March/April 2006

VSA Events

  The Belle Époque Tea
by VSA member Andrianna Campbell

In the ornate halls of The French Consulate on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park, the Victorian Society Scholarship Fund hosted its annual tea. Convened in the pink room with its damask silk tapestries and early twentieth century Parisian decorative arts influences were 160 guests. The Belle Époque tea started at 6:00 p.m. on November 30, 2005.

Guests remarked on the smell of the tuber roses which filled the marble halls and found them to be evocative of Victorian rose gardens. The tea table glistened with silver, and china, as cup after cup of delicate black tea was poured, served alongside savories and sweets. Rounding out the mood was a young Queen Victoria herself, as portrayed by an entertaining impersonator. The Fund so accustomed to British venues was happy to greet Consul-General François Delattre and to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s state visit to France.

Christopher Forbes, President of the VSSF, dedicated to raising scholarship monies for the Victorian Society in America Summer Schools in Newport, Rhode Island and London, England started this unique benefit with H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester and the late Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the eminent architectural historian. The three gentlemen initially held a series of lectures in October of 1974 to draw attention to the plight of the sadly neglected Victorian heritage of our England and the United States.  Their efforts resulted in the establishment of The Victorian Society Scholarship Fund.

As the hour approached 8:00 p.m., a clinking of the glass announced Mr. Forbes’ wish to speak. He introduced Ms. Pauline C. Metcalf, the noted art and architectural historian, whose brilliant work was being commemorated. Ms. Metcalf, standing in front of a bevy of celebrated philanthropists, art preservationists, and the illustrious alumni of the VSA Summer Schools, spoke of her long standing relationship with the Fund as lecturer on Ogden Codman, and a member of the Victorian Society in America’s Metropolitan chapter. She praised the VSSF for its fundraising efforts on behalf of graduate students and professionals in preservation and related fields. And to date, 650 students have received monies from the Fund.

As the guests exited the Consulate, with Twinings gift boxes tucked under their arms, many were cheered that since the Fund’s inception, the preservation of Victorian art and architecture has become a cause lauded by many and sure to continue through the years.

Andrianna Campbell is Curatorial Assistant of the The Forbes Collection

pictured right: Mr. Christopher Forbes, Ms. Pauline C. Metcalf, M. François Delattre, Consul General of France in New York.

Members

 Fred Ross

VSA contributing member, art historian and educator turned collector, Fred Ross holds his MA from Columbia University, has been widely published, and is a member of the Association of Historians of Nineteenth Century Art, and is one of the leading authorities on 19^th century Victorian and French paintings.

Ross is one of the Founders of ARC, the Art Renewal Center™ with 60,000+ images, ARChives™ information resources, scholarships and ARC Salon™ competitions.  ARC and its philosophy have become one of the leading institutions supporting a return of classical training, technique and excellence in the fine arts of painting and sculpture.

Fred with his wife Sherry and daughter Kara, has built one of the largest collections of 19^th century European and Victorian paintings in America.

He is featured in the current issue of Epoch Times.

 Ian Dungavell

VSA member, and executive director of the UK Victorian Society, is in the news again - still preserving buildings. 

This time in London where he joins with others to save a community center.

Click here for news story from the Camden Gazette.

 Robert Furhoff
Former VSA board member, treasurer of the Greater Chicago Chapter, and historic paint analyst.

In 2003/2004 Bob worked on the restoration of Edith Wharton’s bedroom suite boudoir at The Mount, Wharton’s estate in the Berkshires.  That work is featured in the February 2006 issue of Old-House Journal along with two photographs and an article entitled: “Wallpaper: Puzzling Together the Pieces”.  He established the original color scheme of Edith Wharton’s boudoir.  The Mount received a 2004 VSA Preservation Award and was one of four historical organizations to be honored with a 2005 Preserve America Presidential Award.

Also, pictured, left, is Bob seen working on the renovation of the Campbell House Museum in St. Louis that has undergone a monumental five-year, $3 million restoration.  The museum now stands as one of the most accurately restored 19th Century buildings in America, reflecting the high-Victorian opulence of the 1880s, and will be visited by the VSA on its forthcoming visit to St. Louis.

picture courtesy of the Campbell House Museum, St. Louis. MO | © Campbell House Foundation 2004

Member Organizations

  TOWER GROVE HOUSE/CAMPBELL HOUSE MUSEUM/CHATILLON-DeMENIL HOUSE

The three VSA member organizations named above, which will be visited on our forthcoming tour and annual meeting in St. Louis, are featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch online version.

