Hewitt Sisters Collect
https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18094463/
Two remarkable women founded the collection and institution that is now Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt, granddaughters of the industrialist and inventor Peter Cooper, formed the core collection, which was originally housed in New York's Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. With the goal of elevating the state of decorative design in America, they looked to Paris's Musee des Arts Decoratifs as a model and in 1897 the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration was inaugurated. Displayed here and in the two galleries to your left are objects collected by the Hewitt sisters, ranging from prints, drawings, furniture, and metalwork to buttons, birdcages, and textiles.They purchased works of technical as well as artistic merit at home and on their travels to Europe, from dealers, and at auction. The collection was conceived as "a practical working laboratory," a visual library where students, designers, and the public could be inspired directly by objects. There were few restrictions: objects could be touched, moved, sketched, photographed, and measured. Even by today's standards, the sisters' vision for a modern museum was radical. Today, thanks to unprecedented access to digital technology, we can continue to extend the sisters' user-focused ambitions. A museum's collection tells the story of its founders, donors, directors, and curators, and the richness of Cooper Hewitt's collection is no exception. Celebrated here are donors to the core of our collection, which was amassed by Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The sisters also solicited friends and acquaintances for contributions of objects or funds to grow the collections that served as design resource material for the Museum for the Arts of Decoration in the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. To assist in their efforts, in 1907, under the direction of department store owner and collector George A. Hearn, the sisters established an advisory committee of leaders from the artistic, collecting, and business communities. Members included industrialist J.P. Morgan, who donated important collections of sixteenth-century textiles, and Astor descendant Mr. John Innes Kane and his wife Anne Schermerhorn Kane, who gave objects they purchased and inherited, ranging in date from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. Other donors included Mrs. Charles Alexander; Mrs. George T. Bliss, and her daughter Susan Dwight Bliss; and railroad and banking magnate Jacob H. Schiff. The acquisition of French drawings and prints from collector and dealer Jean Leon Decloux, and Italian drawings owned by Borghese family curator Giovanni Piancastelli, reflects the Hewitt sisters' commitment to eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century designs on paper in addition to decorative arts. Hewitt Sisters Collect is made possible by generous support from Nancy Marks. Additional funding is provided by Margery and Edgar Masinter and the Smithsonian Women’s Committee.
Giani specialized in decorative ensembles for northern and central Italian homes. Iris, goddess of the rainbow, would be an ideal subject for a ceiling. This sheet was likely presented to a client for approval before the concept was transferred to a painted surface.
Rapidly rendered in seemingly effortless pen, this drawing of Alexander the Great visiting the philosopher Diogenes testifies to Giani’s strong command of classical vocabulary and visual expression, which he adapted to the tastes of his patrons. This preparatory drawing is for a series that Giani painted in the Palazzo Nagliati, in Ferrara, Italy. Giovanni Piancastelli, a drawing teacher, collector, and curator of the Borghese collection in Rome, disposed of his drawings collection between 1901 and 1907. Using agents in Rome to preview the drawings, the Hewitt sisters recommended that the museum acquire about 3,700 mostly Italian decorative arts and architecture drawings in 1901. In 1938, the museum was able to largely reunite Piancastelli’s decorative drawings collection by acquiring about 8,700 drawings from Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee of Brookline, Massachusetts, who had originally purchased them in 1904.
In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
Moitte designed this neoclassical panel as part of a commission for the Hôtel de Salm in Paris. The bright turquoise gouache is typical of the highly saturated color palette then popular for domestic interiors. The design is a variation on the grotesque motif, characterized by a non-narrative assembly of fantastic animals. In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
Homer was an avid fisherman and a master of watercolor. Fortunately, he was able to combine his avocation with his profession. Through a combination of broad strokes, soakings, and calligraphic gestures, he was able to convey this wilderness scene and to express the serenity of man in harmony with his majestic surroundings. Beginning in 1912, Winslow Homer’s brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Savage Homer Jr., donated to the museum over 250 drawings from Homer’s studio in Prouts Neck, Maine, and 22 oil paintings hanging in their home. Charles was acquainted with the Hewitt sisters and also knew the painter Elliot Clark, who was acquiring American drawings on the Hewitt sisters’ behalf. With the acquisition of additional material, the museum now holds the largest group of works by Homer in any private or public collection.
When the Hewitt sisters travelled to Europe in pursuit of objects for the museum they were creating (see photo of Sarah, Eleanor, and Amy Hewitt in a Venetian gondola), they collected items that, today, might not seem immediately relevant to a design museum—like birdcages. The European-focused Hewitt sisters acquired birdcages in various media, such as ceramics and glass. Others represent specific architecture from various locations.
When the Hewitt sisters travelled to Europe in pursuit of objects for the museum they were creating (see photo of Sarah, Eleanor, and Amy Hewitt in a Venetian gondola), they collected items that, today, might not seem immediately relevant to a design museum—like birdcages. The European-focused Hewitt sisters acquired birdcages in various media, such as ceramics and glass. Others represent specific architecture from various locations.
