USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884 Volume II > Part 46
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Werden Week
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The Lenox Library was established for "the public exhibition and scholarly use of the most rare and precious of such monuments and memorials of the typographie art and the historie past as have escaped the wreck and been preserved to this day." It is unlike any other library. It is not a great general library intended in its endowment and equipment for the use of readers in all or most of the departments of human knowledge, vet it is absolutely without a peer or even a rival in the special collections to which the taste, generosity. and liberal scholarship of its founder devoted his best gifts of intellectual ability .. and ample pecuniary resources. "It represents the favorite studies of a lifetime consecrated, after due offices of religion and charity, to the choicest pursuits of literature and art."
The imposing structure which contains this rare collection of literary and art treasures is built of Lockport limestone, which resembles light granite. It has a frontage on Fifth Avenue of 192 feet, and 114 feet on cach of the two cross streets, and is three stories in height, with a basement. Nearly completed at the beginning of 1877, the collection of paintings and sculpture was first opened to visitors in January of that year. The entire expense of the building and its furnishing, amounting to fully $1,000,000, was borne by Mr. Lenox alone. He also endowed the institution with a permanent fund of nearly $250,000. With a very few exceptions, the entire contents of the building -- its exceedingly rare and costly books, its paintings and sculpture, and its ceramics-are the gifts of the generous founder .* Mr. Lenox, as this
* The library is specially rich in specimens of the earlier products of the art of print- ing, and of first and complete editions of famous works-for example : copies of every known edition of Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," of Milton's "Paradise Lost," of Walton's " Complete Angler," etc. It contains specimens of nearly every known edi- tion of the Bible, of Shakespeare's works, and of conspicuons American publications. There may be seen a perfect copy of the famous Mazarin Bible (so called), printed, it is believed, by Gutenberg and Fanst about 1450-the first complete book printel from movable type. There are two copies of the " Biblia Pauperum," a small book of forty pages, printed from engraved blocks in the manner of the Chinese printing. It was issued about 1430, or about twenty years before movable type was invented. There is also a fragment of " Selections from the Histories of Troy," printed by Caxton about 1474, the first book printed in the English language ; also a copy of the first book printed on the American continent, by Roman Catholics in Mexico, who set up the first printing press seen in America. The library also contains a very valuable collection of manuscript books, including beautiful copies of the Bible several hundred years old, written on paper and vellum. The number of books in the collection in 1883 was abont thirty thousand volumes, including the library of the late Evert A. Duyekinek, of New York, who presented it to the Lenox Library a short time before his death. in 1978.
The art gallery occupies a greater part of the central portion of the seven I story, and contains about one hundred and fifty paintings, chiefly modern, executed by distin-
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collection attests, was one of the most learned and industrious collectors during a long life.
Only four of the original trustees of the Lenox Library were living in 1983. Mr. Lenox, president of the trustees, died early in 1550 .* Robert Lenox Kennedy has since filled that office, with George II. Moore, LL. D., as treasurer. The institution has been fortunate in the selection of its immediate managers. Dr. Moore is its general superin- tendent. He brought to that service the experience of nearly a quarter of a century as librarian of the New York Historical Society. The librarian is S. Austin Allibone, LL. D., the learned author of " A Dic- tionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, Living and Deceased " -- a work of vast research and labor, containing 30,000 biographies and literary notices. These gentlemen are among the most accomplished and thoroughly informed bibliographers in the country.
gnished American and foreign artists. Among the most valuable of these is the cele- brated painting by Munkacsy, the eminent Hungarian artist, representing " Blind Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to His Daughters." It was presented to the institution by its president. Mr. Kennedy.
* Mr. Lenox on his death-bed requested that no particulars of his early life and career should be published. He was the only son of a successful Scotch merchant, Robert Lenox, in the city of New York, and had five sisters, all but one of whom married. James was born in New York City in the year 1800, and received an education appropri- ate to his station and large inheritance. It was expanded by rare opportunities of for- eign travel, with wide experience of men and things. His inheritance was large, and he had the opportunity to indulge his tastes to the fullest extent. He never married, lived a secluded life, and had very few intimate friends. His private charities were very extensive, but known only to himself and the recipients. His public benefactions were munificent. In every relation in life his influence was that of a thorough Christian gen- tleman inspired by the sense of duty and governed by the obligations of justice. Ile died calm and peaceful, as he had lived, at his home in his native city, on February 17, 1880, in the cightieth year of his age. His enduring monument is the great library he had gathered and presented to the city of New York.
