Fotografía y documentación. Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection.Driehaus Museum. Twin Houses . New York.
Las Twin Houses fueron, en su época, uno de los mejores ejemplos de arquitectura de Nueva York y, por extensión, de todo USA. En aquella época las revistas de arquitectura tenían acceso al interior de alguno de estos edificios y se permitía, incluso, la publicación de libros con todo el detalle del interior.
Así, por ejemplo:
- William Henry Vanderbilt House. Twin Houses . New York. Driehaus Museum.
The Vanderbilt residence at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-first Street was technically two mansions connected by an atrium; his daughters lived in the second with their husbands. It was a feast for the eyes. The architect-decorators were Christian and Gustave Herter, German-born cabinetmakers favored by New York’s elite, and they worked with experienced architects Charles Atwood and John Snook to anchor their profuse decorative elements to a standing structure. No two rooms were alike, and all were exactly to the taste of the moment. Just like the original interior designers of the Nickerson Mansion, the Herter Brothers favored a creative pastiche of historical and cultural styles all arranged together in interesting ways. You had vast groupings of artistic objects heaped on fireplace mantels, walls divided into three or more sections before reaching the ceiling, elaborate carvings in exotic wood, and jewel-tone colors. One’s eye never quite knew where to land.
The Museum’s new acquisition forges a special and important link between two prosperous late 19th-century businessmen and their devotion to collecting art. Samuel M. Nickerson may have lived in Chicago, while the name of William Henry Vanderbilt was synonymous with New York.
Es curioso observar que, en el álbum "L'Architecture Americaine", hay fotos de las Twin Houses , de la mansión en construcción de Cornelius Vanderbilt (George B. Post architect) ambas en Nueva York y, también fotos de la casa de Samuel M. Nickerson en Chicago.
- ¿Sería posible imaginar que los nuevos multimillonarios americanos facilitaran, incluso promovieran, el acceso a fotógrafos para que sus casas figuraran en los álbumes de fotografía de arquitectura ?...
Dejo la pregunta ahí.
Siempre me he preguntado cómoes posible que en la década de 1880 Albert Levy, conocido fotógrafo francés de arquitectura, realizase unos álbumes de fotografía sobre grandes mansiones americanas, muchas de las cuales eran de reciente construcción-Twin Houses- o estaban materialmente en dicho proceso como es el caso de la mansión de Cornelius Vanderbilt que, en dicho álbum, tiene fotos con los obreros posando en la obra.
Todo ello en un corto período de tiempo en lugares distantes como Chicago y Nueva York. Debía tener algún tipo de información previa sobre el lugar a fotografiar y eso podía ser un encargo/invitación, posiblemente pagado para sufragar los gastos de viaje.
A lo mejor la explicación era sencilla. El interés de los millonarios de lucir sus viviendas en los nuevos medios de información gráfica como eran estos álbumes de fotografía. Recordemos que estos álbumes se distribuían sobre todo en los estudios de arquitectura de todo el mundo. (American Victorian Architecture. Arnold Lewis 1975)
Como señala esta publicación en este mismo sentido
- Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection is really a book of description. And just as we trawl through Curbed or Pinterest to see how tastemakers arrange their interiors or tune in on television for sneak peeks of celebrity’s homes, this description was hungered for by America’s new middle class and nouveaux-riche.
Comentar también:
So when Vanderbilt spent over $1 million to amass works by Alma-Tadema, Bougeureau, Corot, Daubigny, Delacroix, Dupré, Fortuny, Millet, Millais, Rousseau, Troyon, and Turner, he had more than his personal financial portfolio in mind.
Upon the grand opening of his mansion in 1882, Vanderbilt hosted two receptions, “to one of which he invited other multi-millionaires of the town to inspect his treasures, and to the other poor artists who had never been able to see the great galleries of Europe.” Afterwards, visitors were admitted by card on Thursdays. This was, according to one publication, “an important element in cultivating the artistic taste of the metropolis.”