This birdcage is a model of a church in Flushing, Queens, New York; by the time the Hewitts owned the birdcage, the church was covered in stone. The spacing between the wooden slats provides visibility and ventilation for the birds and differentiates between an actual architectural model and a practical birdcage. When the Hewitt sisters travelled to Europe in pursuit of objects for the museum they were creating (see photo of Sarah, Eleanor, and Amy Hewitt in a Venetian gondola), they collected items that, today, might not seem immediately relevant to a design museum—like birdcages. The European-focused Hewitt sisters acquired birdcages in various media, such as ceramics and glass. Others represent specific architecture from various locations.
When the Hewitt sisters travelled to Europe in pursuit of objects for the museum they were creating (see photo of Sarah, Eleanor, and Amy Hewitt in a Venetian gondola), they collected items that, today, might not seem immediately relevant to a design museum—like birdcages. The European-focused Hewitt sisters acquired birdcages in various media, such as ceramics and glass. Others represent specific architecture from various locations.
Primarily produced in the era of Qianlong, a Chinese ruler known for his artistic sensibility, this birdcage marries beauty and function. Chinese bird keeping dates back to the 3rd century BC. By the 18th century, pet songbirds and their lavishly constructed cages were synonymous with social stature, marks of luxury and tradition. When the Hewitt sisters travelled to Europe in pursuit of objects for the museum they were creating (see photo of Sarah, Eleanor, and Amy Hewitt in a Venetian gondola), they collected items that, today, might not seem immediately relevant to a design museum—like birdcages. The European-focused Hewitt sisters acquired birdcages in various media, such as ceramics and glass. Others represent specific architecture from various locations.
Church was on the Acropolis when a pyrotechnical display was staged for the king and queen of Greece. In this oil sketch, Church captures a dramatic moment when the fireworks reflect on the Parthenon. The museum holds the largest collection of Frederic E. Church objects in the world. Donated by the artist’s son, Louis P. Church, the gift was solicited by Charles W. Gould, a museum trustee, and by the painter Elliot Clark, who acted as an agent for the Hewitt sisters. The Parthenon oil sketch on display was likely painted in the studio after a quick graphite study that Church executed (with color notations) while observing the fireworks display. The black and white sketch is also included in the Church collection.
Edith Wetmore, a close friend of the Hewitt sisters, provided this radiator from her family’s New York house. As a utilitarian object and an architectural sculpture with references to classical antiquity, its design enabled the oversize heat source to be featured openly in the increasingly lavish and comfortable interiors of the 19th century.
Before and during the Hewitt sisters’ era, the study of antiquity was the basis of education. Ancient forms, colors, and decoration represent part of the classical vocabulary perceived as mandatory for understanding design history. Greek earthenware vessels, such as this, provided models for Josiah Wedgwood’s versions in late 18th-century England.
In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
The 17th and 18th centuries saw a proliferation of ornament prints, popular sources of patterns among artisans who circulated designs across long distances. Marot, a Huguenot expatriate to the Netherlands and court artist to William III of Orange, was a central figure in the creation of the William and Mary style. In 1905, the Hewitt sisters were introduced to Jean-Léon Decloux in Paris during one of their acquisitions trips. Decloux collected drawings, print albums, and decorative arts objects, and soon became one of their agents for purchasing works on paper. To cement the relationship, he quickly donated examples of French ornamental paneling. On Decloux’s recommendation, the Hewitt sisters encouraged the museum’s advisory council to purchase over 500 drawings from Decloux’s collection in 1911; in 1921, the museum acquired 413 albums of Decloux’s ornament prints and related preparatory drawings.
Pergolesi, an Italian designer who spent much of the 1780s in London, created engravings that influenced Italian and English furniture makers. His designs featured fantastic animal-like creatures mixed with a classical vocabulary. This chair was a gift of Countess Costantini, a Hewitt friend who collected and sold antique Italian furniture in New York.
The refined construction of this cabinet indicates it was probably made for a sophisticated English client, with a skilled Dutch craftsman providing the marquetry. Specialty craftsmen migrated from France and the Netherlands to London during the last third of the 17th century for political reasons or due to the lure of patronage opportunities. “Tulipmania” was a craze for tulip bulbs cultivated and exported by the Dutch (originally imported from the Ottoman Empire). The cabinet’s floral marquetry includes striated tulips, the most exotic available, in floral arrangements. Floral arrangements with tulips were the subject of paintings, and engravings, especially in the Low Countries. Prints by the French designer Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (see wall to right, 1938- 58-865), who published works in Amsterdam and was in London in the 1690s, are likely sources for this marquetry. John Innes Kane and his wife, Annie Schermerhorn Kane, played a major role in forming the collections of the early Cooper Union Museum. Both were members of prominent New York families. Mr. Kane, great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, also served on the museum’s Advisory Council. The Kanes collected in Europe to furnish their Italian Renaissance residence on Fifth Avenue, designed by Stanford White and completed in 1904. The objects donated by the Kanes are generally English and Continental European, from the Renaissance through the 18th century.
