Walters Art Museum
Encyclopedia
The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland's Mount Vernon neighborhood, is a public art museum founded in 1934. The museum's collection was amassed substantially by two men, William Thompson Walters
(1819-1894), who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American Civil War
, and his son Henry Walters
(1848–1931), who refined the collection and rehoused it in a palazzo
building on Charles Street which opened in 1909. Upon his death, Henry Walters bequeathed the collection of over 22,000 works and the original Charles Street palazzo building to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” The collection touches masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, and Art Deco
jewelry.
In 2000, the Walters Art Gallery changed its name to the Walters Art Museum to reflect its image as a large public institution. The following year, the museum reopened its largest building after a dramatic three-year renovation. The Walters Art Museum is where the Archimedes Palimpsest
is on loan from a private collector for conservation and spectral imaging studies.
Starting Sunday, October 1, 2006, the Baltimore Museum of Art
and the Walters Art Museum began having free admission year-round as a result of grants given by Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
, the Walters Mummy, alabaster reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Greek gold jewelry including the Greek bracelets from Olbia
on the shores of the Black Sea, the Praxitelean
Satyr, a large assemblage of Roman portrait heads, a Roman bronze banquet couch and marble sarcophagi from the tombs of the prominent Licinian and Calpurnian families.
region of western Panama
, creating a core collection of ancient American art. Through gifts of art and loans, the museum has added works from Central and South America, including pieces from the Mesoamerican Olmec
, Aztec
, and Maya
cultures, as well as the Moche
and Inca peoples of eastern South America.
wine jar. The museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha (late 6th century AD), which is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work.
The museum now houses one of the largest and finest collections of Thai bronze, scrolls, and banner paintings in the world.
Egypt; 16th-century mausoleum doors decorated with intricate wood carvings in a radiating star pattern; a 17th-century silk sash from Moghul India; and a 17th-century Turkish tile with an image of the Great Mosque of Mecca
.
The museum owns an array of Islamic manuscripts. These include a 15th-century Koran from northern India, executed at the height of the Timurid
empire; a 16th-century copy of the Khamsa by Amir Khusraw, illustrated by a number of famous artists for the emperor Akbar; and a Turkish calligraphy album by Sheik Handullah al Amasi, one of the greatest calligraphers of all time.
silver, post-Byzantine art, illuminated manuscript
s and the largest and finest collection of Ethiopian
Christian art outside Ethiopia.
The Walters' medieval collection features unique objects like the Byzantine agate Rubens Vase that belonged to the painter Rubens (accession no. 42.562) and the earliest surviving image of the Virgin of Tenderness, an ivory carving produced in Egypt in the sixth or seventh century (accession no. 71.297). Sculpted heads from the royal Abbey of St. Denis are rare surviving examples of portal sculptures that are directly connected with the origins of Gothic art
in 12th-century France (accession nos. 27.21 and 27.22). An ivory casket covered with scenes of jousting knights is one of only about a dozen such objects to survive in the world (accession no. 71.264).
Many of these works are on display in the museum's galleries, but works from the medieval collection are also frequently included in special exhibitions, such as Treasures of Heaven, an exhibition of medieval reliquaries that will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art
in the autumn of 2010, the Walters Art Museum in the spring of 2011, and the British Museum
in the summer of 2011.
Works in the medieval collection are the subject of active research by the curatorial and conservation departments of the museum, and visiting researchers frequently make use of the museum's holdings. In-depth technical research carried on these objects is made available to the public through publications and exhibitions, as in the case of the Amandus Shrine (accession no. 53.9), which was featured in a small special exhibition titled The Special Dead in 2008/2009.
' Donor with Saint John the Baptist, Heemskerck
’s Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World, the Madonna of the Candelabra, from the studio of Raphael
, Veronese
’s Portrait Of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia, El Greco
's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Bernini's bozzetto of Risen Christ, Tiepolo
’s Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva, and The Ideal City attributed to Fra Carnavale.
’s Springtime, Alfred Sisley
's panoramic view of the Seine Valley, and Édouard Manet
’s realist masterpiece, The Café Concert.
