Overview of the Collection
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts houses one of the most significant public collections outside Paris of decorative arts in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, spanning the years 1890-1935. The Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles radiated from Paris to the rest of Europe and America. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection is rich in both its scope and its depth, featuring masterpieces by key designers. Highlights include one of the largest and finest collections of lamps by Tiffany Studios in a U.S. museum; one of the largest collections of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany on view in a U.S. museum; one of the largest group of works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in a U.S. museum; the finest collection of American and European Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau belt buckles and accessories - dating from about 1890 to 1910 - in a U.S. museum; a very fine group of American Arts and Crafts objects by artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Greene and Greene Brothers, Gustav Stickley and Roycroft in an American museum; the largest group of objects by the great Art Deco (and Modernist) architect-designer working in Paris, Eileen Gray, in a U.S. museum; and one of the largest group of objects by the great French Art Nouveau architect-designer Hector Guimard in an American museum.
Donors of the Collection
Sydney and Frances Lewis of Richmond, the founders of Best Products Company, amassed the majority of their collection for their personal use between about 1970 and 1985. During this period, the museum acquired major Art Nouveau objects with funds donated by the Lewises in 1971-72, and the collection was enlarged through funds and gifts from other benefactors. The Lewises gave their collection and that of the Lewis Foundation to the museum in 1985. Prior to their gift, their paintings, sculptures and decorative arts were housed in the Lewis's house on Monument Avenue. The house was designed by the well-known architect William Bottomley and was built in 1926. The entire house was furnished in the finest examples of Art Nouveau and Art Deco objects and with important works by Lichtenstein, Warhol, Kline, Close and other major artists of the period from the mid 1960s to 1985.
2010 Installation
When the expanded museum opens in May 2010, the collection will be installed in a logical, clear fashion. Each gallery will be devoted to one country (with the exception of one that will focus on two countries) so that visitors may easily understand the accomplishments of artists, architects and designers in each country. On view will be VMFA's very finest objects, some which have not been shown before (because of space limitations), as well as newly acquired objects. A large group of objects by the French Art Nouveau architect and designer Hector Guimard, telling the story of Parisian Art Nouveau, will be shown, and many artists will be represented in depth - among them Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Archibald Knox, Josef Hoffmann, Richard Riemerschmid and Eileen Gray. The complete range of creativity by Louis Comfort Tiffany will be represented by a wide selection of objects, including a leaded-glass window and lamps, hand-blown glass, ceramics, enamels, jewelry, wood and mosaics. Whereas in past installations space limited the display to some 350 works, the expanded galleries will allow for the showing of some 420 works.
Highlights of the Collection
Hector Guimard, (French, 1867-1942)
Cabinet from the apartment building Castel Béranger, Paris, circa 1899
Pear, ash, bronze, mirrored glass, glass
Built between 1894 and 1898, Castel Béranger in Paris was designed by Guimard. While creating the interior decoration for the building, Guimard adapted sinuous lines found in nature. This massive cabinet, with its curving lines and open spaces, was created for a dining room in an apartment at the Castel Béranger. By examining the preliminary designs of the cabinet, one can see that Guimard originally planned a more sumptuous piece of furniture. The cabinetry was considered part of the overall design scheme for the dining room and would not have been viewed as a separate piece of furniture.
Hector Guimard (French, 1867-1942)
Office Suite (desk, file cabinets, arm and side chairs), 1909
Pearwood, mahogany, bronze, upholstery, glass, leather
Of all the French Art Nouveau artists, Guimard was the most famous architect and designer working at the turn of the last century. He created total environments, from the architecture of a building to every aspect of its interior, such as furniture, metalwork and textiles. An example of the highest achievement in cabinetry, this office suite includes Guimard's botanical motifs based on the stem and roots of plant life. The carved decoration in high relief appears all over this suite.
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American-New York, 1892-1900)
Punch Bowl with Three Ladles, 1900
Favrile glass, silver, gilding, copper
This punch bowl, commissioned by one of Tiffany's most distinguished patrons, Henry O. Havemeyer of New York City, is among the most important works created by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. The punch bowl, formed of Tiffany's hand-blown glass, called favrile glass after the Latin word faber (meaning handmade), has an iridescent surface reminiscent of ancient Roman glass. The gilded silver mounts show the Art Nouveau style in its C- and S-shaped scrolls. The bowl is visible in a photograph of the Tiffany display at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. For his contribution at the exhibition, Tiffany won a grand prize and received the French Legion of Honor.
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American-New York, 1892-1900)
Peacock Lamp, circa 1898-1900
Favrile glass, enamel, brass, gilding
Sometime around 1898, Charles Winthrop Gould (1849-1931), a prominent lawyer, art collector and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, asked Tiffany to provide the interior decoration for his house. A peacock motif was a central element. Among the objects Tiffany made for Gould was this lamp. The body is favrile glass with a peacock-feather pattern. The shade of the lamp is a glass globe featuring a swirling pattern. Three enameled-copper peacock heads support the glass globe. The foot of the lamp is enameled copper and includes glass scarabs. Additional scarabs are placed around the birds' necks.
Clara Driscoll (designer) (American, 1861-1944)
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (American-New York, 1892-1900)
Cobweb Lamp, circa 1902-1910
Leaded glass, bronze, mosaic-glass tiles
The lamp's large size, the sophisticated form of the octagonal shade and support, and the glass mosaic tiles all contributed to making this piece the second most expensive lamp made by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. The complex pattern and fabrication of the lampshade, with cobwebs and flowers, is an example of the ingenuity and talent of the artists at the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. The base of the lamp, formed of bronze branches that rise to support the shade, is decorated with narcissus in mosaic-glass tiles. Clara Driscoll, who designed the lamp, was one of the most important and prolific artists working for Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Eileen Gray (Irish, active in France, 1878-1976)
Canoe Sofa, 1919-20
Lacquered wood, silver leaf
One of Eileen Gray's most successful decorations was the apartment for Madame Mathieu Lévy, a talented Parisian fashion designer known as Suzanne Talbot. A sofa in the shape of a dugout canoe, inspired by Polynesian and Micronesian canoes, was among the most unusual pieces of furniture made by Gray for Madame Lévy. This sofa, which is lacquered and silvered, is very similar to the one that Gray designed in 1919-20 for Madame Lévy. It is among the most celebrated examples of furniture in the Art Deco style.
Eileen Gray (Irish, active in France, 1879-1976)
Screen, circa 1923
Lacquered wood, aluminum
Between 1919 and 1922, Eileen Gray decorated the Paris apartment of Madame Mathieu Lévy, who was known as the successful French fashion designer Suzanne Talbot. For the entrance hall, Gray created a screen and wall treatment in 1922 that consisted of wood blocks, each lacquered in black and textured with powdered stone. The iconic Art Deco screen in the VMFA collection was inspired by the interior decoration of the entrance hall at Madame Lévy's apartment. From around 1923, after Gray opened her own Paris art gallery called Jean Désert, several other versions of this screen in black or white were made, including this example.