This unusual chair has the original owner’s (the fourth Earl of Scarsdale’s) coat of arms reverse-painted on glass on the back mount. Part of a set that included settees and pedestals, it complemented the architectural changes of the Earl’s house, Sutton Scarsdale, begun in 1724. The Kanes may have purchased the chair in London. John Innes Kane and his wife, Annie Schermerhorn Kane, played a major role in forming the collections of the early Cooper Union Museum. Both were members of prominent New York families. Mr. Kane, great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, also served on the museum’s Advisory Council. The Kanes collected in Europe to furnish their Italian Renaissance residence on Fifth Avenue, designed by Stanford White and completed in 1904. The objects donated by the Kanes are generally English and Continental European, from the Renaissance through the 18th century.
Unlike other objects on view given by the Kanes, this pitcher is an heirloom rather than a collected object. It features repoussé flowers in the “Baltimore style,” popularized by Samuel Kirk 30 years earlier. Heirlooms donated by the Kanes date from the 19th-century and are from New York, which reflects their family history
Paul Frankl was a champion of modernism. He established his first gallery in New York City, which offered interior design services, custom furniture, and imported and domestic decorative objects and fabrics. Frankl Galleries began offering modern wallpapers around 1927, including patterns by top European designers such as Josef Hillerbrand, Dagobert Peche, and André Groult. Donated by Frankl Galleries, this group of wallpapers became the first contemporary patterns, as well as the first machine-printed wallpapers, acquired for the museum’s collection.
While the Hewitt sisters rarely bought objects that were even close to contemporary, this plate is an exception. Joseph-Théodore Deck, who became director of Sèvres in 1887, was an innovator in ceramics. His glazes produced strong colors and a variety of effects, including the appearance of champlevé enamel in this plate.
Tooled leather wallcoverings made in Holland were used as screens in Japan. The panels were then cut up further, devolving into this purse.
This tureen represents a primary focus in the early collecting of Asian objects: Chinese export ceramics. Erskine, one of Sarah and Eleanor’s brothers, may have collected the tureen for its unusual cartouche, which research has since discovered to be the “coat of arms” for an 18th-century family of Dutch grocers.
The maker of this chair was the Hewitt sisters’ paternal grandfather.
Prints of Monnoyer’s floral compositions were published as pattern books for use by artists and designers. His designs combine the scientific accuracy of botanical illustration with an aesthetic elegance. This engraving is from one of the artist’s most influential print suites. Compare this print with the Dutch marquetry cabinet displayed nearby.
Giovanni Piancastelli, a drawing teacher, collector, and curator of the Borghese collection in Rome, disposed of his drawings collection between 1901 and 1907. Using agents in Rome to preview the drawings, the Hewitt sisters recommended that the museum acquire about 3,700 mostly Italian decorative arts and architecture drawings in 1901. In 1938, the museum was able to largely reunite Piancastelli’s decorative drawings collection by acquiring about 8,700 drawings from Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee of Brookline, Massachusetts, who had originally purchased them in 1904.
This study for a balustrade shows how Yellin, a collector of antique metalwork, modernized traditional designs.
For much of his career as an industrial designer, Christopher Dresser believed that symmetry was the perfect expression of natural order. Visits to Japan led to a new appreciation of asymmetry. Below this copper kettle, intertwined vine-like forms curl around the stand. This spontaneous line breaks from the rigidity of Dresser’s earlier style, as seen in the toast rack nearby.
Paul Frankl was a champion of modernism. He established his first gallery in New York City, which offered interior design services, custom furniture, and imported and domestic decorative objects and fabrics. Frankl Galleries began offering modern wallpapers around 1927, including patterns by top European designers such as Josef Hillerbrand, Dagobert Peche, and André Groult. Donated by Frankl Galleries, this group of wallpapers became the first contemporary patterns, as well as the first machine-printed wallpapers, acquired for the museum’s collection.
Paul Frankl was a champion of modernism. He established his first gallery in New York City, which offered interior design services, custom furniture, and imported and domestic decorative objects and fabrics. Frankl Galleries began offering modern wallpapers around1927, including patterns by top European designers such as Josef Hillerbrand, Dagobert Peche, and André Groult. Donated by Frankl Galleries, this group of wallpapers became the first contemporary patterns, as well as the first machine-printed wallpapers, acquired for the museum’s collection.
Best known for his designs for the Paris Metro in 1900, Guimard was a prominent innovator of the art nouveau style, epitomized in this grille for an apartment-house balcony. Sinuous, organic lines generate aesthetic continuity between the balconies and the interiors, which were also designed by Guimard.
