Current and coming - exhibition at the Winterthur Museum

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Winterthur at home and in New York

In this issue we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Winterthur, Delaware. The articles in this issue make clear that the driving force behind the formation of the house, its collections, and gardens was Henry Francis du Pont. While he and his family had houses elsewhere in this country, he always considered Winterthur home. Its thousands of acres, more than a hundred rooms, and numerous outbuildings demanded considerable attention and ample resources to function smoothly especially since du Pont was a perfectionist who anguished over every detail, from the flower arrangements for a dinner party to matching the paint color of a newly acquired room.

An exhibition on view at Winterthur until May 5 examines the private side of the du Ponts' life there. Entitled Life at Winterthur, the hundreds of objects in the exhibition are representative of this privileged family's everyday life and special events, and include furniture, ceramics, glass, works on paper, textiles, photographs, and ephemera. The exhibition would have been impossible to organize without the considerable archival material housed in the museum's library. As related in the publication that accompanies the exhibition, the Winterthur archives fill ninety-six filing cabinets and include "personal letters, children's drawings, tradesmen's bills, staff memoranda, newspaper clippings, and personal account books--seventy years worth--[which] contain everything from receipts for a single order of dog food to hundreds of architectural blueprints."

The story of Winterthur begins with the wedding of Henry Algernon du Pont (known as the Colonel) to Pauline Foster of New York City in 1874. Befitting their social stature, the couple received many lavish wedding presents, the most substantial being that bestowed by Henry's parents: 445 acres of farmland and meticulously maintained gardens in Delaware along with a twelve-room Greek revival house. The house was extensively enlarged between 1902 and 1904 to the Colonel's exacting standards, and in 1928, shortly after his son Henry Francis inherited it, the latter embarked on a scheme to further enlarge it by more than one hundred rooms.

The exhibition tells the very personal story of how the house functioned, particularly under the management of H.F. du Pont, whose attention to detail was aided by a little black notebook in which he wrote daily what was to be done around the estate, which had grown to several thousand acres with barns, greenhouses, ninety cottages for the hundreds who worked there, a post office, butcher shop, dairy, sawmill, and tannery. Food raised on the farm was even shipped to the du Ponts when they were in residence at their properties in New York City, Southampton on Long Island, and Florida.

The show reveals a little known side of the Winterthur estate and provides a fascinating window into a way of life that has nearly vanished. A small book entitled Life at Winterthur: A du Pont Family Album accompanies the exhibition and may be purchased by telephoning 800-421-1561.

In New York City a much anticipated annual event is the East Side House Settlement's Winter Antiques Show Because the Seventh Regiment Armory is now occupied by the National Guard, the show has been moved to the Hilton Hotel at 1335 Avenue of the Americas (between 53rd and 54th Streets), where it will be held from January 20 through January 27. The benefit preview will be held the evening of January 19. The loan exhibition this year has been organized by the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library It is entitled Shells, Scrolls, and Cabrioles: American Furniture from Winterthur, and presents five high chests of drawers, two of which are shown with their matching dressing tables. A rare pair of American looking glasses hang above the dressing tables. Because of the extraordinary depth of the furniture collection at Winterthur, the high chests on view represent the craftsmanship of eighteenth century cabinetmakers in Philadelphia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Seeing these chests together provides a rare occasion to observe regional characteristics in one furniture form. For further information telephone 718-292-7392 or consult the show's Web site (www.winterantiquesshow.com).

The Corcoran and William A. Clark

The Official Museum Directory contains ninety-three entries for accredited institutions within the borders of the District of Columbia. Between them they house millions of fine and decorative arts objects that span the centuries from prehistoric times to the present. More than a few of these museums were established to house the art assembled by a single collector. Among these is the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which was founded in 1869 by William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) with his collection of important American paintings. This was substantially augmented by the bequest of some eight hundred objects by Senator William A. Clark (1839-1925) of Montana at his death.