Photos By Gail
Symbols of speed and good fortune, Dolphins swim down the sides of this ocean-colored vase (1866–70s) from Salviati & Co. John Ruskin’s Stones of Venice created a wave of enthusiasm for the lost art of cristallo. Published from 1851 to 1853, Ruskin’s book proved a stroke of good luck for Venetians seeking to revive old glassblowing techniques.
Installation View
Photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
All Photos By Gail
J. Pierpont Morgan amassed large holdings of medieval art and seventeenth-and-eighteenth-century French decorative art from the collection of interior decorator Georges Hoentschel. Grasping the collection’s importance to artists and designers, Morgan immediately donated many decorative works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even the financier may not have fully realized what an impact his gift would have. It led to a new wing, which opened in 1910, and the creation of The Met’s Decorative Arts department, which was the first of its kind in an American museum. Continue reading Eye On Design: Neoclassical Armchair by Georges Jacob
Photos By Gail
This glass Peacock Vase (1893 – 96), with its evocative form, coloring and iridescent surface, is an icon of the early Tiffany-blown Favrile glass collected by H.O. (Henry) Havemayer. He gave it to The Met in 1896 during the first years of its production; at the time it was considered modern art and an object of rare beauty. These qualities are reflected in the collecting visions presented in the gallery in which this vase is displayed, which features transformative gifts from the Havemeyers through the Annenbergs.
Photographed as Part of the Exhibit Making The Met at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Photo By Gail Worley
Based on numerous on-site drawings, this painting, Interior View of The Metropolitan Museum of Art When In Fourteenth Street (1881) offers a glimpse into the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street, The Met’s second home from 1873 to 1879. Pictured are two second-floor galleries as they appeared in the last year before the Museum moved to its current location on Fifth Avenue. Anthony van Dyck’s Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-Stricken of Palermo is visible among the European and American Paintings hung in the then-fashionable salon style.
Photographed as Part of the Exhibition, Making the Met, 1870-2020, a Celebration of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150 Year Anniversary.
Photo By Gail
Jonathan Eastman Johnson (1824 – 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this painting from 1864, Johnson depicts merchant William Tilden Blodgett and his family in the parlor of their Manhattan home. Painted toward the end of the Civil War, the serene interior only hints at the urgent issue of Black emancipation through a kinetic toy seen on the table (click the image to enlarge for detail). Suggestive of a minstrel figure and outfitted as a Union recruit, its presence underlines Blodgett’s abolitionist sympathies and the complexity of racial stereotyping at this time. Along with Johnson, Blodgett would later serve as a trustee of The Met, securing funds for the purchase of the 174 European pantings in 1871, which included works by Anthony van Dyck and Francesco Giardi.
Photographed as Part of the Exhibition, Making the Met, 1870-2020, a Celebration of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150 Year Anniversary.