The Hyde Collection

Last updated
Hyde House
Hyde collection.JPG
USA New York location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location161 Warren St.,
Glens Falls, New York
Coordinates 43°18′37″N73°38′4″W / 43.31028°N 73.63444°W / 43.31028; -73.63444 Coordinates: 43°18′37″N73°38′4″W / 43.31028°N 73.63444°W / 43.31028; -73.63444
Built1910
ArchitectHenry Forbes Bigelow, H.F. Rhinelander
Architectural styleClassical Revival
MPS Henry Forbes Bigelow Buildings TR
NRHP reference No. 84003358
Added to NRHPSeptember 29, 1984 [1]

The Hyde Collection is an art museum in the city of Glens Falls in Upstate New York. The collections were endowed by the Hyde family. The museum is housed in a historic refurbished early twentieth-century residence, the Hyde House, located at 161 Warren Street in Glens Falls, New York, a building that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. [2]

Contents

Founded by Louis and Charlotte Hyde, the collection contains historic furniture, books, paintings, sculptures and pottery. Now expanded with many modern additions, the museum, while relatively small and "off the beaten track," contains an impressive and broad collection including Italian Renaissance and eighteenth-century French antiques, and works by Botticelli, El Greco, van Dyck, Ingres, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Tintoretto, Cézanne, Degas, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, and van Gogh. In addition, works by important American artists including Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Ryder, and Whistler are also present.

History

Charlotte Pruyn Hyde established a trust in 1952 that dedicated her home and her extensive art collection to the community. The trust agreement also set forth the future mission of the museum. Charlotte Hyde's vision, as stated in the trust, was for the trustees "to establish and maintain a museum for the exhibition of art objects...and to promote and cultivate the study and improvement of the fine arts, for the education and benefit of the residents of Glens Falls and vicinity and the general public." The Hyde art collection is a product of the golden age of the private art collector (c. 1890 to 1940).

Charlotte Hyde (1867–1963) was born in Glens Falls, New York into one of the leading industrialist families of the Adirondack region. Her father, Samuel Pruyn (of Dutch ancestry, pronounced "Prine"), co-founded Finch, Pruyn & Company, Inc. in 1865. Pruyn soon became the sole owner of the paper manufacturer, and thus established the foundation of the family's wealth.

Samuel's oldest daughter Charlotte met the young Harvard law student Louis Hyde (1866–1934) while attending finishing school in Boston. They married in 1901 and in 1906 Charlotte's father encouraged his son-in-law to leave his practice in Massachusetts and join the family business. Consequently, the couple returned to Charlotte's hometown and Louis became vice president of the paper mill.

Between 1904 and 1912 Charlotte and her sisters, Nell Cunningham and Mary Hoopes, built homes on adjoining property overlooking the Hudson River (the Cunningham House and Hoopes House). Boston architect Henry Forbes Bigelow was commissioned to design all three residences. All three houses were built by well-known architect and structural engineer Robert Rheinlander. Each embraced the American Renaissance propensity to adapt European architectural traditions to American taste. Hyde House, however, completed in 1912 in the style of a Florentine Renaissance palazzo, stands as the most impressive and significant example of this practice.

With Hyde House complete, the couple began to acquire the furnishings and art works that best suited the scale and environment of their new home. Throughout the decades that followed, they thoughtfully continued to acquire pieces during summer sojourns to Europe, and more often, from their favorite New York City dealers.

By 1930, their collection was widely recognized. When Louis Hyde died in 1934, approximately one-third of the core collection had been assembled. During the next 30 years, Charlotte Hyde continued to expand its scope, ultimately including representative objects from the span of western art history. They were aided in the collecting by the noted scholar of Renaissance art, Bernard Berenson.

Three months after Charlotte Hyde died in 1963, the Hyde Collection opened to the general public. In 1984 Hyde House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [1] In 1989, an expansion designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes connected Hyde House and the recently acquired Cunningham House. Overnight, this addition of four galleries, an auditorium, art storage, classrooms, and a museum shop, consciously broadened the museum's scope of purpose.

Today this expansion supports an ambitious schedule of special exhibitions that embraces a diversity of styles, periods, and media. From monographic shows of artists like Winslow Homer and Auguste Rodin, to more broadly defined projects, each is intended to serve as an important complement to the semi-permanent installation within Hyde House.

In May 2004, The Hyde completed an expansion and renovation. The complete restoration of historic Hyde House unfolded, with the stucco exterior completely replaced and restored, while inside, the implementation of a historic furnishing plan effectively captured a once-fading past and returned a heightened degree of integrity to the visitor's experience. In April 2010, Finch Paper announced its purchase of the Glens Falls Armory, adjacent to the Hyde Collection, for possible expansion of the museum and its programs.

See also

Related Research Articles

Glens Falls, New York City in New York, United States

Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls referring to a large waterfall in the Hudson River at the southern end of the city.

Wadsworth Atheneum Art museum in Hartford, Connecticut

The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as collections of early American furniture and decorative arts.

Columbus Museum of Art Museum in Columbus, Ohio, United States

The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collects and exhibits American and European modern and contemporary art, folk art, glass art, and photography. The museum has been led by Executive Director Nannette Maciejunes since 2003.

