Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art
Encyclopedia
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany
found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fine collections of late-19th- and early-20th-century American paintings, graphics and the decorative arts. It is located in Winter Park, Florida
, USA
.
The museum was founded by Jeannette Genius McKean in 1942 and named for her grandfather. She had long appreciated Tiffany's art during times when his reputation had faded from sight. It was originally named as The Morse Gallery of Art and located on the campus of Rollins College
. In 1957, the McKeans learned from one of Tiffany's daughters that his estate, Laurelton Hall
, had burned to a ruin. Jeannette McKean decided to rescue the Tiffany treasures, which were ready to be bulldozed with the debris from the fire. Her husband Hugh McKean, who had been an art student at Tiffany's Laurelton Hall estate in 1930, remembered her exact words at the scene of the devastation: "Let's buy everything that is left and try to save it." Later Tiffany acquisitions included the parts of his 1893 chapel for the World's Columbian Exposition
.
The Tiffany collection includes the reconstructed Tiffany Chapel
he created for the World's Columbian Exposition
at Chicago in 1893, with its brilliantly colorful windows, mosaics, Byzantine-Romanesque architectural elements and furnishings. The chapel was fully reassembled and opened in April 1999 to the general public for the first time in more than 100 years. It is approximately 39 feet (11.9 m) long and 23 feet (7 m) wide, rising at its highest point to about 24 feet (7.3 m).
In 2010 the museum announced that it is building new galleries at a cost of $5 million. The galleries will have 6000 ft2 of space and display Tiffany work from Laurelton Hall
.
, Louis Sullivan
, Frank Lloyd Wright
, John LaFarge
and Arthur Nash
. Emile Gallé
, Rene Lalique
, and Peter Carl Fabergé
are represented in the jewelry and silver. The furniture collection includes pieces by Emile Gallé
, Louis Majorelle
, and Gustav Stickley
, as well as those by Tiffany. The museum also has over 800 pieces in its 19th-century American Art Pottery collection, including about 300 Rookwood pieces. The sculpture collection includes work by Thomas Crawford, Hiram Powers
, Daniel Chester French
, John Rogers
, and others.
The museum also has a good collection of American paintings and prints. The paintings include work by Samuel F. B. Morse
(a relative of Charles Hosmer Morse
), Thomas Doughty
, George Inness
, John Singer Sargent
, Rembrandt Peale
, Cecilia Beaux
, Martin Johnson Heade
, Maxfield Parrish
, Arthur B. Davies
, Hermann Herzog, Thomas Hart Benton
, and Samuel Colman
. Prints include work by some of the same artists as well as Grant Wood
, Mary Cassatt
, Paul Cézanne
, Childe Hassam
, John Steuart Curry
, and Edward Hopper
.
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fine collections of late-19th- and early-20th-century American paintings, graphics and the decorative arts. It is located in Winter Park, Florida
Winter Park, Florida
Winter Park is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,090 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 28,083. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The museum was founded by Jeannette Genius McKean in 1942 and named for her grandfather. She had long appreciated Tiffany's art during times when his reputation had faded from sight. It was originally named as The Morse Gallery of Art and located on the campus of Rollins College
Rollins College
Rollins College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Winter Park, Florida , along the shores of Lake Virginia....
. In 1957, the McKeans learned from one of Tiffany's daughters that his estate, Laurelton Hall
Laurelton Hall
Laurelton Hall was the home of noted artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, located in Laurel Hollow, Long Island, New York. The 65-room mansion on 600 acres of land, designed in the Art Nouveau mode, combined Islamic motifs with connection to nature, was completed in 1905, and housed many of Tiffany's...
, had burned to a ruin. Jeannette McKean decided to rescue the Tiffany treasures, which were ready to be bulldozed with the debris from the fire. Her husband Hugh McKean, who had been an art student at Tiffany's Laurelton Hall estate in 1930, remembered her exact words at the scene of the devastation: "Let's buy everything that is left and try to save it." Later Tiffany acquisitions included the parts of his 1893 chapel for the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
.
The Tiffany collection
The Tiffany collection forms the centerpiece of the Morse Museum. It includes examples in every medium he explored, in every kind of work he produced, and from every period of his life. Holdings range from a set of his famed leaded-glass windows down to glass buttons. It includes paintings and extensive examples of his pottery, as well as jewelry, enamels, mosaics, watercolors, lamps, furniture and examples of his Favrile blown glass.The Tiffany collection includes the reconstructed Tiffany Chapel
Tiffany Chapel
The Tiffany Chapel is a chapel interior designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and created by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. First installed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the chapel is again on public display, more than a century later, at the Charles Hosmer Morse...
he created for the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
at Chicago in 1893, with its brilliantly colorful windows, mosaics, Byzantine-Romanesque architectural elements and furnishings. The chapel was fully reassembled and opened in April 1999 to the general public for the first time in more than 100 years. It is approximately 39 feet (11.9 m) long and 23 feet (7 m) wide, rising at its highest point to about 24 feet (7.3 m).