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CHAPTER III.
T THE Metropolitan Museum of Art. situated on the eastern border of the Central Park, opposite Eighty-second Street, is the product of the cultivated taste and refinement and the wealth and generosity of the citizens of the metropolis. It is a permanent coadjutor of other art associations in the city designed to cultivate a knowledge and a love for the fine arts of design in every department.
A memorial from American citizens in Europe suggesting the impor- tance of establishing a museum of art in the City of New York, was transmitted to the Hon. John Jay as president of the Union League Club. some time during the summer of 1869. It was referred to the art com- mittee for consideration. The committee consisted of Geo. P. Putnam, Chairman, J. F. Kensett, J. Q. A. Ward, W. Whittredge, Geo. 1. Baker, V. Colver, and S. P. Avery, Secretary. At the October meet- ing of the club it was voted to allow the use of the theatre to the art committee for convening a gathering of citizens to consider the object urged by the committee. The meeting was duly held there on Novem- ber, 23, 1869. William Cullen Bryant presided and S. P. Avery and A. J. Bloor acted as secretaries. Notable persons made addresses, and a general committee of fifty were appointed to carry on the work. Several of these gentlemen became trustees and have so continued. Mr. Putnam was one of the most active and esteemed members until his death .*
The association was organized in the spring of isto by the appoint- ment of John Taylor Johnston + president, and a board of executive
* The corporators named in the charter were : John Taylor Johnston, William C'uilen Bryant, John A. Dix, George W. Curtis, William H. Aspinwall, Christian E. Detmoldl. Andrew H. Green, William J. Hoppin, John F. Kensett, Elwin D. Morgan. Howard Potter, Henry G. Stebbins, William T. Blodgett, Samuel L. M. Barlow, George F. . Comfort, Joseph H. Choate, Frederick E. Church, Robert Gordon, Richard M. Hunt, . Robert Hoe, Jr., Eastman Johnson, Frederick Law Olmsted, George P. Putnam, Lu- cius Thekerman, J. Q. A. Ward, S. G. Ward, Theodore Weston, and Russell Sturgis, Jr.,
+ John Taylor Johnston was born in New York City April 8, 1820. His father was John Johnston, of the mercantile firm of Boorman & Johnston, and his mother (who lived until she was ninety-six years of age) was a daughter of John Taylor, another emi- nent New York merchant. Both parents were of Search lineage.
At the age of twelve years young John was placed in the high school nt Edinburgh,
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officers. Having acquired some excellent paintings of the various European schools, the first public exhibition was given at No. 681 Fifth Avenue, in February, 1872. The following year the famous di Cesnola #
where he remained a year and a half, when he entered the University of the City of New York, of which his father was one of the founders and benefactors. He graduated at the . age of nineteen, chose the profession of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. At the early age of twenty-eight years he was chosen president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and held that position twenty-eight years, when impaired health compelled him to resign. At an early period he became largely interested in railroads and the anthracite coal-trade, the development of which became the chief employment of his business life. His literary culture and his aesthetic tastes impelled him to devote much time and money to the gathering of a very valuable library and a rare and costly gallery of paintings and sculpture and articles in other departments of the arts of design. He was one of the earliest and most earnest promoters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on its organization in 1870 he was chosen its first president, which position he still holds. From the beginning he has been its most devoted and liberal supporter. He is also president of the University of the City of New York, and is an active and generous officer in many religions, social, literary and benevolent organizations in the city of his birth. Mr. Johnston has always acted in accordance with the spirit of his remark to a friend nearly forty years ago : " I consider it just as much my duty to give to benevolent institutions as to pay my butcher's bill." From his youth he has had ample means to act upon this sentiment.
In 1850 Mr. Johnston married Miss Colles, of New Orleans. With a charming domestic circle around him, he dispenses hospitality with a generous hand. From his young man- hood he has been a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is an elder therein. In every relation in life-business, social and domestic-Mr. Johnston is an exemplar worthy of imitation.
