TORONTO.- The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is home to North America’s largest museum collection of historic picture frames, and this fall the museum invites visitors to discover the artistry that surrounds the art. Opening on October 17, 2026, In Plain Sight: Highlights from the AGO’s Collection of Historic Frames, presents 31 frames dating from the 15 th to early 20th centuries. This exhibition features frames made in England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, and is co-curated by Eric Birkle, the AGO’s Marie Zimmermann Curatorial Fellow in European Art; Julia Campbell-Such, the AGO’s Assistant Conservator, Frames; and Adam Harris Levine, the AGO’s Associate Curator of European Art.

On view in the stately Leonard Rotunda, located on Level 1, this exhibition presents frames boldly without pictures, organized by period and regional style. In many instances, frames are mounted inside of each other. The exhibition features frames from the late 1400s — the moment in time that picture frames became a popular commodity— through the 1900s and displays a range of periods and styles, including examples of Renaissance, Gothic Revival, Baroque, Rococo, and Louis XIV Revival artistry. Materials on view include wood and rare polished stone, ebony, copper alloys, papier-mâché, and gold leaf. The frames also demonstrate various decorative techniques, including refined carving, punchwork, heraldic symbols, gilding, and trompe l’oeil illusion (French for ‘trick of the eye’), where wood was polished to resemble more expensive marble.

“Picture frames are too often unfairly overlooked when in fact, they can tell us so much about what people thought was valuable and how they believed art should be seen. These exceptional examples of historical frames were chosen not only for the diversity of styles and craftsmanship they reflect, but for their unique attributes and beauty,” say Birkle, Campbell-Such and Levine. “This exhibition is one example of the AGO’s ongoing commitment to the care and presentation of our collection of historic frames. It is a commitment that affords us the rare privilege of being able to reframe works in our own collection and to lend these frames— as works of art themselves — to other museums.”

While many of the frames on view are by makers and workshops unknown, the exhibition includes two remarkable exceptions. Mattheus Kugler and Joseph Diebal (active 1740s-1750s) were two of the many framers hired by the Court of Elector Augustus III of Poland to reframe one hundred paintings at the Dresden Royal Court, a multi-year project undertaken to harmonize the collection. This 18th-century frame can be identified as the work of Kugler and Diebal on account of its signature and features the rich gilding and ornamented corners and centers for which the Dresden Royal Court collection is renowned.

On view for the first time since its acquisition is a monumental 17th -century wood and gilded frame, accented by carved swirling forms, by English craftswoman Mary Ashfield. The largest frame in the AGO’s collection, this work, which dates from 1671 and was commissioned by the City of London, was previously on view as part of the AGO original exhibition Making Her Mark and is a valuable reminder of female craftsmanship during the 17th century.

Since the mid-1990s, when the AGO received an anonymous gift of more than 800 historical picture frames, the museum has become a leader in the collection and care of frames. Each frame is an accessioned artwork, and the frames on display arrived at the AGO in various states of condition and have been carefully conserved. The AGO is the only museum in Canada whose conservation team includes a dedicated frames conservator.

Where possible the museum continues to reframe artworks in its collection, to ensure that artworks are presented in their most accurate and pleasing light. Examples currently on view include Portrait of Eleonora Susette (1770s) by Jeremias Schultz and Jesse Mockrin’s Fracture (2025), a contemporary reflection on Nicolas Tournier’s The Judgement of Solomon (1625).

Historic picture frames from the AGO Collection are also available for loan to museums. In December, two historic frames from the AGO Collection will go on view at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin, accompanying their paintings A Village Scene, by Circle of Jan Brueghel, circa 1590, and Abraham van Beyeren’s, A Roemer with Grapes, Pewter Plates, and a Roll, (1640-90).

On view through November of 2027, admission to In Plain Sight is always free for Ontarians under 25, Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members, and Annual Passholders.