New York ; Art and Cultural Capital of the Gilded Age

248 Pages·2019·41.739 MB·English

by  Margaret R. Laster, Chelsea Bruner

New York: Art and Cultural
Capital of the Gilded Age
Fueled by a flourishing capitalist economy, undergirded by advancements in architectural
design and urban infrastructure, and patronized by growing bourgeois and elite classes,
New York’s built environment was dramatically transformed in the 1870s and 1880s.
This book argues that this constituted the formative period of New York’s modernization
and cosmopolitanism—the product of a vital self-consciousness and a deliberate intent
on the part of its elite citizenry to create a world-class cultural metropolis reflecting
the city’s economic and political preeminence. The interdisciplinary essays in this book
examine New York’s late nineteenth-century evolution not simply as a question of its
physical layout but also in terms of its radically new social composition, comprising the
individuals, institutions, and organizations that played determining roles in the city’s
cultural ascendancy.
Margaret R. Laster is an independent curator and scholar of American art. Previous
posts include associate curator of American art at the New-York Historical Society
and Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies Fellow at the Freer Gallery of Art. Her
research centers on art and material culture of the nineteenth century, including Gilded
Age collecting and patronage histories.
Chelsea Bruner is a member of the liberal arts faculty at Ringling College of Art and
Design in Sarasota, Florida, where she teaches design history. Her work centers on
architecture and interiors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with an emphasis
on elite patronage and the professionalization of architectural design in the Gilded Age.
Routledge Research in Art History
Routledge Research in Art History is our home for the latest scholarship in the field of
art history. The series publishes research monographs and edited collections, covering
areas including art history, theory, and visual culture. These high-level books focus on
art and artists from around the world and from a multitude of time periods. By mak-
ing these studies available to the worldwide academic community, the series aims to
promote quality art history research.
New York: Art and Cultural
Capital of the Gilded Age
Edited by
Margaret R. Laster and Chelsea Bruner
First published 2019
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and
of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
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trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Laster, Margaret R., editor. | Bruner, Chelsea, editor.
Title: New York, art and cultural capital of the Gilded Age / edited by Margaret
R. Laster and Chelsea Bruner.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge research in art
history | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018007119 (print) | LCCN 2018007792 (ebook) | ISBN
9781351027588 (eBook) | ISBN 9781138493629 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: New York (N.Y.)—Civilization—19th century. | New York
(N.Y.)—History—1865–1898. | Arts and society—New York (State)—
New York—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC F128.47 (ebook) | LCC F128.47 .N53 2018 (print) |
DDC 974.7/103—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018007119
ISBN: 978-1-138-49362-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-02758-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This volume is dedicated to the late David Jaffee. We knew David as a brilliant,
committed scholar, and later, through his participation in this project, came to
consider him a friend. It is with great respect and admiration that we offer this
book in his memory.

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiv
Introduction 1
MARGARET R. LASTER AND CHELSEA BRUNER
PART I
Creating the Art and Cultural Capital 15
1 Looking West From the Empire City: National Landscape and Visual
Culture in Gilded Age New York 17
DAVID SCOBEY
2 The François Premier Style in New York: The William K. and Alva
Vanderbilt House 41
KEVIN D. MURPHY
3 Aestheticizing Tendencies in Hudson River School Landscape
Painting at the Beginning of the Gilded Age 56
ALAN WALLACH
PART II
Institutionalizing Art and Culture in the Capital 71
4 The Lenox Library: New York’s Lost Treasure House 73
SALLY WEBSTER
5 Publishing and Promoting a New York City Art World: Scribner’s
Illustrated Monthly, 1870–1881 90
PAGE KNOX
viii Contents
6 An Unsung Hero: Henry Gurdon Marquand and His 1889 Gift to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art 105
ESMÉE QUODBACH
7 Metropolitan, Inc.: Public Subsidy and Private Gain at the Genesis of
the American Art Museum 122
JOHN OTT
8 Un-Domesticating the Ideal: William Wetmore Story and
The Metropolitan Museum of Art 139
LAUREN LESSING
PART III
Depicting the Capital in Art and Culture 161
9 Before the Farragut: Who Was Augustus Saint-Gaudens? 163
THAYER TOLLES
10 Crossing Broadway: New York and the Culture of Capital in the Late
Nineteenth Century 179
DAVID JAFFEE
11 Bulls, Bears, and Buildings: William Holbrook Beard’s Wall Street 192
ROSS BARRETT
Afterword 208
JOSHUA BROWN
Selected Bibliography 212
Contributors 215
Index 217
Illustrations
Cover
Frank Waller, Interior View of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when
in Fourteenth Street, 1881. Oil on canvas (cropped slightly). The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 1895 (95.29)
Color Plates
Plate 1 John Gast, American Progress. Chromolithograph (1873) of
original Gast oil painting (1872). Library of Congress
Plate 2 “Japanese Parlor, North West Corner.” Earl Shinn, Mr. Vanderbilt’s
House and Collection, described by Edward Strahan [pseud.]. Two vols.
(Philadelphia: G. Barrie & Sons, ca. 1883–1884)
Plate 3 John F. Kensett, Long Neck Point from Contentment Island, ca. 1870–
1872. Oil on canvas. Carnegie Museum of Art, Purchase, Gift of the
Women’s Committee (80.51)
Plate 4 Richard Morris Hunt, Lenox Library, New York City. Perspective rendering,
1871. Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper. Library of Congress
Plate 5 Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Richard Watson Gilder, Helena de Kay Gilder,
and Rodman de Kay Gilder, modeled 1879, cast ca. 1883–1884. Plaster.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of David and Joshua Gilder, 2002
(2002.445)
Plate 6 Domenico Ventura, Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819–1902), 1852.
Watercolor with gouache. Collection of Edward Heimiller
Plate 7 William Wetmore Story, Semiramis, designed 1872, carved 1873. Marble.
Dallas Museum of Art, Gift of Morynne and Robert E. Motley in memory
of Robert Earl Motley Jr., 1942–1998 (1999.117.A-B)
Plate 8 Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Farragut Monument, 1877–1880. Madison
Square Park, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Plate 9 Currier & Ives, The City of New York, 1876. Color lithograph. Library of
Congress
Plate 10 William Holbrook Beard, The Bulls and Bears in the Market, 1879. Oil on
linen. Collection of the New-York Historical Society, Purchase, Thomas Jef-
ferson Bryan Fund (1971.104)