George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum

Last updated
George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum
George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum - Springfield, MA - DSC03512.JPG
Established1895
Location Quadrangle, Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
Type Art museum

The George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum is an art museum in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is the oldest of the five museums on the Quadrangle.

Contents

The museum is named for the collection's original owner. Smith and his wife, Belle Townsley Smith, bequeathed their notable collection to begin the museum. [1] The Italian palazzo-style building dates from 1895 and was designed by the New York City-based Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell and Springfield architect Walter T. Owen. [1] [2] [3]

George Walter Vincent and Belle Townsley Smith

Portrait of the Smiths by Thomas Waterman Wood Mr. and Mrs. George Walter Vincent Smith by Thomas Waterman Wood, P.N.A. - George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum - DSC03636.JPG
Portrait of the Smiths by Thomas Waterman Wood

George Walter Vincent Smith was born in 1832. [1] In 1850, he entered the business world, first working at a fabric importation company in New York. [4] He later became a partner in a carriage manufacturing company, through which he accumulated enough wealth to retire 1867. [4] [5] He began collecting art in the late 1850s, inclduing a number of Japanese and Chinese armor, swords, cloisonné, carvings, and furniture. [4] He moved to Springfield in 1871. [5] In 1914, he was recorded as being a Republican and Episcopal. [6] In 1915, he received the Pynchon Medal, an honor given to accomplished Springfield residents. [7] He died in 1923, at which time he owned nearly 6,000 works of art. [1] [4]

Belle Townsley Smith was born in Springfield in 1845. [1] [5] She was also a collector, primarily interested in lace. [3] She died in 1928. [1]

The Smiths married on June 22, 1869. They lived in Venice for five years between 1882 and 1887. [2] [8]

The Smiths' ashes are interred on the museum's second floor. [5]

History

One of the museum's Tiffany windows Stained glass window - George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum - DSC03873.JPG
One of the museum's Tiffany windows

The Springfield Museums Association, a branch of the Springfield City Library Association, began raising money for an art museum after Smith promised the association his collection in 1889. [5] [9] [6] The museum opened in 1895. [3] At the time of its opening, the museum had Tiffany windows, fireproof walls, gas and electric lighting, and fourteen skylights. [8] Today, the museum's Tiffany windows are the only such existing windows created specifically for a museum. [8] The museum's exterior featured friezes on its southwest and front sides, which listed the names of great European and Japanese artists. [3]

Rather than sort the museum's collections by region or era, Smith arranged the objects in displays that he found beautiful or striking. [9] Several of the museum's display cabinets were made by George A. Schastey. [10] [11] The first floor held the Horace Smith Collection of Sculpture, which comprised casts of Greek and Renaissance sculptures, and two lecture halls. The second floor was dedicated to the Smith's own collections, which included the South Gallery, which had rugs from South and Central Asia, manuscripts, laces, and jade sculptures, the Armor Room, which held Samurai armor and weapons, the Picture Gallery, dedicated to paintings, and the North Gallery, dedicated to Japanese and Chinese bronzes. [3]

In the late 1930s, the museum hosted a wood sculpture exhibition organized by the Works Projects Administration. [12] In 1938, the museum hosted an exhibition of pieces by sculptor Alexander Calder. [13]

The museum installed air conditioning in 2011, through a grant given by the National Endowment for the Humanities. [14] 2011 also marked the beginning of a decade-long preservation project, which was completed in 2021. [2] The project won the museum the Preservation Massachusetts' Paul & Niki Tsongas Award, [2] and put the museum in the running for a People's Preservation Choice honor. [15] [16]

In 2015, the museum hosted an exhibition of sculptures by artist Gloria Garfinkel. [17]

In 2020, the museum auctioned off twelve of its collection items through Christie's, [18] a move which was criticized by the South China Morning Post , who suggested the items had not been acquired ethically by Smith and should be returned to China rather than auctioned off. [19]

Exhibits

The Ancient Treasures Gallery displays objects from ancient Egypt, China, Greece and Rome. The gallery also presents Greek and Roman sculpture from the recently acquired Blake/Purnell Collection of antiquities, and ancient Chinese ceramics and bronzes from the Bidwell Collection. Greek pottery and glass from the George Walter Vincent Smith Collection complement the classical sculptures. [20]

