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In January, the Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, refreshed 4,000 square feet of its European art galleries, located on the second floor. With major recent acquisitions and a comprehensive permanent-collection reinstallation plan underway, visitors will enjoy a cross-section of the Appleton’s holdings and over 20% more works on display.

Visitors will find many works on view that have never been exhibited or have not been exhibited in quite some time. A recent world-class addition is “The Dance of Love” by Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger (1824-1888), a 19th-century French oil painting that complements academic figurative works by William Adolphe-Bouguereau and Elizabeth Jane Gardner. Boulanger’s large scale and exceptionally rare painting is the preparatory version that served as the model for a larger painting that still exists in the world-famous Paris Opera House in France.

For those familiar with the space, visitor-favorites remain on view, such as “The Young Shepherdess” and “The Knitter” by William Adolphe Bouguereau and “The Watering Trough” by John Sargent Noble.

In addition to two-dimensional works, visitors can enjoy a large selection of sculpture and decorative works that are rarely on display, including a 17th-century English embroidery panel, 18th-century French world maps and a marble portrait bust by the noted 19th-century French sculptor Jean Baptiste Carpeaux.

“This completes the first phase of a two-part refresh in the second-floor European galleries,” said Jason Steuber, Appleton Museum director. “We look forward to adding more works to the European galleries in the coming month.”

The Appleton Museum, Artspace and Store are open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. A campus of the College of Central Florida, the Appleton Museum of Art is located at 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, east of downtown on SR 40 (exit 352 east off I-75 or exit 268 west off I-95). Parking is free. For more information, call 352-291-4455 or visit AppletonMuseum.org.