Like Vanderbilt, Samuel M. Nickerson opened the Sculpture Gallery to art students and other interested Chicago, not only his personal guests.
Este lujoso libro, de edición limitada, se puede ver e incluso descargar en
| Title | Mr. Vanderbilt's house and collection : volume 1 / described by Edward Strahan |
| Alternative Title | House and collection |
| Creator | Shinn, Earl, 1838-1886 |
| Description | Holland Edition, copy no. 450. Includes a total of 162 leaves of plates (some color) illustrating the interior furnishings, art collection and estate of Mr. William Vanderbilt's house in New York City; Volume 2 includes list of engravings |
| Related Resource | All volumes online: http://libmma.contentdm.oclc. |
| Subject | Art -- Private collections -- New York (State) -- New York -- Catalogs Vanderbilt, William H. (William Henry), 1821-1885 -- Art collections -- Catalogs Vanderbilt, William H. (William Henry), 1821-1885 -- Homes and haunts Dwellings -- New York (State) -- New York |
| Publisher | Boston : G. Barrie |
| Date | 1883; 1884 |
| Dimensions | viii, 74 p. : ill., plates (some col.) ; 48 cm |
| Digital Collection | Rare Books in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries |
| Repository | Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) |
| Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Copyright Status | Public domain |
| Copyright Notice | Material is in the public domain. No restrictions on use. |
| Copyright Information | The
Libraries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art make digital versions of
collections accessible for research purposes in the following
situations: They are in the public domain; the rights are owned by The
Metropolitan Museum of Art; we have permission to make them accessible;
we make them accessible as a fair use, or there are no known
restrictions on use. To learn what your responsibilities are if you
would like to use the materials, go to http://www.metmuseum.org/ |
- Library of Congress
[William Henry Vanderbilt mansion, New York City]
- Title
- [William Henry Vanderbilt mansion, New York City]
- Summary
- Photographs show mansion interiors, with emphasis on furnishings, sculpture, and other decorative elements.
- Created / Published
- c1883.
- Subject Headings
- - Vanderbilt, William H.--(William Henry),--1821-1885--Homes & haunts--New York (State)--New York
- - Mansions--New York (State)--New York--1880-1890
- - Interiors--New York (State)--New York--1880-1890
- - Furnishings--1880-1890
- Headings
- Photographic prints--1880-1890.
- Notes
- - LOT title devised by Library staff.
- - Photos copyrighted in 1883 by George Barrie.
- Digital Id
-
https://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/
cphquery.html - Library of Congress Control Number
- 2009630959
L'ARCHITECTURE AMERICAINE
Albert Levy is an architectural photographer born in France. Despite being French, his main work is the "Photographic Series of Modern American Architecture".
In this work Levy documented the American Victorian Architecture of the XIX century.
Each serie includes 30-40 albumen photographs with buildings of New York, Boston or Chicago. Levy gives us an Index in the photo albums to identify, usually but not always, the name of the architect and owner of the residence.
The photographs were made for architectural firms and consisted on short series, very expensive at its time. Nowadays, we know very few works by Levy and most of them are in American Libraries and Museums.
Albert Levy made a selection of these series in the set titled "L’Architecture Americaine" consisting on three albums:
-
Édifices publics et établissements privés
-
Habitation Urbaines
-
Habitations Suburbaines
Published posts
Fotógrafo Albert Levy. Fotografía antigua Nueva York. Twin Houses
Fotógrafo Albert Levy. Fotografía antigua Nueva York. Twin Houses
Como complemento
William Henry Vanderbilt House
- Title:
- Vanderbilt Mansions, New York
- Collection:
- Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photographs Collection
- Creator:
- Snook, John Butler (American architect, 1815-1901)
Atwood, Charles B. (American architect, 1848-1895) - Creation Date:
- 1881-1883 (building)
ca. 1883-ca. 1895 (photograph) - Location:
- New York, New York, United States
The mansions pictured here once stood on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets. The property was purchased by William H. Vanderbilt in 1879, and he commissioned the architects John B. Snook and Charles Atwood to design twin houses connected by a glass atrium and entrance vestibule. The Herter Brothers decorated the houses extravagantly. W.H. Vanderbilt and his wife lived in the southern house, while their two daughters and sons-in-law occupied the other. The mansion depicted on the right side of the image was also commissioned by W. H. Vanderbilt, and desi gned by Richard Morris Hunt in 1881. It was demolished in 1926.
