Vanderbilt Treasures Return: Gothic Art in the Gilded Age Exhibit to Open at Marble House in May

For the first time since 1927, Alva Vanderbilt's extravagant collection of more than 300 Medieval and Renaissance art objects has been re-assembled for display at Marble House, in the Gothic Room that was designed for them in 1892.

Beginning May 8, 2010, visitors to Marble House, a National Historic Landmark today maintained by The Preservation Society of Newport County, will see the Gothic Room and the art collection just as Alva and her guests did a century ago.

Gothic Art in the Gilded Age: Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection is made up of more than 300 paintings, sculptures, and works of decorative art including metalwork, furniture and ceramics created across Europe chiefly between 1100 and 1550. This group of objects belonged to three successive owners: Paris collector and dealer Emile Gavet, Newport society hostess Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, and circus impresario John Ringling.

Alva Vanderbilt bought the collection from Emile Gavet in Paris in 1890, and had it shipped to Newport for display in the summer "cottage" that Richard Morris Hunt was building for her.

"Hunt redesigned the ground floor sitting room of Marble House into a Medieval setting specifically to accommodate the collection," said Preservation Society Curator Paul Miller. "Sculpture was hung on the lowest tier, just above the wainscoting, followed by small paintings, over which were positioned larger panel paintings interspersed with ceramics perched on wall brackets. Smaller objects were scattered about the room in display cases."

In 1925, Mrs. Vanderbilt (by then divorced from William K. Vanderbilt and subsequently widowed by her second husband, O.H.P. Belmont) decided to close Marble House and move to her chateau in France. International art dealer Joseph Duveen was commissioned to sell the collection on her behalf. The overwhelming bulk of the collection was purchased in 1927 by circus entrepreneur John Ringling for his Sarasota, Florida house and museum.

Ringling used some pieces to decorate the interior of his mansion, and others to expand his museum's collection of European paintings and sculpture. Through the years, many objects were consigned to storage. After many years of research and conservation, in 2009 the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art and The Preservation Society of Newport County re-assembled the collection in its virtual entirety.

On public display at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota until April, the collection will then return to its first American home in Newport, at Marble House, where each object will be re-installed in its original location, known though vintage photographs. A hardcover, 211-page catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

"Historic house museums offer a unique opportunity to display artworks the way the original collectors wanted them displayed," added Coxe. "Rather than looking at objects in a sterile environment, visitors see the collections the way their owners intended, providing additional insight into the personality of the collector as well as the aesthetic of the period."

The exhibition is made possible through generous grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust and a private donor.

Marble House was the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt. Built and furnished at a reported cost of $11 million, with 500,000 cubic feet of marble, it was the most lavish house in America when it opened in 1892. It became a grand stage for Alva Vanderbilt's climb to social and political power, first as a leading society hostess and later as a leader of the "Votes for Women" campaign.

The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island is a non-profit organization accredited by the American Association of Museums and dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area's historic architecture, landscapes and decorative arts. Its 11 historic properties-seven of them National Historic Landmarks-span more than 250 years of America's architectural and social development.

This exhibition has been organized by The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida, Florida State University, Sarasota, FL and The Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, RI.

For more information visit NewportMansions.org