In 2010 the museum announced that it is building new galleries at a cost of $5 million. The galleries will have 6000 ft2 of space and display Tiffany work from Laurelton Hall
Laurelton Hall
Laurelton Hall was the home of noted artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, located in Laurel Hollow, Long Island, New York. The 65-room mansion on 600 acres of land, designed in the Art Nouveau mode, combined Islamic motifs with connection to nature, was completed in 1905, and housed many of Tiffany's...
.
Other collections
Other leaded-glass windows in the collection include work by William MorrisWilliam Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
, Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
, John LaFarge
John LaFarge
John La Farge was an American painter, muralist, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer.-Biography:...
and Arthur Nash
Arthur Nash
W. Arthur "Jakie" Nash was a Canadian ice hockey player who competed in the 1936 Winter Olympics as a member of the Canadian ice hockey team, which won the silver medal....
. Emile Gallé
Émile Gallé
Émile Gallé was a French artist who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major forces in the French Art Nouveau movement.- Biography :...
, Rene 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...
, and Peter Carl Fabergé
Peter Carl Fabergé
Peter Karl Fabergé also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé in Russia was a Russian jeweller of Baltic German-Danish and French origin, best known for the famous Fabergé eggs, made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and gemstones rather than more mundane materials.-Early...
are represented in the jewelry and silver. The furniture collection includes pieces by Emile Gallé
Émile Gallé
Émile Gallé was a French artist who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major forces in the French Art Nouveau movement.- Biography :...
, Louis Majorelle
Louis Majorelle
Louis-Jean-Sylvestre Majorelle, usually known simply as Louis Majorelle, was a French decorator and furniture designer who manufactured his own designs, in the French tradition of the ébéniste...
, and Gustav Stickley
Gustav Stickley
Gustav Stickley was a manufacturer of furniture and the leading proselytizer for the American Arts and Crafts movement, an extension of the British Arts and Crafts movement.-Biography:...
, as well as those by Tiffany. The museum also has over 800 pieces in its 19th-century American Art Pottery collection, including about 300 Rookwood pieces. The sculpture collection includes work by Thomas Crawford, Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers was an American neoclassical sculptor.-Biography:The son of a farmer, Powers was born in Woodstock, Vermont, on the July 29, 1805. In 1818 his father moved to Ohio, about six miles from Cincinnati, where the son attended school for about a year, staying meanwhile with his brother, a...
, Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...
, John Rogers
John Rogers (sculptor)
John Rogers was an American sculptor who produced very popular, relatively inexpensive figurines in the latter 19th century.He became famous for his small genre sculptures, popularly termed "Rogers Groups", which were mass produced in cast plaster...
, and others.
The museum also has a good collection of American paintings and prints. The paintings include work by Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American contributor to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs, co-inventor of the Morse code, and an accomplished painter.-Birth and education:...
(a relative of Charles Hosmer Morse
Charles Hosmer Morse
Charles Hosmer Morse was founder of Fairbanks-Morse corporation, co-founder of the city of Winter Park, Florida and one of the founders and first trustees of Rollins College....
), Thomas Doughty
Thomas Doughty
Thomas Doughty may refer to:*Thomas Doughty , English explorer, d.1578*Thomas Doughty , American artist...
, George Inness
George Inness
George Inness was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism...
, John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, Rembrandt Peale
Rembrandt Peale
Rembrandt Peale was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson...
, Cecilia Beaux
Cecilia Beaux
Cecilia Beaux was an American society portraitist, in the manner of John Singer Sargent. She was a near contemporary of better-known American artist Mary Cassatt and also received her training in Philadelphia and France...
, Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade was a prolific American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, portraits of tropical birds, and still lifes...
, Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery.-Life:...
, Arthur B. Davies
Arthur B. Davies
Arthur Bowen Davies was an avant-garde American artist and patron.-Biography:He was born in Utica, New York and studied at the Chicago Academy of Design from 1879 to 1882...
, Hermann Herzog, Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (painter)
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
, and Samuel Colman
Samuel Colman
Samuel Colman was an American painter, interior designer, and writer, probably best remembered for his paintings of the Hudson River....
. Prints include work by some of the same artists as well as Grant Wood
Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.- Life and career :His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his...
, Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
, Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
, Childe Hassam
Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums...
, John Steuart Curry
John Steuart Curry
John Steuart Curry was an American painter whose career spanned from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting life in his home state, Kansas...
, and Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
.