Victoria Hinshaw – Page 16 – Number One London

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE NGA's EARLY AMERICAN FURNITURE COLLECTION

Victoria here. In 2013, I was delighted to have the opportunity to explore the newly installed collection of early American furniture in D.C.’s National Gallery of Art (the post is here). A few weeks ago, I went back for another visit. Historical fiction writer Diane Gaston and I love browsing through the galleries — almost as much as we enjoy our luncheon in the charming Garden Café. In the distant background is the Gallery of the Kaufman Collection, which had to wait until we were well nourished.

Vicky and Diane

Desk and Bookcase, Pair of Sidechairs

Philadelphia, 1755-1771, Mahogany Glass, Brass

Philadelphia was the leading city of pre-revolutionary America. Colonial furniture makers followed the pattern books of leading English designers such as Thomas Chippendale. Many immigrant craftsmen came to the colonies, and fine imported goods arrived to serve the tastes and growing wealth of leading families. At the top of the desk is a mahogany bust “believed” to be of Catherine Macaulay (1731-1791), a renowned historian and author who “was a great supporter of American liberty.” (from the gallery label)

High Chest, Philadelphia 1750-65

Mahogany and sabicu (a hardwood imported from the West Indies); brass

Makers of furniture in various cities of colonial America had their own versions of the English models, with a variety of distinctive characteristics and decoration that enables experts to immediately identify the city of origin of many pieces.

Chest-in-Chest, Providence, 1775-85

Mahogany and Brass

The Providence style is similar to the characteristics of the Newport style. Here is the major difference: the “convex shells on the top drawer of the lower case are carved from the solid drawer front, rather than separately carved and applied. The original owner of this chest was the Providence merchant John Brown (1736-1893) who founded Brown University with his three brothers.”

Ann Barry, 1803-05 by Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828)

Oil on Canvas

Pair of Covered Vases, Jingdozhen, China 1790-1810’=

Hard-paste porcelain

Card Table, signed ad dated by Robert McGuffin (1779/80-after 1863)

Philadelphia 1807

Satinwood and veneers

After the Revolutionary War, styles gradually evolved into what Americans call the Federal Style, based on the increased use of ancient Greek and Roman designs by Europeans. The somewhat simpler lines of the furniture are more neo-classical than rococo.

Knife Box, one of a pair

American 1785-1815

mahogany and veneers with wood inlay; silver

The photo above is included for the special enjoyment of Kristine Hughes. Victoria and Diane are well acquainted with Kristine’s admiration for the myriad knife boxes she finds on her travels.

Side Chair, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820)

decorated by George Bridport (1783-1819)

Philadelphia 1808

Poplar and Maple, gesso, paint, and gold leaf; cane seat

Worktable, Boston 1815-1825Rosewood and veneers; bras; ormolu

Used for sewing and needlework

National Gallery of Art West Building

Until next year!!

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR — VIDEO HIGHTLIGHTS – PART 10

DOWNTON ABBEY

When we visit Highclere Castle on Thursday, September 11, 2014, we will probably be thinking more of Downton Abbey, the PBS Masterpiece series, than of the sumptuous home of the Earls of Carnarvon. Victoria here, as eager to see the Castle/Abbey as anyone. I truly believe that a large part of the credit for DA’s success in America is due to the setting at Highclere Castle: The grounds, the enormous house designed in the most extravagant of Victorian neo-Gothic style, the magnificent interiors of the family’s drawing rooms and bedchambers, the stark simplicity and dullness of the servants’ world below stairs. The contrasts could not be more vivid.

Downton Abbey, PBS Masterpiece

The Crawley family, headed by Robert, Earl of Grantham (High Bonneville), live at the fictional Downton Abbey, filmed at Highclere Castle, the home of the Earls of Carnarvon. Most of the upstairs scenes are filmed in the rooms of the Abbey or on the grounds. The servants quarters have been recreated as they would have been in 1900 to 1930 at studies on nearby Ealing, West London. In this 4-minute video, creator and writer Julian Fellowes takes you through Highclere. Click here.

Another look at Highclere as Downton Abbey is an 8-minute fragment of the program Countrywise visit. Click here

As almost every one knows, Downton Abbey has been a phenomenal success with audiences in Britain and North America, and elsewhere. The four years of the series have won numerous awards for its creator, Julian Fellowes, for its costumes and settings, and for the actors, some of whom have become “household names.” Probably taking first place would be Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, whose pithy comments delight audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Click here to see some favorite moments.

The Inimitable Maggie Smith As Violet, Dowager Lady Grantham

We’ve seen four seasons of Downton Abbey now, and all the episodes are available on DVD and from PBS and other sources. The fifth season is in production and will be seen in the U.K. in the autumn and on PBS Masterpiece in early 2015.

©Nick Briggs/Carnival Film and Television Limited 2013 for MASTERPIECE

Click here for a 13-minute video on the making of Downton Abbey, featuring many of the actors as well as the executive producer, writer, and historical advisor among others.

Although we’ve all seen the fourth season, you might enjoy the preview, a tease of just 90 seconds, put out before it played. Click here.

So to stand in Highclere Castle yourself, come along with us on The Duke of Wellington Tour. September 4-14, 2014. All the details are here.

See you in London!

LOOK OF LOVE OPENS IN MINNEAPOLIS

Oval Gold Pendant surrounded by seed pearls.ca 1830

The Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection

The exhibition opens May 15, 2014, and runs through August 24, at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Click here for their website.

Gold Oval brooch and pendant surrounded by split pearls, ca. 1835-40

Here at Number One London, we have a close and affectionate feeling for this wonderful and unique exhibition. Our frequent guest blogger Jo Manning wrote some very special stories for the catalogue.

Here is Jo’s blog about the original opening at the Birmingham Museum of Art in March, 2012.