Portland Museum of Art Art Museum in Portland, Maine

The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine.

Chrysler Museum of Art Art museum in Norfolk, Virginia

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., 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.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Art museum in Connecticut, United States

The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is located in New London, Connecticut and was founded in 1926 by Lyman Allyn's daughter Harriet Upson Allyn. Its collection includes European and non-Western art as well as American fine and decorative art, 17th-century European works on paper, 19th-century American paintings, and contemporary art. The museum also conducts educational programs.

Chapman Museum

The Chapman Museum presents the history of the Glens Falls – Queensbury community and its connection to the Adirondack region. By encouraging discovery, understanding, and appreciation of the region's heritage, the museum provides perspective for the present and the future. The museum is owned and operated by the Glens Falls-Queensbury Historical Association. The historic home attached to the museum was originally built by Zopher DeLong who made his living as a hardware merchant in Glens Falls.

Albany Institute of History & Art

The Albany Institute of History & Art (AIHA) is a museum in Albany, New York, United States, "dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting and promoting interest in the history, art, and culture of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley region". It is located on Washington Avenue in downtown Albany. Founded in 1791, it is among the oldest museums in the United States.

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Art museum in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an art museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Brooks Museum, which was founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in Overton Park in Midtown Memphis.

C. M. Russell Museum Complex is an art museum located in the city of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. The museum's primary function is to display the artwork of Great Falls "cowboy artist" Charles Marion Russell, for whom the museum is named. The museum also displays illustrated letters by Russell, work materials used by him, and other items which help visitors understand the life and working habits of Russell. In addition, the museum displays original 19th, 20th, and 21st century art depicting the American Old West and the flora, fauna, and landscapes of the American West. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal called the institution "one of America's premier Western art museums." Located on the museum property is Russell's log cabin studio, as well as his two-story wood-frame home. The house and log cabin studio were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. In 1976, the listing boundaries were amended to account for moving the house.

Philip Hooker was an American architect from Albany, New York known for Hyde Hall, the facade of the Hamilton College Chapel, The Albany Academy, Albany City Hall, and the original New York State Capitol building.

Glens Falls Feeder Canal United States historic place

The Glens Falls Feeder Canal is a canal from Glens Falls, New York, United States through Hudson Falls and into Fort Edward. It is seven miles (11 km) long and delivers water from above Glens Falls on the Hudson River to the highest point of the Champlain Canal. The Feeder Canal Heritage Trail runs along a large part of the canal.

Robert H. Rheinlander (1880–1961) was an American architect, contractor and structural engineer from Glens Falls, New York.

Culture in New Yorks Capital District

Culture in New York's Capital District, also known as the Albany metropolitan area, stretches back to the 17th century. The area has seen prominent historical events, interesting artistic creations, and unique contributions to the culture of the United States. The largest city in the area, Albany, consistently ranks high on lists of top cities/metro areas for culture, such as being 23rd in the book Cities Ranked & Rated. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area ranked 12th among large metro areas, and Glens Falls ranked 12th among the small metro areas, in Sperling's Best Places, and Expansion Management gave the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area five Stars, its highest ranking, for quality of life features.

Arkell Museum Art Museum in Canajoharie, New York

The Arkell Museum is a museum in Canajoharie, New York that has an extensive collection of American paintings, primarily from 1860–1940, as well as historical exhibits about the history of the Mohawk River Valley and of the Beech-Nut babyfood company. The Canajoharie Library was founded in 1924, and a gallery was added in 1927. The museum was originally built to house copies of European masterpieces and original 19th-century American paintings collected by Bartlett Arkell, then the town's leading industrialist. Susan Finch has written of the museum, "The institution has evolved into more than just an art gallery with a library attached, but an art gallery with a small town attached. The roster of American painters exhibited here is astounding and completely out of scale with what you would expect from a Thruway exit between Albany and Utica."

Georgia Museum of Art Art museum in Athens, Georgia

The Georgia Museum of Art is an art museum in Athens, Georgia, United States, associated with the University of Georgia (UGA). The museum is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent collection consists of American paintings, primarily 19th- and 20th-century; American, European and Asian works on paper; the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection of Italian Renaissance paintings; growing collections of southern decorative arts and Asian art; and a strong collection of works by African American artists. It numbers more than 17,000 works, growing every year.

Hiram Krum House United States historic place

Hiram Krum House is a historic home located at Glens Falls, Warren County, New York. It was built about 1865 and is a 2+12-story, three- by five-bay, irregularly shaped brick residence in a transitional Italianate / Second Empire style. It features a mansard roof.

Wilhelmina Weber Furlong German American artist and teacher (1878–1962)

Wilhelmina Weber Furlong (1878–1962) was a German American artist and teacher.

Historic Hotels of America

Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity. As of June 5, 2015, the program included over 260 members in 44 states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Queensbury Hotel Historic hotel in Glens Falls, New York

The Queensbury Hotel, in Glens Falls, New York, is a historic hotel built in 1926.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. Richard C. Youngken (January 1981). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Hyde House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . Retrieved 2010-09-18.