National Museum of American Illustration
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| National Museum of American Illustration |
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| Established | 1998 |
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| Location | Newport, RI, USA |
| Type | Visual art |
| Director | Lawrence and Judy Cutler |
| Website | http://www.americanillustration.org/ |
The National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI), founded in 1998, is one of the first museums to be devoted exclusively to American illustration artwork. The NMAI is located on Newport, Rhode Island's historic Bellevue Avenue in the mansion Vernon Court, designed by the noted Gilded Age architecture firm Carrère and Hastings. The museum's collection contains over 2,000 original works by noted American illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, J. C. Leyendecker, N. C. Wyeth, and others.
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[edit] History
The NMAI was founded in 1998 by husband and wife team Laurence Cutler (an award winning architect, urban designer, and former RISD, Harvard, and MIT professor) and Judy Cutler (a leading illustration art dealer, collector, and founder of the American Illustrators Gallery, NYC), with the National Arts Club as its founding institution. The museum opened its doors to the public on July 4, 2000. After considering several locations throughout the United States, the Carrère and Hastings designed Vernon Court estate Newport, Rhode Island was selected by the Cutlers, as its Gilded Age architectural origins are contemporaneous with the ‘Golden Age of American Illustration’ which the NMAI’s American Imagist collection focuses on.
In addition to Vernon Court, the adjacent property on Bellevue Avenue, Stoneacre, is owned by the museum. The property is named for the demolished mansion designed by architect William Potter for John W. Ellis that once occupied the site. The grounds for the site were designed by the noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and following the purchase of the site by the NMAI founders, it has been restored as a park in Olmsted’s honor.
[edit] The Collection
The NMAI’s American Imagist Collection focuses on artwork from the ‘Golden Age of American Illustration’, a period whose heyday dates from 1865 to 1945, with the end of the original Saturday Evening Post marking its ultimate demise.
For much of this period, when television was not the dominating medium that it is today, illustration art was the primary source through which Americans were exposed to images outside the scope of their immediate, physical, tangible reality. As such, illustration art culturally and socially defined the times with images as it helped shape and reflect the styles, attitudes, and goals of the United States.
The NMAI features original art created by illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, N. C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, J. C. Leyendecker, Jessie Willcox Smith, Alton S. Tobey, and other luminaries. The illustrators created images integral to American culture, ranging from the New Year’s Baby to Uncle Sam, thus capturing the national persona. For these reasons, the NMAI’s collection has been named the American Imagist Collection.
In addition to original artworks from illustration artists, the museum’s collection also includes many pieces of art memorabilia, artifacts such as Norman Rockwell’s first paint box and Maxfield Parrish’s stippling paint brushes, and a plethora of photographic materials.
[edit] Vernon Court
The American Imagist Collection is housed in the Carrère and Hastings designed Vernon Court, an adaptation of an 18th century French chateau (Chateau Heroue), by architect Germain Boffrand.
During the Gilded Age, the U.S. sought symbols of its emerging civilization by appropriating European architectural styles, with French style architecture being considered the consummate expression of proper architectural manners. In that atmosphere, Vernon Court was constructed in 1898 by Carrère and Hastings to be used as a summer cottage for a young widow, Anna Van Nest Gambrill (1865 – 1927). The property remained in the Gambrill family until 1956, when it was auctioned. From the school’s founding in 1963 until its closing in 1972, it served as the administration building for Vernon Court Junior College, an all girls school. Over the next two and a half decades it passed through several different owners. In 1998, Vernon Court was acquired by the Museum founders: Judy Cutler – a renowned art dealer, and Laurence Cutler – an award winning architect of international repute.
[edit] References
- Laurence S Cutler; Judy Goffman Cutler; National Museum of American Illustration. Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists. Edison, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 2004. ISBN 0785818170; ISBN 9780785818175 (Worldcat link: [1])