The Japanese Arms and Armor Gallery, in addition to holding Smith's extensive collection of East Asian armor, [21] is the site of an ornate Shinto wheel shrine carved during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. [22] [23] Among other collections is a 150-piece holding of Chinese cloisonné work, one of the most extensive collections outside of China. [24]

The museum is also home to the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum Archives, which primarily focus on Springfield history. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Museum of Art</span> Art museum in New York City

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an art museum in New York City. It is the largest art museum in the Americas and fourth-largest in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philadelphia Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Pennsylvania, United States

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Kansas City, Missouri

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloisonné</span> Enamelling technique used on metal

Cloisonné is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inlays of cut gemstones, glass and other materials were also used during older periods; indeed cloisonné enamel very probably began as an easier imitation of cloisonné work using gems. The resulting objects can also be called cloisonné. The decoration is formed by first adding compartments to the metal object by soldering or affixing silver or gold as wires or thin strips placed on their edges. These remain visible in the finished piece, separating the different compartments of the enamel or inlays, which are often of several colors. Cloisonné enamel objects are worked on with enamel powder made into a paste, which then needs to be fired in a kiln. If gemstones or colored glass are used, the pieces need to be cut or ground into the shape of each cloison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walters Art Museum</span> Art museum in Baltimore, Maryland, US

Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, including William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. William Walters began collecting when he moved to Paris as a nominal Confederate loyalist at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and Henry Walters refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction what ultimately was Walters Art Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston</span> Art museum in Massachusetts, United States of America

The Museum of Fine Arts is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas. With more than 1.2 million visitors a year, it is the 79th–most visited art museum in the world as of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnegie Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The museum's first gallery was opened for public use on November 5, 1895. Over the years, the gallery vastly increased in size, with a new building on Forbes Avenue built in 1907. In 1963, the name was officially changed to Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute. The size of the gallery has tripled over time, and it was officially renamed in 1986 to "Carnegie Museum of Art" to indicate it clearly as one of the four Carnegie Museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quadrangle (Springfield, Massachusetts)</span> Cluster of museums and cultural institutions in Springfield, Massachusetts

The Quadrangle is the common name for a cluster of museums and cultural institutions in Metro Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, on Chestnut Street between State and Edwards Streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jade burial suit</span> Ceremonial suit made of jade

A jade burial suit is a ceremonial suit made of pieces of jade in which royal members in Han dynasty China were buried.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hayes (sculptor)</span> American sculptor, painter, and ceramics artist

David Vincent Hayes was an American sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worcester Art Museum</span> Art museum in Worcester, Massachusetts

The Worcester Art Museum (WAM) houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, European and American art, and a major collection of Japanese prints. Since acquiring the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection in 2013, WAM is also home to the second largest collection of arms and armor in the Americas.

Brother Thomas Bezanson was a Canadian-born artist and Benedictine monk primarily known for his porcelain pottery and mastery of complex glazes. Strongly influenced by Asian pottery, often adapting traditional Chinese and Japanese pottery methods and materials to his work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Institute of Chicago</span> Art museum and school in Chicago, United States

The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. It is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princeton University Art Museum</span> Art museum in New Jersey, US

The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works of art ranging from antiquity to the contemporary period. The Princeton University Art Museum dedicates itself to supporting and enhancing the university's goals of teaching, research, and service in fields of art and culture, as well as to serving regional communities and visitors from around the world. Its collections concentrate on the Mediterranean region, Western Europe, Asia, the United States, and Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reading Public Museum</span> Museum in West Reading, Pennsylvania

The Reading Public Museum is a museum in Reading, Pennsylvania located in the 18th Ward, along the Wyomissing Creek. The museum's permanent collection mainly focuses on art, science, and civilization and contains over 280,000 objects. It also has a planetarium and a 25-acre (100,000 m2) arboretum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Driehaus Museum</span> Decorative Arts Museum in Illinois, United States

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is a museum located at 40 East Erie Street on the Near North Side in Chicago, Illinois, near the Magnificent Mile. The museum is housed within the historic Samuel M. Nickerson House, the 1883 residence of a wealthy Chicago banker. Although the mansion has been restored, the Driehaus Museum does not re-create the Nickerson period but rather broadly interprets and displays the prevailing design, architecture, and decorating tastes of Gilded Age America and the art nouveau era in permanent and special exhibitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum</span> Literary and childrens museum in Springfield, Massachusetts