Henry Walters was particularly interested in the courtly arts of 18th-century France. The museum’s collection of Sèvres
porcelain includes a number of pieces that were made for members of the court at Versailles
. Portrait miniatures and the examples of goldsmiths' works, especially snuffboxes and watches are displayed in the Treasury along with some exceptional 19th- and early 20th-century works. Among them are examples of Art Nouveau jewelry by René Lalique
, jeweled objects by the House of Fabergé
, including two Russian imperial Easter eggs, and precious jewels by Tiffany and Co.
The Walters’ collection presents an overview of 19th-century European art, particularly art from France. From the first half of the century come major paintings by Ingres
, Géricault
, and Delacroix
. As a result of his stay in Paris with his family during the Civil War
, William Walters developed a keen interest in contemporary European painting. He either commissioned directly from the artists or purchased at auctions major works by the Barbizon
masters, including Millet
and Rousseau
, the academic masters Gérôme
and Alma-Tadema
, and the modernists Monet, Manet, and Sisley.
and erected between 1904 and 1909. Its exterior was inspired by the Renaissance-revival style Hôtel Pourtalès in Paris and its interior was modeled after the 17th-century Collegio dei Gesuiti (now the Palazzo dell’Università) built by the Balbi family for the Jesuits in Genoa. The arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, French decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and manuscripts and rare books are now exhibited in this palazzo-like building.
style prevailing in the 1960s, this building opened in 1974. It was substantially altered in 1998-2001 to allow for a four-story glass atrium, a suspended staircase, a café and an enlarged museum store and a library. The ancient, Byzantine, medieval, Ethiopian, and 19th-century European collections are housed in this building as is the museum’s conservation laboratory, which is one of the oldest in the country.
and erected between 1848 and 1850 for Dr. John Hanson Thomas, was long regarded as the most “elegant” house in Mount Vernon Place. Among the Thomas’s distinguished guests were the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII
, and General Kossuth
, the Hungarian freedom fighter. Since 1991, the house has been devoted to the Walters’ holdings of Asian art.
William Thompson Walters
William Thompson Walters was an American businessman and art collector, whose collection formed the basis of the Walters Art Museum.-Biography:He was born in Liverpool, Pennsylvania in 1819...
(1819-1894), who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, and his son Henry Walters
Henry Walters
Henry Walters was president of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad until he retired in 1902. He was founder of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.-Biography:...
(1848–1931), who refined the collection and rehoused it in a palazzo
Palazzo
Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...
building on Charles Street which opened in 1909. Upon his death, Henry Walters bequeathed the collection of over 22,000 works and the original Charles Street palazzo building to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” The collection touches masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, and Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
jewelry.
In 2000, the Walters Art Gallery changed its name to the Walters Art Museum to reflect its image as a large public institution. The following year, the museum reopened its largest building after a dramatic three-year renovation. The Walters Art Museum is where the Archimedes Palimpsest
Archimedes Palimpsest
The Archimedes Palimpsest is a palimpsest on parchment in the form of a codex. It originally was a copy of an otherwise unknown work of the ancient mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse and other authors, which was overwritten with a religious text.Archimedes lived in the...
is on loan from a private collector for conservation and spectral imaging studies.
Starting Sunday, October 1, 2006, the Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
and the Walters Art Museum began having free admission year-round as a result of grants given by Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
Ancient art
The Walters' collection of ancient art includes examples from Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Rome, Etruria and the Near East. Highlights include two monumental 3,000 pound statues of the Egyptian lion-headed goddess SekhmetSekhmet
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet , was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert...
, the Walters Mummy, alabaster reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Greek gold jewelry including the Greek bracelets from Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
on the shores of the Black Sea, the Praxitelean
Praxiteles
Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue...
Satyr, a large assemblage of Roman portrait heads, a Roman bronze banquet couch and marble sarcophagi from the tombs of the prominent Licinian and Calpurnian families.
Art of the ancient Americas
In 1911, Henry Walters purchased almost 100 gold artifacts from the ChiriquiChiriquí Province
Chiriquí is a province of Panama, it is located on the western coast of Panama, and it is also the second most developed province in the country, after the Panamá Province. Its capital is the city of David. It has a total area of 6,490.9 km², with a population of 416,873 as of the year 2010...
region of western Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, creating a core collection of ancient American art. Through gifts of art and loans, the museum has added works from Central and South America, including pieces from the Mesoamerican Olmec
Olmec
The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....
, Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
, and Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
cultures, as well as the Moche
Moche
'The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD, during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state...
and Inca peoples of eastern South America.
Asian art
Highlights of the Asian art collection assembled by William and Henry Walters include Japanese arms and armor, Chinese and Japanese porcelains, lacquers, and metalwork. Among the museum's outstanding works of Asian art is a late 12th- or early 13th-century Cambodian bronze of the eight-armed Avalokiteshvara, a T’ang Dynasty earthenware camel, and an intricately painted Ming DynastyMing Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
wine jar. The museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha (late 6th century AD), which is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work.
The museum now houses one of the largest and finest collections of Thai bronze, scrolls, and banner paintings in the world.
Islamic art
Islamic art in all media are represented at the Walters. Among the highlights are a 7th-century carved and hammered silver bowl from Iran; a 13th-century candlestick made of copper, silver, and gold from MamlukMamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
Egypt; 16th-century mausoleum doors decorated with intricate wood carvings in a radiating star pattern; a 17th-century silk sash from Moghul India; and a 17th-century Turkish tile with an image of the Great Mosque of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
.
The museum owns an array of Islamic manuscripts. These include a 15th-century Koran from northern India, executed at the height of the Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
empire; a 16th-century copy of the Khamsa by Amir Khusraw, illustrated by a number of famous artists for the emperor Akbar; and a Turkish calligraphy album by Sheik Handullah al Amasi, one of the greatest calligraphers of all time.
Medieval art
Henry Walters assembled a collection of art produced during the Middle Ages in all the major artistic media of the period, and this now forms the basis of the Walters' medieval collection. One of the best collections of medieval art in the United States, the museum's holdings include examples of metalwork, sculpture, stained glass, textiles, icons, and other paintings. The collection is especially renowned for its ivories, enamels, reliquaries, early ByzantineByzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
silver, post-Byzantine art, illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s and the largest and finest collection of Ethiopian
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
Christian art outside Ethiopia.
The Walters' medieval collection features unique objects like the Byzantine agate Rubens Vase that belonged to the painter Rubens (accession no. 42.562) and the earliest surviving image of the Virgin of Tenderness, an ivory carving produced in Egypt in the sixth or seventh century (accession no. 71.297). Sculpted heads from the royal Abbey of St. Denis are rare surviving examples of portal sculptures that are directly connected with the origins of Gothic art
Gothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
in 12th-century France (accession nos. 27.21 and 27.22). An ivory casket covered with scenes of jousting knights is one of only about a dozen such objects to survive in the world (accession no. 71.264).
Many of these works are on display in the museum's galleries, but works from the medieval collection are also frequently included in special exhibitions, such as Treasures of Heaven, an exhibition of medieval reliquaries that will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
in the autumn of 2010, the Walters Art Museum in the spring of 2011, and the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
in the summer of 2011.
Works in the medieval collection are the subject of active research by the curatorial and conservation departments of the museum, and visiting researchers frequently make use of the museum's holdings. In-depth technical research carried on these objects is made available to the public through publications and exhibitions, as in the case of the Amandus Shrine (accession no. 53.9), which was featured in a small special exhibition titled The Special Dead in 2008/2009.
Renaissance and Baroque art
This collection of European Renaissance and Baroque art features holdings of paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, metal work, arms and armor. The highlights include Hugo van der GoesHugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters.-Biography:...
' Donor with Saint John the Baptist, Heemskerck
Marten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen
Maarten van Heemskerck or Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, known for his depictions of the Seven Wonders of the World.-Biography:...
’s Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World, the Madonna of the Candelabra, from the studio of Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
, Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
’s Portrait Of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia, El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Bernini's bozzetto of Risen Christ, Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice...
’s Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva, and The Ideal City attributed to Fra Carnavale.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century art
William and Henry Walters collected works by both late 19th century French academic masters and Impressionists. Highlights of the collection include Claude MonetClaude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
’s Springtime, Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life, in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air...
's panoramic view of the Seine Valley, and Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
’s realist masterpiece, The Café Concert.
