Exhibition to Cast a New Light on Richard Morris Hunt

Richard Morris Hunt has long been associated with contributions of extraordinary architecture, including The Breakers and Marble House, that provided the grand backdrop for America’s Gilded Age.

The first American admitted to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, Hunt returned home to instill European grandeur into his buildings. But Hunt also envisioned creating a national identity beyond physical structures. He was a collector, and this act of collecting, as well as what he collected, reflected how he sought to influence America’s cultural development.

Beginning May 30 at Rosecliff, The Preservation Society of Newport County will examine this lesser-known aspect of Hunt’s legacy with the opening of “Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light.” The exhibition runs through November 2.

“As caretakers of Marble House, The Breakers and Chateau-sur-Mer, we are reminded every day of the impact Richard Morris Hunt made on American architecture,” Preservation Society CEO and Executive Director Trudy Coxe said. “But this exhibition promises to reveal another side of this complex man who did so much to shape our understanding of culture in this country.”

For the first time, Hunt’s materials from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Vermont Historical Society, Bennington Museum (Vt.), and the Preservation Society’s collections – including architectural and interior drawings, his personal sketchbooks and scrapbooks, and intimate family objects and collections – will be exhibited in one location.  Together they provide deep insight into Hunt’s approach to culture, private and public collecting, and architectural practice.

Highlights include a 55-inch plaster cast of Hunt’s likeness, dressed as a stone mason, the original of which was installed on the roof of the William K. Vanderbilt House (aka Petit Chateau) at 660 Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan as a tribute to Hunt by his workmen. An 1874 sketchbook detailing Hunt’s observations on a trip to Cologne, Germany, which features buildings, churches and landscapes, is also being exhibited for the first time.

Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1827, Hunt also lived in New Haven, Connecticut, New York and Boston before moving to Europe as a young man. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris — the leading school for art and architecture of its day — before returning to the United States in 1856. His contributions to the development and professionalization of architecture in the United States earned him the moniker “The Dean of American Architecture.”  Surviving examples of his work, including Vanderbilt summer cottages Marble House and The Breakers in Newport and Biltmore in North Carolina, established a new standard for opulence while also incorporating the latest technology of the era.

But Hunt also supported the idea that practicing and advocating for all the arts would transform his war-torn nation into a society as great as ancient Athens and modern Paris. He believed America needed “culture.” Through his education and experience at home and abroad, Hunt used his own collections to influence the public on what the ideals of culture should be through art and architecture, in both public museums and private spaces.

“With a renewed focus on the Hunt Collection at the Library of Congress, new scholarship has provided greater insight into who Hunt was and who he wanted to be, along with his vision for America at a time of great transformation in both the built and cultural landscapes,” explained Leslie Jones, the Preservation Society’s Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator. “His ambition for identifying what American culture should be through public and private spaces, particularly his role in the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been largely overlooked.

“We are bringing together material selected by Hunt, which inspired his ability to influence America’s impressionable cultural landscape during the Gilded Age,” Jones said. “In a way, while we know Hunt as an architect, we are presenting him as a man.”

Through an examination of his own collecting practices, “Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light” will reveal the ideas and objects Hunt immersed himself in to become America’s architect and arbiter of culture. For more information, visit www.newportmansions.org/events/richard-morris-hunt-in-a-new-light.

The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island, is a nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area's historic architecture, landscapes, decorative arts and social history. Its 11 historic properties – seven of them National Historic Landmarks – span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development. For more information, please visit www.NewportMansions.org.