  ART RENEWAL CENTER

Art Renewal Center™

Contributing member, The Art Renewal Center, is an online art museum, an organization dedicated to classical realism in art as opposed to the Modernist developments. It is one of the most visited sites on the Internet.  The Art Renewal Center also encourages the development of traditional painting styles and methods such as instruction by atelier for painters, and has held an annual ARC Salon Competition since 2003.

  The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts

VSA member The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) was formed in 1970 to save the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate from the wrecker’s ball.  Today, MAC operates the Physick Estate as Cape May’s only Victorian house museum. MAC has also restored and operates the 1859 Cape May Lighthouse.

A multi-faceted, non-profit cultural organization, MAC promotes the preservation and interpretation of Cape May’s Victorian heritage and the performing arts with a year-round schedule of special events and tours.  Click below for details of this summer's events:

Cape May calendar

  HEURICH HOUSE
The Brewmaster’s Castle

Recently, VSA member organization, The Heurich House, fondly known for almost 50 years as The Brewmaster’s Castle, has been threatened with closure.

In the public domain as a Washington, DC, Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, it has served the public through numerous educational and cultural programs as a public event venue, the country’s most intact late-Victorian house museum, the first fireproof residence in the nation’s capital, the “smart house” of the late-19th century, and one of the area’s most beloved historic sites.

In 2003, the Heurich House Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public foundation, was formed with encouragement from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and with significant public support in order to address the emergency of the irretrievable loss of The Brewmaster’s Castle through its imminent sale to a restaurateur who planned to disperse the site’s original furnishings and collections, and convert this historic site into a private club.  It is a Washington, D.C. Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, and the last remnant of an era when more than 20 brewers operated in the nation’s capital.

Now comes some good news from Gary Heurich of Friends of the Castle who informed DC web log The DCist, of recent cooperation from the bank.   Follow the story in the links below.

[See also our printed newsletter for more and an update on fundraising.]

  FORT NISQUALLY LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM


Fort Nisqually Living History Museum, site of the first European settlement on Puget Sound is a new VSA member.

The Hudson's Bay Company of London, a vast fur trading enterprise chartered by King Charles of England in 1670, established it in 1833. The original site was on the beach and plains above the Nisqually River delta in the present town of DuPont, Washington. Today Fort Nisqually, including two of the original buildings, is located inside Tacoma's Point Defiance Park. Fort Nisqually is owned and operated as a living history museum by Metro Parks of Tacoma.

Fort Nisqually hosts 90,000 visitors annually at a beautifully restored site. Seven structures are open when trained staff are present during the summer months and during living history events. The Factor's House has recently been restored to original 1855 conditions, when the building was brand new. The museum store and visitors center are currently located in the building just outside the palisades.

Fort Nisqually's volunteers and staff in period clothing demonstrate the crafts of the 19th century and engage visitors in historic dialogue during the Living History Days and other events throughout the year.

For more visit their: web site

  DELAWARE ART MUSEUM
March 17 – July 9, 2006

Charles Shannon: Lithographs and Luminaries

London in the late 19th century was home to many artists and literary figures. Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937) was an active participant in and keen observer of this world of refined tastes and bold ambitions. This is the first comprehensive exhibition to be held in the United Sates devoted to the lithographic work of this versatile painter, printmaker and collector.

One section will be devoted to Shannon’s revealing portraits of members of the incredibly rich milieu of fin de siecle London, which included artists and literary figures such as Alphonse Legros, Max Beerbohm, Oscar Wilde and Lucien Pissarro. The remainder of the display will spotlight Shannon’s subject lithographs, focusing almost exclusively on the female form. Shannon’s style combines Pre-Raphaelite sensuousness with impressionistic softness, and boldly modern asymmetric composition. Also on view are examples of the artist's book illustration and design done in collaboration with his life-long partner, Charles Ricketts, along with related works by the caricaturist Max Beerbohm and the photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn.

  CHAPTER NEWS

A sampling of Chapter notices and newsletters [PDFs open in a new window]

Falls Church Chapter Feb/Mar Newsletter
Falls Church Chapter Apr/May Newsletter
Greater Chicago Chapter Lecture
Michigan Chapter Spring Meeting
Michigan Chapter Newsletter
Washington DC Chapter Events
Northern NJ Chapter Newsletter

To be featured in this section, please send your Notices or Newsletters in document form to the VSA webmaster.  This may either be the original draft format, e.g. MS Word, or a finished PDF.

Apologies to Chapters whose submitted events pre-dated this newsletter.

Falls Church ladies add color to a Washington DC Chapter event

Miscellany

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UNTIL NEXT TIME
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