* Emmanuele Pietro Paolo Maria Luigi Palma Count di Cesnola was born at Riva- rolo, near Turin, Italy, June 29, 1832. His family came originally from Spain, but since 1282 they have resided in Piedmont, and as early as the fourteenth century were invested with feudal privileges and power over the region where the subject of this sketch was born. There are now two distinct families of Palma in Piedmont-that of the counts of Cesnola, of which he is the representative head, and that of the counts of Borgofranco, the latter being a branch issuing from the di Cesnolas.
L. P. di Cesnola (as he signs his name) received a thorough collegiate education, after which he was placed in a seminary, with a view to his preparation for the priesthood. He preferred a secular life, with more activity, and when in 1848 war broke out between Austria and Sardinia, he left the seminary and entered the Sardinian army as a volun- teer. He behaved so bravely that in 1849 he was promoted to a lieutenancy on the battlefield. He was then the youngest commissioned officer in the Sardinian army, being a little more than seventeen years old. After the close of this war he was sent to the Royal Military Academy at Cherasco to complete his military education, where he was graduated in 1851. He served in the army several years, and early in 1860 came to America, landing at New York. In June, 1861, he married Miss Mary Isabel Reid, daughter of Captain Sammel C. Reid, U. S. N., the brave commander of the privateer General Armstrong in her struggle with several British ships in the harbor of Fayal, in 1814.
Di Cesnola entered the United States volunteer service in August, 1861, as lieutenant-
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" FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1SSO.
collection of Cypriote antiquities was added to the museum, being pur- chased by the president and deposited in the museum, and subsequently becoming its property. This addition made more ample room neces- sary, and the museum was removed to the Douglas mansion, in Four- teenth Strect, where it remained until its removal to its present per- manent home in Central Park, furnished by the Park Commissioners in accordance with an act of the Legislature which authorized them to provide a site, erect buildings, and keep them in repair for the use of the institution, the latter to bear the expenses of all the collec- . tions within its walls -- their purchase, arrangement, and preservation. The present building was completed and first occupied by the museum in the spring of 1879.
The institution has established industrial art schools for popular education in drawing, modelling, etc., acquisitions which are useful in most of the industrial pursuits. It has been the recipient, within a comparatively short period, of various valuable gifts, which, with the other collections, form the subject of several descriptive hand-books.
colonel of the Fourth New York Cavalry, and throughout the war he performed gallant services wherever opportunity offered. Receiving early the commission of colonel he led a brigade of cavalry much of the time, winning honors everywhere. In a cavalry charge he was severely wounded, made a prisoner of war, and was confined in Libby Prison a long time. He was with Sheridan in his campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. President Lincoln, a few days before his assassination, appointed di Cesnola Ameri- can consul at Cyprus. The delivery of his commission to him was delayed. It was given him by President Johnson, but before the close of the year (1865) he was at his post of duty, where he remained until 1877, when the consulate was abolished.
It was while di Cesnola was in Cyprus that he rendered to the history of the fine arts the inestimable service of discovering and collecting the specimens of Cypriote antiquities now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and which furnish the long missing link connecting Egyptian and Assyrian art with that of Greece. Scientific and literary socie- ties conferred membership on him ; the Kings of Italy (Victor Emmanuel and Humbert) gave him several knightly orders ; so also did the King of Bavaria. In 1882 King Hum- bert caused a large gold medal to be struck in his honor, which was sent to him as a New Year's gift. Both Columbia and Princeton colleges conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D.
