Vernacular art at Winterthur - Winterthur - folk art collection at Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002 by Betty Fiske, Anne A. Verplanck

When one thinks of the Winterthur Museum, many things come to mind--Philadelphia rococo chairs, tankards by Paul Revere, and portraits by John Singleton Copley among them. One generally does not associate Winterthur with vernacular--or folk--art. (1) Yet some of Henry Francis du Pont's (see p. 154, Pl. 1) important early acquisitions were objects made in vernacular traditions and reflect an interest in the fine and decorative arts produced in provincial areas.

Du Pont collected Pennsylvania German arts primarily between 1925 and 1935, although he continued to do so well into the 1960s. In his quest he had several important peers such as Titus Geesey (1895--1969), George Horace Lorimer (1867--1937), and John Stogdell Stokes (1870--1947). They, in turn, followed the earlier collectors Edwin AtLee Barber (1851--1916) and Henry Chapman Mercer, as well as several dealers. (2) The art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872--1951) also installed decorative arts objects from southeastern Pennsylvania, including Pennsylvania German material, at his Chester Country, Pennsylvania, home, Ker-Feal, in the 1940s. (3) Du Pont installed many of his early acquisitions, including the Pennsylvania German collection, in Chestertown House, his summer residence in Southampton, New York, which was completed in 1926. (4) Photographs of the interiors show a strong "folk" aesthetic. Two rooms contained particularly large amounts of Pennsylvania German material -- the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch Room on the first floor and a bedroom decorated with fraktur (Pl. V). The mantel and fireplace from this bedroom were later installed in the Pennsylvania German Bedroom at Winterthur. Members of the National Committee on Folk Arts of the United States were among those who requested permission to view his Chestertown collection in 1936. (5)

It was du Pont's original intention to turn Chestertown House into a museum upon his death. He noted in a 1930 draft of his will that the house would "afford all those interested an opportunity to view and to study the conditions surrounding the early American homelife." (6) Nonetheless, some Pennsylvania German objects originally purchased for Chestertown House were installed in Winterthur, and others were bought specifically for the Delaware house even during the heyday of his collecting for Chestertown. (7) In 1937 du Pont wrote Joe Kindig Jr. (1898-1971), "My Pennsylvania Dutch Room [at Winterthur] now is to be 25' 7" by 17' and it will be 8' high. Let me know if you come across any woodwork for this." (8) Particularly during the 1940s, du Pont had furnishings moved from one house to another in keeping with his ongoing expansion and refinement of the collection as well as its presentation at both houses.

For example, he created a list of "Furniture needed in Southampton after furniture removals to Delaware for new 4th floor rooms." (9) Larger and more permanent moves, such as the mantel and fireplace from Chestertown House, came later.

Hiring Joseph Downs (1895-1954) as his first curator in 1949 had a profound impact on du Pont's collecting and the installation of Pennsylvania German objects; for Downs came with a broad knowledge of this branch of folk art and experience with its installation in museum settings, beginning with the Philadelphia Museum of Art during his tenure there from 1925 to 1932. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City after 1932, Downs's accomplishments included the installation of Emily Johnston de Forest's (1851-1942) Pennsylvania German collection. At Winterthur, Downs served as curator until his death in 1954. (10)

Du Pont had created several installations for his Pennsylvania German collection before Downs's arrival--the Lebanon Bedroom, Pennsylvania German Bedroom, and Pennypacker Hall among them. The section of Pennypacker Hall with a fireplace shown in Plate VII represents one end of the spectrum of installations. Its architectural features, which were acquired in 1923 and installed in 1929, do not appear to have been purchased specifically for this space, (11) and pictures such as the watercolor portrait of the Sprenger family (Pl. IV) on the wall are seen in the context of other regional images and objects, rather than in an architectural environment created in the community that produced them.

At Winterthur, Downs was a central figure in the installation of the Fraktur Room (Pl. II). It stood out from the earlier Pennsylvania German rooms in part because it included painted paneling from the Berks County house built for David Hottenstein (1734-1802) in 1783, a particularly significant structure. Moreover, the architectural details were incorporated at Winterthur without making major alterations to their original arrangement. Thus the objects on display had a much more specific context than in installations such as Pennypacker Hall. The installation spurred du Pont's collecting of Pennsylvania German objects during the 1950s. (12) He relied on a wide range of dealers, and, as Scott T. Swank has noted, he bought carefully so that substantial questions of authenticity have been raised about relatively few pieces. (13)