Walters Art Museum
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The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland's Mount Vernon neighborhood, is a public art museum founded in 1934. The museum's collection was amassed substantially by two men, William Thompson Walters (1819-1894), who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American Civil War, and Henry Walters (1848–1931), who refined the collection and rehoused it in a palazzo building on Charles Street which opened in 1909. Upon his death, Henry Walters bequeathed the collection of over 22,000 works and the original Charles Street palazzo building to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” The collection touches masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, and Art Deco jewelry.
In the fall of 2001, the Walters reopened its largest building after a dramatic three-year renovation. The Walters Art Museum is where the Archimedes Palimpsest may be seen.
Starting Sunday, October 1, 2006, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum began having free admission year-round as a result of grants given by Baltimore City and Baltimore County.[1]
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[edit] Museum Buildings
[edit] The Charles Street Building
Henry Walters’ original gallery was designed by William Adams Delano and erected between 1904 and 1909. Its exterior was inspired by the Renaissance-revival style Hôtel Pourtalès in Paris and its interior was modeled after the 17th-century Collegio dei Gesuiti (now the Palazzo dell’Università) built by the Balbi family for the Jesuits in Genoa. The arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, French decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and manuscripts and rare books are now exhibited in this palazzo-like building.[2]
[edit] The Centre Street Building
Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, in the “Brutalist” style prevailing in the 1960s, this building opened in 1974. It was substantially altered in 1998-2001 to allow for a four-story glass atrium, a suspended staircase, a café and an enlarged museum store and a library. The ancient, Byzantine, medieval, Ethiopian, and 19th-century European collections are housed in this building as is the museum’s conservation laboratory, which is one of the oldest in the country.[3]
[edit] Hackerman House
This Greek-revival mansion, designed by John Rudolph Niernsee and erected between 1848 and 1850 for Dr. John Hanson Thomas, was long regarded as the most “elegant” house in Mount Vernon Place. Among the Thomas’s distinguished guests were the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, and General Kossuth, the Hungarian freedom fighter. Since 1991, the house has been devoted to the Walters’ holdings of Asian art.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ FREE ADMISSION AT BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART AND WALTERS ART MUSEUM BEGINS OCTOBER 1. Groundbreaking cooperation and financial support from Baltimore City and Baltimore County provides greater public access to world-class art. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
- ^ Guide to the Collections, p. 14-15
- ^ Walters Art Museum website: From Gallery to Museum
- ^ Guide to the Collections, p. 18
[edit] References
The Walters Art Gallery, Guide to the Collections, 1997, Scala Books, ISBN 0-911886-48-6
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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