Background
She was born in Negritos, Peru, on June 11, 1922.
She was born in Negritos, Peru, on June 11, 1922.
Sutherland Boggs attended Alma College in Saint Thomas, Ontario, graduating in 1938. She received a Master of Arts in 1946 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1953 from Radcliffe College.
She was the first female Director of both the and the She was also a specialist in the work of Edgar Degas. Boggs would later receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Trinity College in 1942. From 1942 to 1944, she was an education secretary for the Art Association of Montreal (today known as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts).
In 1948, she joined the faculty of Skidmore College as an assistant professor
From 1949 to 1952, she was an assistant professor at Mount Holyoke College. From 1954 to 1962, she was an assistant and associate professor at the University of California.
In 1962, she was appointed curator for the Art Gallery of Toronto. In 1964, she was appointed Steinberg Professor of Art History at Washington University in Saint Louis.
In 1966, Sutherland Boggs was appointed the first female and fifth director of the and served in this position until 1976.
From 1976 to 1979, she was a Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University. From 1978 to 1982, she was the director of the She succeeded Evan Turner, who had left following a dispute with the Board of Trustees. Under her leadership, the Museum purchased Edgar Degas"s painting After the Bath, which is now considered to be one of the Museum"s most important acquisitions in the post-war period.
She was chair and chief executive officer of the Canada Museums Construction Corporation from 1982 to 1985, where she directed the construction of both a custom-built National Gallery building and the unique Canadian Museum of Civilization in collaboration with the architects Moshe Safdie and Douglas Cardinal.
From 1991 to 1993, she was a senior advisor for the Andrew West. Mellon Foundation. As an art historian, she has written books about the life of Edgar Degas, including Portraits By Degas (1962).
Sutherland Boggs died on August 22, 2014 at the age of 92 in Ottawa, Ontario.