Название: British Portraits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Автор: Katharine Baetjer
Издательство: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Год: 1999
Формат: PDF
Размер: 27 Мб
Язык: английский / English

From about I900 until 1930 eighteenth-century British portraits were in vogue among American collectors. The market for the pictures was fostered by the art-dealing firms of Duveen Brothers and M. Knoedler and Company. The elegance of the sitters, relatively large scale of the canvases, and undemanding iconography suited the houses of the new moneyed classes. The Frick Collection embodies the style of the era. Perhaps for this reason it has long been general museum practice to hang British portraits in period rooms-the public equivalent of private dining or drawing rooms. Such installations also suggest the habits of the original owners, who lived surrounded by images of their spouses, offspring, and ancestors. At the Metropolitan Museum British portraits are displayed not only in the main galleries and in period rooms but also in other areas, some of which are not open to the public. This Bulletin, which includes paintings from the sixteenth century through the Georgian era, affords an opportunity to appreciate a collection that is widely dispersed throughout the building.