Established | 1933 |
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Location | 1 Memorial Place, Norfolk, Virginia |
Coordinates | 36°51′25″N76°17′31″W / 36.85694°N 76.29194°W |
Type | Art museum |
Visitors | 200,000 |
Director | Erik H. Neil |
Curator | Lloyd DeWitt, Ph.D., Chief Curator and Irene Leache Curator of European Art Chelsea Pierce, Ph.D., McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Corey Piper, Ph.D., Brock Curator of American Art) Carolyn Swan Needell, Ph.D., Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass |
Website | www |
The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (whose wife, Jean Outland Chrysler, was a native of Norfolk), donated most of his extensive collection to the museum. This single gift significantly expanded the museum's collection, making it one of the major art museums in the Southeastern United States. From 1958 to 1971, the Chrysler Museum of Art was a smaller museum consisting solely of Chrysler's personal collection and housed in the historic Center Methodist Church in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Today's museum sits on a small body of water known as The Hague.
The museum's main building underwent expansion and renovation and reopened on May 10, 2014. During the renovation, the Glass Studio and the Moses Myers House remained open and art was displayed at venues throughout the community. [1] [2] The museum's grand reopening included the Rubber Duck floating sculpture from May 17–26, 2014. The museum originally had a courtyard, but during renovations in the 1980s, the courtyard was enclosed thus creating Huber Court, where concerts and events are held.
John Russell for the New York Times described the Chrysler collection as "one any museum in the world would kill for." [3] Comprising over 30,000 objects, the collection spans over 5,000 years of world history. American and European paintings and sculpture from the Middle Ages to the present day form the core of the collection.[ citation needed ]
The museum's most significant holdings include works by Renaissance artists: Tintoretto, Veronese, Peter Paul Rubens, Gauthier de Campes, Baroque artists Diego Velázquez, Salvator Rosa, Gianlorenzo Bernini, American artists such as John Singleton Copley, Pinckney Marcius-Simons, Thomas Cole, Edward Hopper, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Richard Diebenkorn, Karen LaMonte, [4] and Franz Kline. École de Paris Jewish artist Yitzhak Frenkel [5] , the French artists Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Gustave Doré, Auguste Rodin, Mary Cassatt, Paul Gauguin, Georges Rouault, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and the German Albert Bierstadt.
The Chrysler Museum is home to the final sculpture of the Baroque master Gianlorenzo Bernini, a marble bust of Jesus Christ created as a gift for the artist's benefactor, Queen Christina of Sweden. The Museum also houses one of the world's greatest collections of glass (including outstanding works by Louis Comfort Tiffany), distinguished holdings in the decorative arts, and a fine and growing collection of photography. The arts of the ancient world, Asia, Africa, and Pre-Columbian America (particularly Maya ceramics) are also well represented.[ citation needed ]
In 1999, the provenance and ownership of the sculpture The Wounded Indian by Peter Stephenson was contested by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. The sculpture was thought by the Association to have been destroyed in a move in the 1950s. In late 2020, the Association and museum reached a partial agreement where the sculpture's provenance was changed to include the Association's ownership. [6]
The Chrysler Museum provides guided tours, lectures, films, concerts, family days, story time in the galleries, travel programs, and publications. More than 60,000 students from Hampton Roads' schools tour the museum each year. Their visits are facilitated by a team of around 100 volunteer docents, who also offer a variety of general and special tours for the public. The Chrysler docent training program is a selective, rigorous, year-long course. Established docents continue their training through a variety continuing education activities.
The Chrysler displays its permanent collection and several changing exhibitions including works from around the globe. Recent offerings include Rembrandt's Etchings: The Embrace and Darkness of Light, From Goya to Sorolla: Masterpieces from The Hispanic Society of America, To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection and American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell.
In May 2024, in light of Jewish American history month the museum did an exhibition on Jewish art from the 16th century to contemporary art.
The Jean Outland Chrysler Library is one of the largest art libraries in the South. [7] The collection covers the entire history of world art, with special emphasis on material relevant to the Chrysler's permanent collection. The library subscribes to several hundred art-related journals, has an extensive collection of current and historical auction catalogues, and exchanges publications with 400 art museums around the world.
