind his recollections of collecting during his twenty eight and a half year tenure at the Museum.

Organized as a work of art per letter, from A to Z, Abecedario: Collecting and Recollecting promises an informative, personal, and wonderfully unconventional journey through the Museum’s collection.

If you need accommodations, assistance, or appropriate modifications to fully participate in this event, please let us know by contacting Access Initiatives at [email protected]. Please note that while we endeavor to provide everyone with a positive visitor experience, last-minute requests may not be accommodated; we ask for requests to be made, at minimum, three days prior to the event. Thank you.

If you've registered but can no longer attend, kindly notify the museum as soon as possible so we can accommodate others. You can contact us by phone at 419.255.8000 or by email at [email protected].

Lawrence W. Nichols Biography  

Lawrence W. Nichols is Curator Emeritus of the Toledo Museum of Art, where he served as the William Hutton senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900. He joined TMA in 1992 after serving as associate curator of the John G. Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A specialist in northern Baroque painting, Nichols holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is the author of The Paintings of Hendrick Goltzius, 1558–1617: A Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné. During his tenure at TMA, he curated numerous exhibitions and helped shape the Museum’s collection through significant acquisitions.

Since retirement, Nichols has continued his scholarly pursuits while traveling extensively, reading about world religions, baking bread, and exploring historic pilgrimage routes. His adventures have included a 284 mile walk from Lucca to Rome on the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage to 24 Buddhist temples on Japan’s Shikoku Island, extended stays in Paris, and most recently, a fortnight in Morocco. He continues to serve on the old master paintings vetting committee for TEFAF Maastricht and on the Art Advisory Panel of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. He and his wife, Carol, a former TMA docent, have two grandchildren, Wilka, ten, and George, one, who live in Wyoming and Idaho, respectively.