In 1872 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as we have observed, seenred, by purchase, the Cypriote antiquities collected up to that date, and di Cesnola was granted an ex- tended leave of absence to visit New York and arrange and classify them. He returned to Cyprus and made other important discoveries and collections. These were also seeured to the museum. In 1877 he made New York his permanent place of abode. He was appointed a trustee of the museum, and when it was removed to its present home he was made its secretary and director. Since that day all the time and energy of di Cesnola have been spent for the single purpose of promoting the success and growth of the museum.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The latter greatly facilitate the study of the collection by the casual visitor and the student. " There is also a small but very valuable col. lection of American antiquities. Twice as much space as the present building affords is required for the proper display of the possessions of the museum, which, at the beginning of 1883, were valued at more than 8618,000. The institution is entirely free of debt. The public are admitted to the museum four days out of the week-Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.+
There are several organizations in the city designed to promote the cultivation of the arts of design-the National Academy, the ant schools of the Cooper Union, the American Water-Color Society .; the Ladies' Art Association, the Decorative Art Society, § etc. Among the
* These hand-books are descriptive of pictures by the old masters. potteries of the Cesnola collection, sculptures of the Cesnola collection, Oriental porcelains, loan collee- tions, loan collections of paintings and sculptures, collections of casts from ivory carv- ings, the Vanderbilt collection of drawings, and the Johnston collection of engraved getus.
t A contribution of $1000 at one time constitutes the contributor a patron, $500 & fellow in perpetuity, and $200 a fellow for life. Honorary fellows for life may also be elected by the trustees. The trustees are elected annually by the corporators, twenty-one in number, to serve for seven years, one seventh retiring every year. The comptroller of the city of New York, the president of the Department of Public Parks, and the president of the National Academy of the Arts of Design are ex-officio members of the board of trus- tees. The officers for 1883 were : John Taylor Johnston, president ; William C. Prime and D. Huntington, vice-presidents ; Henry G. Marquand, treasurer ; L. P. di Cesnola, secretary and director, and William L. Andrews, librarian.
The museum building occupied in 1883 is but a portion of a contemplated vast struct- ure. It is 218 feet long and 95 feet wide, built of red brick with sandstone trimmings, externally. It is lighted through an immense arched glass roof and large wall windows. Its foundation is on a solid rock.
This society was founded in 1866. Before this time a room had been set apart at the annual exhibitions at the Academy of Design for the display of water-colors. Several prominent artists perceived the rapidly growing taste for paintings in water colors, and the skill exhibited in this department of art, and not wishing it to take a secondary place, conceived the idea of a separate exhibition and of a society devoted to the interests of painting in water colors. The subject was already attracting much attention abroad. A society was organized with the object of furthering the interest of this department of art, the bolding of annual exhibitions where the works of its members might be displayed and sold, and of bringing together artists who paint, themselves, and are anxious for the further development of painting in water colors. The society has been eminently suc- cessful. Its annual exhibition at the Academy of Design, in January each year, forms one of the most interesting attractions for cultivated people in the city. The officers of the society for 1883 were: T. W. Wood, president ; Henry Farrer, secretary. The rooms of the society are at No. 51 West Tenth Street.
The Society of Decorative Art was founded early in 1877 for the establishment of rooms for the exhibition and sale of women's work in the arts of design-drawing. painting. embroidery, etc .- and for the diffusion of a knowledge of decorative art amely women and their training in artistic industries. It aims to encourage art-workers :
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FIFTH DECADE, 1870 -- 1880.
more recently formed art associations the ART STUDENTS' LEAGUE appears the most notable. It was suggested by the determination of the council of the National Academy of the Arts of Design, in 1875, not to reopen the department of schools until in December. This determination caused much disappointment among the art students in New York and those who designed to return, and in July some of the former announced their intention of forming an association to be called the Art Students' League, with the approbation and under the charge of the accomplished Professor L. E. Wilmarth, the conductor of the schools of the Academy. The League was organized in September, 1875, and incorporated in 1878. Its objects were the establishment and maintenance of an academic school of art that should furnish a thorough course of instruction in drawing, painting, sculpture, artistic anatomy, perspective, and composition. It is not intended for begin- ners, and no elementary instruction is given. The students must have
master the details of one kind of decoration, and thereby secure a reputation that will have a commercial value ; to assist those who have worked unsuccessfully in choosing a popular direction for their labor ; to open classes of instruction : to establish a circu- lating library of hand-books on decorative art ; to seek methods for largely disposing of the products of the labor of the workers, and to develop the art of needlework. The officers of the society for 1883 were : Mrs. W. T. Blodgett, president ; R. B. Magoon, treasurer, and Mary Cadwallader Jones, secretary.