Henry Walters was particularly interested in the courtly arts of 18th-century France. The museum’s collection of Sèvres
Sèvres
Sèvres is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.The town is known for its porcelain manufacture, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, making the famous Sèvres porcelain, as well as being the location of the International Bureau of Weights...
porcelain includes a number of pieces that were made for members of the court at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
. Portrait miniatures and the examples of goldsmiths' works, especially snuffboxes and watches are displayed in the Treasury along with some exceptional 19th- and early 20th-century works. Among them are examples of Art Nouveau jewelry by René Lalique
René Lalique
René Jules Lalique was a French glass designer known for his creations of perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks and automobile hood ornaments. He was born in the French village of Ay on 6 April 1860 and died 5 May 1945...
, jeweled objects by the House of Fabergé
Fabergé
Fabergé may refer to:*House of Fabergé, a Russian jewelry firm founded by Gustav Faberge in 1842*Fabergé workmaster, goldsmiths who produced jewelry for the House of Fabergé*Fabergé eggs, the most famous works of the House of Faberge...
, including two Russian imperial Easter eggs, and precious jewels by Tiffany and Co.
The Walters’ collection presents an overview of 19th-century European art, particularly art from France. From the first half of the century come major paintings by Ingres
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest...
, Géricault
Théodore Géricault
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a profoundly influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings...
, and Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
. As a result of his stay in Paris with his family during the Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
, William Walters developed a keen interest in contemporary European painting. He either commissioned directly from the artists or purchased at auctions major works by the Barbizon
Barbizon
Barbizon is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest.-Art history:The Barbizon school of painters is named after the village; Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet, leaders of the school, made their homes and died in the...
masters, including Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
and Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
, the academic masters Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
and Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA was a Dutch painter.Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there...
, and the modernists Monet, Manet, and Sisley.
The Charles Street building
Henry Walters’ original gallery was designed by William Adams DelanoWilliam Adams Delano
William Adams Delano , an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long Island and elsewhere, building townhouses, country houses, clubs, banks and buildings for...
and erected between 1904 and 1909. Its exterior was inspired by the Renaissance-revival style Hôtel Pourtalès in Paris and its interior was modeled after the 17th-century Collegio dei Gesuiti (now the Palazzo dell’Università) built by the Balbi family for the Jesuits in Genoa. The arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, French decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and manuscripts and rare books are now exhibited in this palazzo-like building.
The Centre Street building
Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, in the “Brutalist”Brutalist architecture
Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...
style prevailing in the 1960s, this building opened in 1974. It was substantially altered in 1998-2001 to allow for a four-story glass atrium, a suspended staircase, a café and an enlarged museum store and a library. The ancient, Byzantine, medieval, Ethiopian, and 19th-century European collections are housed in this building as is the museum’s conservation laboratory, which is one of the oldest in the country.
Hackerman House
This Greek-revival mansion, designed by John Rudolph NiernseeJohn Rudolph Niernsee
John Rudolph Niernsee was an American architect, the head architect for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He was born as Johann Rudolph Niernsee in Vienna, Austria and immigrated to the United States in 1837, at age 22...
and erected between 1848 and 1850 for Dr. John Hanson Thomas, was long regarded as the most “elegant” house in Mount Vernon Place. Among the Thomas’s distinguished guests were the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, and General Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.-Family:Lajos...
, the Hungarian freedom fighter. Since 1991, the house has been devoted to the Walters’ holdings of Asian art.
Further reading
- Gruelle, R. B., Collection of William Thompson Walters (Boston 1895)
- Bushnell, S. W., Oriental Ceramic Art Collections of William Thompson Walters (New York 1899)
External links
- Walters Art Museum official website
- Archimedes Palimpsest Project Web Page
- http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=225+North+Holliday+Street,+Baltimore,+Maryland&sll=39.310477,-76.617579&sspn=0.00767,0.014763&g=1729+Maryland+Avenue,+Baltimore,+Maryland&ie=UTF8&ll=39.296314,-76.616378&spn=0.007672,0.014763&z=16&layer=c&cbll=39.296312,-76.616503&panoid=5tGZUhpJevPWUjMqhvadyw&cbp=12,17.845929184762042,,0,-6.2939399178522954Walters Art Museum (entrance) on Google Street View]