Bracelet surmounted with miniature in gold surround with drop pearl;

plaited hairwork on reverse; gray right eye. n.d.

Victoria had a delightful meeting with Nan Skier at the original venue, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama visited in April, 2012. You can read an account of that meeting here.

Jo attended the opening at the Look of Love Exhibitions’ second venue in Georgia, and wrote about it here.

Rose gold octagonal pendant surrounded by blue enamel with half pearls. Brown left eye.

The Look of Love exhibition was also shown at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. September 21, 2013 – January 5, 2044. Click here for more information.

Gold oval brooch surrounded by foil-backed red pastes, ca. 1790. Blue left eye

surrounded by curls. Attributed to Richard Cosway.

Here’s hoping you have had an opportunity to see this outstanding collections of treasures!

All photos, ©Birmingham Museum of Art, Sean Pathasema, photographer

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR — VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS – PART 8

Stratfield Saye

To understand why the Duke of Wellington’s country house is the relatively modest Stratfield Saye, it is necessary to travel back to the victory of the Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Blenheim in August 1704 over the forces of French King Louis XIV (and others).. England’s Queen Anne and her ministers were so delighted with the Duke’s victory that they decided to build him a great palace, a rival to their defeated enemy’s Palace of Versailles.

Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

If you visit Blenheim, you will see what the first Duke of Wellington learned from the magnificent but very costly house. For two centuries, the Marlborough family had struggled to complete and maintain the enormous palace. So when offered a great Waterloo Palace as a gift from the nation after his victory over Napoleon, Wellington proceeded cautiously. The Iron Duke knew what a burden Blenheim had been to its owners.

Stratfield Saye

Always the clever strategist, the first Duke of Wellington chose a house he and his descendants could afford, perhaps sacrificing magnificence for comfort.

This pleasant 90-second video shows several views of the house.

The Hall, showing captured battle flags

The present ducal family lives at Stratfield Saye and access to the house is very limited. We could find no videos of the interior, so to see the rooms in which the Dukes and Duchesses lived, you will have to sign up and come along on The Duke of Wellington Tour.

For more exterior views plus the Duke’s Funeral Car, on display in the stables, here is another video. Sadly, the cameraman kept moving — so don’t get seasick while you watch it!

Did you know that the cavalry charge scene from the Spielberg film War Horse was filmed at Stratfield Saye? Actor Tom Hiddleston explains how the Duke’s estate came to substitute for a French Battlefield in this video.

You can watch the cavalry charge film sequence here. How ironic that a scene of British military defeat should be filmed on the grounds of the home of Britain’s greatest military hero.

The Stratfield Saye Website is here.

COMPLETE DETAILS AND ITINERARY FOR

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR CAN BE FOUND HERE

REDISCOVERING EGYPT

The Collection of the Dahesh Museum of Art

at The Patty and Jay Baker Museum of Art in Naples, FL, through May 18, 2014.

Click here for the Museum Website.

Charles–Théodore Frère (French, 1814-1888)

Along the Nile at Gyzeh

When Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies occupied Egypt in 1798, they were accompanied by scientists, historians, and archaeologists. The European world developed a fascination with Egyptian art, architecture, and culture. Well into the 20th century and to the present day, European artists have expressed their admiration in their interpretations of the allure of the ancient and modern cultures of the Nile.

Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner (German 1846-1927)

The Temple of Karnak: The Great Hypostyle Hall, 1890

Koerner traveled to Egypt in 1873-74, and painted the huge columns of the temple, placing the human figures to illustrate the vast size of the columns.

The Dahesh Museum of New York City is devoted to collecting academic art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Organizing many exhibitions for museums and contributing loans to other exhibitions around the world is the mission of the Dahesh. This exhibition is co-curated by Director of Exhibitions David Farmer and Associate Curator Alia Nour; it is intended to survey “…the West’s fascination with Egypt and its diverse visual representations from 1798 until 1890.”

Lawrence Alma Tadema (British,born in the Netherlands, 1836-1912)

Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh’s Granaries, 1874

This painting by Alma Tadema was exhibited at London’s Royal Academy in 1874. The Old Testament’s Joseph is seated on the throne accompanied by a scribe counting the grain. Alma Tadema based the ancient Egyptian decoration and accoutrements in his picture on actual artifacts. Behind the throne is a painting now in the British Museum from the tomb of Nebamun.

The Baker Museum exhibition includes more than 90 works from the Dahesh Museum, the Mervat Zahid Cultural Foundation, and a private collection. In the words of the description, “With its broad themes and rich imagery, this exhibition demonstrates that the West’s visions of Egypt were fostered by many factors — not only political interest, but also new scientific and technological advances, methods of transportation, and communications, as well as Romanticism, and the changing art market.”

Karl Wilhelm Gentz (German, 1822-1890)

The Snake Charmer, 1872

Gentz contrasts the dangerous performance with the noble ruins of the Temple of Madinet Habu in Thebes.

Edwin Longsden Long (British, 1829-1891)

Love’s Labour Lost, 1885

Edwin Long was another artist who used the holdings of various museums and the work of scholars to create the details of his paintings. Here many objects are based on the works of British Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson. When the painting was shown at the Royal Academy, a poem by the artists son, Maurice St. Clair, was included.

“When like an opening bud the flower of Youth
Unfolds its petals to the light of Truth,
Then mimic toys and tales of wondorous lore,
By puppets acted, charm not as before.
Amusement wearies out her skill in vain,
And calls the aid of music magic strain;
But happy childhood’s limit passed for e’er
Youth rashly craves reality and care.”

In the painting, the young noblewoman has outgrown the antics of her servants.The central figure, presumably a noble Egyptian girl, has become and adult and is no longer interested in the childish entertainment of her servants.