Auxiliary to the last-named society is that of the New York Exchange for Woman's Work, designed for the benefit of women of cultivation in reduced circumstances, by enabling them to help themselves in any proper manner in procuring remunerative em . ployment, especially in the production of drawings, paintings, embroidery, etc., which do not present the excellence required by the standard of the Society of Decorative Art. That society received in one year 1200 applications, comparatively few of which could be favorably considered, in accordance with the rules of the society. To aid those who failed was the impulse which gave birth to the exchange. The benevolent heart and mind of Mrs. William G. Choate conceived it. Early in 1878 she invited a few friends to her honse to consider the matter. Several other meetings were held. A society was formed in April, and it began its labors on Decoration day -- May 30. Its prescribed duty was and is that of a commission merchant. It receives and sells the productions of women's genius and their fingers, and returns to the worker the proceeds, less a com- mission for the support of the exchange. Its first article sold fetched $10. The exchange was incorporated in November, 1878. The first officers appointed were : Mrs. W. G. Choate, president ; Mrs. Lucius Tuckerman, Mrs. William E. Dodge, Mrs. Dr. F. N. Otis, and Mrs. H. H. Anderson, vice-presidents ; Mrs. Dr. C. R. Agnew, recording secretary ; Miss Eleanor Agnew, assistant recording secretary ; Mrs. F. B. Thurber, cor- responding secretary, and Mrs. E. A. Packer, treasurer.
This institution is doing a vast amount of good in a quiet way. The originally chosen officers still (1883) conduet its affairs upon the principle embodied in its business motto : " Keep out of debt ; waste nothing, and spare nothing which shall contribute to its suc- less as a benevolent enterprise. "
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attained a certain standard before they can be admitted to the lowest (Antique) class.
The membership of the League is limited to artists and students - ladies and gentlemen who intend to make art a profession. The instructors are selected from the best known of the younger American artists. The ladies and gentlemen work together excepting in the life · classes, which are arranged for the alternate use of the room. They draw from nude or draped figures. The school is divided into several classes-Antique, Life, Portrait, Composition, and Sketch. Lectures on artistic anatomy are given once a week during the season of eight months-October 1st to May 1st. The schools are open every day in the week -- morning, afternoon, and evening.
The entire support of the institution is drawn from the tuition and members' fees. A monthly reception is given. These receptions pre- sent a charming collection, not only of cultivated people, but of rare sketches, finished paintings, and other products of the arts of design, bric-à-brac, and curiosities in art. The League is full of enthusiasm, is highly successful, and is performing the most efficient and salutary service in the realm of art cultivation."
* Art culture in the city of New York has made wonderful progress during a score of years just passed. Perhaps nothing will better illustrate this and the number and value of works of art in the city than the following statistics of sales and collections, which have been kindly prepared for this work by Mr. S. P. Avery, who is universally known and esteemed in the art world :
Fifty years ago the sale of paintings was mainly confined to the works of old masters, or copies from them. For many years Michel Paff was the only dealer. He imported many fairly good old pictures, some of which turn up nowadays. The Hunter collection (of Hunter's island) was a noted one in its day. Later on " Old Levy" distributed by quetion large numbers of old pictures : this was before the days of Allston, Cole, Inman. Mount, Durand, and others. Philip Hone's was one of the earliest collections in which appeared paintings by living artists -Leslie, Newton, etc. Luman Reed was one of the earliest patrons of American art, and the sum of $500 for a single picture was considered a very extravagant price, the paying of which almost endangered the credit of a man in business. Gradually came the formation of modest collections of paintings by American artists : then others were formed, which were supplemented by foreign pictures, generally by third rate English artists : then others of more pretension were gathered, such as that of the late W. P. Wright, who built a gallery at Weehawken, N. J., his most famous picture being the " Horse Fair," by Rosa Bonheur, now is the gallery of Mrs. A. T. Stewart. Marshall O. Roberts was long noted for his love of art and for his liberality to artists, which continued until his recent death. Mr. August Belmont, on his return from the Hague, where he resided some years as the American minister, brought over a number of very choice French, Dutch, and Belgian pictures, which formed the neleus of a collection that for a long time remained the most valuable in the city. Mr. Boker brought to New York and publicly exhibit. I for several years the collection known as the " Düsseldorf Gallery." This led to large importations of paintings by German artists.
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