The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum is a museum in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States located in the William Pynchon Memorial Building, which until 2009 housed the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. The museum opened in June 2017. It is located on the Quadrangle along with the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden and other museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Chadwick (painter)</span> American painter

William Chadwick was an American Impressionist painter known for his landscape paintings. In 1884 his family emigrated from England to Holyoke, Massachusetts as his father, Day Chadwick, relocated his woolen goods business to avoid tariffs, opening the Chadwick Plush Company with his uncle John, and 70 imported workers, later renaming the business the Holyoke Plush Company. It was in Holyoke where the young Chadwick would complete his schooling and developed an interest in art. Subsequently, studying under Joseph DeCamp and John Henry Twachtman at the Art Students League of New York, he became a member of the Old Lyme art colony. Although his artwork was not a contemporary commercial success, following his death it found renewed interest nationally in retrospective gallery installations. Today his works may be found in the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, as well as the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. In addition to their collection holdings, Chadwick's studio remains extant at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, open to visitors from April to October.

Gloria Garfinkel is an American visual artist based in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts</span> Art museum in Massachusetts, United States

The Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, also called the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, is an art museum on the Quadrangle in Springfield, Massachusetts, which is primarily focused on paintings and works on paper.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum" . Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum Gets A Facelift!". Springfield Museums. 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Naylor, Emmett Hay (March 1913). "The Springfield Art Museum and the George Walter Vincent Smith Collection". Western New England Magazine. 3 (3): 97–102.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Mortimer, Caroline (December 1987). "The George Walter Vincent Smith art museum, Springfield, MA: I: The building and its decoration". International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship. 6 (4): 353–370. doi:10.1080/09647778709515087. ISSN   0260-4779.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Dan (2009-05-15). "George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum (1895)". Historic Buildings of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  6. 1 2 Eliot, Samuel Atkins (1914). Biographical History of Massachusetts: Biographies and Autobiographies of the Leading Men in the State. Massachusetts biographical society.
  7. ↑ "Pynchon Award: 1915 inaugural honors included George Walter Vincent Smith". masslive. 2015-06-10. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  8. 1 2 3 North, Maggie (2021-03-19). "Exploring the Architecture and Tiffany Windows of the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum". Springfield Museums. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  9. 1 2 Shatwell, Justin (2012-10-09). "George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum | Local Treasure". New England. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  10. ↑ "George A. Schastey & Co. | Display case for the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  11. ↑ Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney; Vincent, Nicholas C.; Gallagher, Moira (2016-01-04). "Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 73, no. 3 (Winter, 2016). Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 42–43. ISBN   978-1-58839-583-2.
  12. ↑ "Graphic arts - wood sculpture, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Gallery, Springfield, Mass". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  13. ↑ "George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts (1938)". Calder Foundation. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  14. ↑ Barry, Stephanie (2011-08-26). "After 115 years, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum at Springfield Quadrangle to get air conditioning". masslive. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  15. ↑ Chimelis, Ron (2021-05-09). "This Massachusetts museum is a 'mini-Smithsonian' — and it's up for a preservation award". masslive. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  16. ↑ Editorials, The Republican (2021-05-11). "Springfield's George Walter Vincent Smith Museum eclectic collections gem to region (Editorial)". masslive. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  17. ↑ Goodman, Jonathan (2015-11-01). "Gloria Garfinkel". Sculpture. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  18. ↑ "PRESS RELEASE | Imperial Glories From The Springfield Museums Collection - An Outstanding Collection of Qing Dynasty Works". Christie's. October 19, 2020. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  19. ↑ Powell, Sian (2020-11-21). "Pressure grows on Western museums to return stolen artefacts". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  20. ↑ "Ancient Treasures". Springfield Museums. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  21. ↑ Arvanitis, John (2016-11-07). "TMNT take on their ancient samurai ancestors". Take Magazine. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  22. ↑ Kinney, Jim (2012-02-02). "Japanese consul general visits Springfield's George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum collection of Japanese art". masslive. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  23. ↑ "Japanese Arms & Armor". Springfield Museums. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  24. ↑ "Chinese Cloisonné Collection". Springfield Museums. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  25. ↑ "George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum Archives". Springfield Museums. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.