Research also reveals that one of the paintings on display here, "Twilight" (1858), an exquisite study for Church's major painting "Twilight in the Wilderness" (1860), in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, was exhibited at the National Academy in 1859.
A major painting by Spaëndonck appears in the show.
The major painting features a mustachioed man in uniform who wears boots but ridiculously short pants.
The chances of acquiring major painted leaves from the volume scandalously broken up in the 1930s are scarce today.
But a painting like "Night Sky No. 5" by Vija Celmins is the first major painting by the artist to enter the Modern's collection.
The donation will give the museum its first major painting by Moran and will complement a Bierstadt already in the collection.
But a smaller portion are later works, like "City Roofs" (1932), a major painting now worth millions of dollars, which Mr. Sanborn consigned for sale in the 1970s.
A Taiwan museum plans for the first time to lend a major painting for exhibition in China, Agence France-Presse reported.
And it lacks a truly major painting, along the lines of "Portrait of Olga Meerson" or "The Italian Woman" (both reproduced in the catalog).
Such products are now easy to find, Ms. DiMartino said, because "most of the major paint companies are doing a low-toxicity line".
