Matisse, Picasso and Modern Art in Paris opens at the William King Museum in Abingdon, Va., on Saturday, Dec. 11. The exhibition's statewide tour marks the first time in five decades that selections from a significant Virginia art collection are reunited.

The collector was T. Catesby Jones (1880-1946), who descended from a prominent Tidewater family and grew up in Petersburg. He later graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and then built a successful career as a maritime lawyer in New York City.

Jones was also a discerning collector of early 20th-century painting, sculpture and works on paper, according to Alex Nyerges, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA).

Jones bequeathed the bulk of his collection to the VMFA and the University of Virginia. The works to be on view in Abingdon have not been seen together since the late 1940s.

Jones acquired most of his collection between 1924 and 1939. Through connections in New York and trips to Paris, he purchased works from the best known figures of the era (Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and others), as well as works by artists who are now less widely known, including Marcel Gromaire, André Lhote and Jean Lurçat.

"These works represent the foundation of modern art, from the beginning of the 20th century through World War II," said Matthew Affron, associate professor of art history at the University of Virginia and curator of Modern art for the school's art museum.

The university and VMFA jointly put together the showing.

One of its goals - and of its companion publication - is to present selections from the Jones collection in the light of new scholarship. Another goal is to take a closer look at their time in art history. 

In addition to acquiring and lending, Jones wrote about his collection, both in his personal correspondence and in published reviews. He also befriended and supported some of the artists - including Stanley William Hayter, Jacques Lipchitz and Marc Chagall - who came to New York as refugees in the 1940s.

The two collections are a window into the history of this time - "decades of great achievement, dislocation and transformation," said Affron.

In addition to his relationships with New York galleries and the city's newly opened Museum of Modern Art, Jones maintained his connection to his native state. Jones began donating works to VMFA in 1941, and with his final bequest of paintings, sculptures and drawings in 1947, he put VMFA at the forefront of American museums with collections of contemporary European work. He directed that the majority of his prints go to the University of Virginia.

Among the 51 works in the exhibit will be Picasso's Woman with Kerchief (1906), Matisse's two portraits of Lorette (both 1917), a Cubist collage by Juan Gris, and a three-part folding screen by Lurçat.

The exhibition will be on view at the William King Museum through Feb. 21, 2010. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a new catalog, Matisse, Picasso and Modern Art in Paris: The T. Catesby Jones Collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Virginia Art Museum. In its 150 pages, it includes 89 full-color and 18 black-and-white images, entries on works by 24 artists and essays by curators Affron and Ravenal. For more information, call (804) 340-1525 or toll free (800) 943-8632.