En (google translate)
The Twin Houses were, in their time, one of the best examples of architecture in New York and, by extension, in the entire USA. At that time, architecture magazines had access to the interior of some of these buildings and the publication of books with all the details of the interior was even allowed.
For example:
Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection
Driehaus Museum
The Vanderbilt residence at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-first Street was technically two mansions connected by an atrium; His daughters lived in the second with their husbands. It was a feast for the eyes. The architect-decorators were Christian and Gustave Herter, German-born cabinetmakers favored by New York’s elite, and they worked with experienced architects Charles Atwood and John Snook to anchor their profuse decorative elements to a standing structure. No two rooms were alike, and all were exactly to the taste of the moment. Just like the original interior designers of the Nickerson Mansion, the Herter Brothers favored a creative pastiche of historical and cultural styles all arranged together in interesting ways. You had vast groupings of artistic objects heaped on fireplace mantels, walls divided into three or more sections before reaching the ceiling, elaborate carvings in exotic wood, and jewel-tone colors. One’s eye never quite knew where to land.
The Museum’s new acquisition forges a special and important link between two prosperous late 19th-century businessmen and their devotion to collecting art. Samuel M. Nickerson may have lived in Chicago, while the name of William Henry Vanderbilt was synonymous with New York.
It is curious to note that, in the album L'Architecture Americaine, there are photos of the Twin Houses during their construction and also photos of Samuel M. Nickerson's house in Chicago.
- Could it be possible to imagine that the new American billionaires facilitated, even promoted, access to photographers to have their houses featured in architectural photography albums? ... I left the question there.
I have always wondered how, in the 1880s, Albert Levy, a well-known French architectural photographer, made some photo albums of large American mansions, many of which were recently built-Twin Houses- or were materially in said process such as the case of Cornelius Vanderbilt's mansion which, in said album, has photos with the workers posing on the construction site. All this in a short period of time in distant places like Chicago and New York.
He had to have some kind of prior information about the place to be photographed and that could be a commission / invitation, possibly paid to cover travel expenses. Maybe the explanation was simple. The interest of millionaires to show off their homes in the new graphic information media such as these photo albums.
Let us remember that these albums were distributed mainly in architecture studios around the world. (American Victorian Architecture. Arnold Lewis 1975).
As this publication points out in this same sense Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection is really a book of description.
..And just as we trawl through Curbed or Pinterest to see how tastemakers arrange their interiors or tune in on television for sneak peeks of celebrity’s homes, this description was hungered for by America’s new middle class and nouveaux-riche.
Also comment:
...So when Vanderbilt spent over $ 1 million to amass works by Alma-Tadema, Bougeureau, Corot, Daubigny, Delacroix, Dupré, Fortuny, Millet, Millais, Rousseau, Troyon, and Turner, he had more than his personal financial portfolio in mind. Upon the grand opening of his mansion in 1882, Vanderbilt hosted two receptions, “to one of which he invited other multi-millionaires of the town to inspect his treasures, and to the other poor artists who had never been able to see the great galleries of Europe. " Afterwards, visitors were admitted by card on Thursdays. This was, according to one publication, "an important element in cultivating the artistic taste of the metropolis."
Like Vanderbilt, Samuel M. Nickerson opened the Sculpture Gallery to art students and other interested Chicago, not only his personal guests de él.
Album: Images, notes, Albert Levy biography, museum holders.
Post
September 08, 2008Photographer Albert Levy. Old photograph New York. Twin Houses
August 31, 2008Photographer Albert Levy. Old photograph New York. Twin Houses