The library is named in honor of Jean Outland Chrysler, wife of the late Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., who played a leading role in its formation and expansion. The collection is based on the original holdings of the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences library. In 1977, the library of the London art dealer M. Knoedler & Co. was purchased, adding major historical reference volumes, periodicals, and rare annotated sales catalogues. The library also houses the museum's archives, which includes Mark Twain's original typescript of a speech he delivered at the Jamestown Tricentennial Exposition of 1907, and a collection of papers from the Moses Myers family provides unique insights into the life of an important Tidewater merchant during the United States' early history.
The Jean Outland Chrysler Library moved from the Chrysler Museum of Art into a new art building on Old Dominion University campus in 2014. [7]
In addition to its main building in downtown Norfolk, the Chrysler Museum of Art administers two important historic houses.
Moses Myers House | |
Location | SW corner of E. Freemason and N. Bank Sts., Norfolk, Virginia |
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Coordinates | 36°51′0″N76°17′17″W / 36.85000°N 76.28806°W |
Area | 9.9 acres (4.0 ha) |
Built | 1792 | , 1796
Architect | Latrobe, Benjamin H. |
Architectural style | Federal |
NRHP reference No. | 70000874 [8] |
VLR No. | 122-0017 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | February 16, 1970 |
Designated VLR | December 2, 1969 [9] |
The Moses Myers House in downtown Norfolk is an example of Federal period architecture and retains 70 percent of its original contents. The house and its furnishings allow visitors to experience first-hand the life of a prosperous Jewish merchant and his family during the early 19th century. Moses Myers moved to Norfolk in 1787 with his wife Eliza. Five years later, he purchased a large lot where he erected a home for his family. Today the house contains an important collection of American, English and French furniture, glass, silver, ceramics, and portraits by Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and John Wesley Jarvis. All were commissioned or acquired by members of the Myers family.
The house was built about 1792 and is a two-story, Federal style brick townhouse. Its facade features a pedimented gable end roof and a small aedicula type portico surrounding the front door. In 1796, a two-story octagonal ended wing attributed to Benjamin H. Latrobe was added to the rear of the house to contain a large dining room. Also on the rear are a two-story service wing and an attached two-story kitchen. A historic renovation of the house occurred in 1906 in anticipation of the Jamestown Exposition. The house was converted to a house museum in 1931. [10] [11]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, with an amendment made in 2009. [8]
In October 2022, the council of City of Norfolk, which owns the property, voted to proceed with the possibility of selling it, conjecturing the entirety of the property--the main house, the attached dwelling of the Myers’ enslaved servants, and the historic garden--could be sold as part of a package to developers, perhaps to operate as a bed and breakfast. Multiple entities, including the Norfolk Historical Society, have expressed distress and outrage. [12]
The Norfolk History Museum at the Willoughby-Baylor House (ca. 1794) has been closed since 2020. It illuminated the history of the region by providing thematic offerings and surveys including the decorative arts of Norfolk, stages in Norfolk's story as an international port and maritime center, and the area's naval and military heritage.
Norfolk is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, Norfolk had a population of 238,005, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, and the 95th-most populous city in the nation. Norfolk holds a strategic position as the historical, urban, financial, and cultural center of the Hampton Roads region, which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with ten cities.
Old Dominion University (ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. Established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, an extension school of the College of William & Mary for working professionals, members of the military, and non-traditional students in Norfolk-Virginia Beach area of the Hampton Roads region. The university has since expanded into a residential college for traditional students and is one of the largest universities in Virginia with an enrollment of 23,494 students for the 2023 academic year. The university also enrolls over 600 international students from 99 countries. Its main campus covers 250 acres (1.0 km2) straddling the city neighborhoods of Larchmont, Highland Park, and Lambert's Point, approximately five miles (8.0 km) north of Downtown Norfolk along the Elizabeth River.
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between the West Coast and Chicago. It is known for its collection of American Indian art, as well as The Petrie Institute of Western American Art, which oversees the museum's Western art collection. The museum's Martin Building was designed by famed Italian architect Gio Ponti in 1971.
The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet, with more than 112,000 square feet of gallery space. The museum’s permanent collection has over 42,000 works of art. PAM features a center for Native American art, a center for Northwest art, a center for modern and contemporary art, permanent exhibitions of Asian art, and an outdoor public sculpture garden. The Northwest Film Center is also a component of Portland Art Museum.
The Honolulu Museum of Art is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single collections of Asian and Pan-Pacific art in the United States, and since its official opening on April 8, 1927, its collections have grown to more than 55,000 works of art.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all acquisition of artwork, as well as additional general support.
The George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to the history of George Washington University and textile arts, located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. The museum was founded by collector George Hewitt Myers in 1925 and was originally housed in two historic buildings in D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood: the Myers family home, designed by John Russell Pope, and an adjacent building designed by Waddy Wood. It reopened in March 2015 as part of George Washington University.
The Huntington Museum of Art is a nationally accredited art museum located in the Park Hills neighborhood above Ritter Park in Huntington, West Virginia. Housed on over 50 acres of land and occupying almost 60,000 square feet, it is the largest art museum in the state of West Virginia. The museum's campus is home to nature trails and the C. Fred Edwards Conservatory, a subtropical and tropical plant conservatory. The museum's collection includes American and European paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, as well as glass pieces manufactured in West Virginia and the Ohio Valley, American folk art, Chinese and Japanese decorative objects, Haitian art, firearms, and decorative arts from the Near East. In addition to its permanent collections, the museum hosts traveling exhibitions and houses the James D. Francis Art Research Library, the Grace Rardin Doherty Auditorium, and five art studios where artists in residence are periodically hosted and classes are held. The Huntington Museum of Art holds one of the largest collections of art in the state of West Virginia.
The Center Methodist Church or Center Methodist Episcopal Church is located in Provincetown, Massachusetts at 356 Commercial Street. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The church moved to a new building in 1955, and the building has changed hands several times since. It is currently the home of the Provincetown Public Library.
Barton Myers is an American architect and president of Barton Myers Associates Inc. in Santa Barbara, California. With a career spanning more than 40 years, Myers is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was a member of the Ontario Association of Architects while working in Canada earlier in his career.
Dan Owen Dailey is an American artist and educator, known for his sculpture. With the support of a team of artists and crafts people, he creates sculptures and functional objects in glass and metal. He has taught at many glass programs and is professor emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art, where he founded the glass program.
Therman Statom is an American Studio Glass artist whose primary medium is sheet glass. He cuts, paints, and assembles the glass - adding found glass objects along the way – to create three-dimensional sculptures. Many of these works are large in scale. Statom is known for his site-specific installations in which his glass structures dwarf the visitor. Sound and projected digital imagery are also features of the environmental works.
The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a university museum affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the Museum only dates to 1983, the university art collection has been in existence since its first gift – a portrait of the physicist Robert Boyle – in 1732. Most early gifts to William & Mary relate to its history or the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Gifts of portraiture were the foundation of the early collection and include many First Families of Virginia (FFV) including sitters from the Page, Bolling and Randolph families.
Karen LaMonte is an American artist known for her life-size sculptures in ceramic, bronze, marble, and cast glass.
Walter Percy Chrysler Jr. was an American art collector, museum benefactor, and collector of other objects such as stamps, rare books, and glassworks. He was also a theatre and film producer.
Beth Lipman is a contemporary artist working in glass. She is best known for her glass still-life compositions which reference the work of 16th- and 17th-century European painters.
Irene Kirke Leache was an American teacher and the co-founder of the Leache-Wood Seminary, one of the premier women's schools in the post-Civil War era in Norfolk, Virginia. Posthumously, the Irene Leache Library Association was established in her name to honor her. In 1914, a further memorial, the Irene Leach Art Association was formed to house artworks donated to create a museum in her name, which was the first museum in Norfolk.
Harriet Christina Cany Peale was an American landscape, portrait, and genre painter of the mid-nineteenth century. Although sometimes described as a copyist, a greater share of her oeuvre has been made public in recent years, allowing Cany Peale to earn recognition for her genre and landscape paintings. She has been located in contemporary scholarship as an artist of the Hudson River School.
Susan Watkins was an American artist, known for painting in the styles of realism and impressionism. She studied under William Merritt Chase and Raphaël Collin. Two of her pieces are on permanent display at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.
Jean Esther Outland Chrysler (1921–1982) was an art collector. She is known for donating art to the Muscarelle Museum of Art and the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences which would later become the Chrysler Museum of Art.