Worcester Art Museum
Encyclopedia
The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 35,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day, representing cultures from all over the world. The WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts
, and is the second largest art museum in New England
. The WAM also has a café, museum shop, library, and a year round roster of classes for children and adults.
and a group of his friends gathered together to created the Art Museum Corporation. Salisbury then gave a tract of land, on what was once the Salisbury farm (now fronting Salisbury Street in Worcester, Massachusetts), as well as $100,000 USD to build an art museum. The museum was designed by Stephen C. Earle
, a Worcester architect, and formally opened in 1898. The museum's collection at this point consisted largely of plaster cast
s of "antique and Renaissance" sculptures as well as a selection of 5,000 Japanese prints, drawings, and books, willed to the museum from John Chandler Bancroft, son of John Bancroft
.
In 1905, Stephen Salisbury died and left the "bulk" of his five million dollar estate to the Art museum.
The Worcester Art Museum continued to grow and slowly gathered a world class art collection. The WAM became the first museum in the United States
to purchase works by Claude Monet
as well as Paul Gauguin
. The museum was also the first institution to transport a medieval building, the chapter house, from Europe and install it in America.
Between 1932 and 1939, the Worcester Art Museum joined a consortium of museums and institutions to sponsor expeditions to the archaeological sites where the city of Antioch
once stood. This group of museums, including Princeton University
, the musée du Louvre, the Baltimore Museum of Art
, and Harvard University
's affiliate Dumbarton Oaks
, discovered hundreds of intricate floor mosaics. the Antioch mosiacs as they are now known, were split up amongst the institutions The WAM received many mosiacs including the Worcester Hunt which now is installed in the Renaissance Court's floor.
On May 17, 1972, The Art Museum suffered a major theft of artwork. Two men wearing masks entered the museum just before closing and shot a guard in the side. The two men stole The Brooding Woman and Head of a Woman by Paul Gauguin
, Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso
, and St. Bartholomew by Rembrandt, a collection of works worth over one million dollars. Four individuals were charged with the theft as well as the theft of seven artworks stolen from the Boyden Library at Deerfield Academy
.
Beginning in the 1990s the WAM began renovating all of its galleries. Beginning with the European galleries and then the Chinese Decorative Arts Gallery, the museum then moved onto its Early American Galleries, and Art Since the Mid-20th Century Galleries. The Art Snce the Mid-20th Century galleries had been closed for about a decade before they were reopened as part of this program. The renovation of there two galleries cost $85,000USD
and included new flooring, lighting, wall refinishing, and some conservation work.
In 1927, the Museum purchased a 12th-century, French chapter house that was originally part of the Benedictine Priory of St. John at Le Bas-Nueil near Poitiers. Installed in 1932 and linked to the Museum in 1933 via the grand Renaissance Court, the chapter house was the first medieval building ever transported from Europe to America. In 1933 alone, the Museum attracted 200,000 visitors.
Decorating the Renaissance Court floor is unequivocally one of Worcester's greatest ancient treasures – a group of Antioch mosaics
dating from the first through the sixth century A.D. that was excavated at Antioch in Syria. The Worcester Art Museum supported the excavation between 1932 and 1939 in partnership with universities and other Museums.
The Museum building has expanded several times, in 1940, 1970 (Higgins Education Wing addition), and 1983 (Frances L. Hiatt Wing for special exhibitions; study and storage area for prints, drawings, and photographs; and an expanded conservation area). The Higgins Education Wing contains studios and classrooms, a professional printmaking studio, a computer studio, photography lab and an exhibition space for student works.
European paintings include some fine Flemish Renaissance paintings, an El Greco, a Rembrandt, and a room of impressionist and 20thcentury works by the likes of Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, and Kandinsky. The American painting collection includes works by Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, William Morris Hunt, Elizabeth Goodridge, among others. In the 20th century gallery, the Museum displays works by Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Joan Mitchell. Notable works include:
In 1901, John Chandler Bancroft, a wealthy Bostonian, bequeathed more than 3,000 Japanese prints. The Bancroft collection spans the history of woodcut printmaking in Japan, with particular strength in rare, early images from the late 17th and 18th centuries. Salisbury's estate donation included many portraits commissioned by his family, as well as sculpture, furniture, and silver. These works, by artists such as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Crawford, and Samuel F.B. Morse and the craftsmen Paul Revere, Edward Winslow, and Nathanial Hurd, constituted the nucleus of the American collections.
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
, and is the second largest art museum in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. The WAM also has a café, museum shop, library, and a year round roster of classes for children and adults.
History
In September 1896 Stephen Salisbury IIIStephen Salisbury III
Stephen Salisbury III , also referred to as Stephen Salisbury Jr., graduated from Harvard College in 1856. The son of a wealthy landowner, Salisbury helped manage the family's extensive properties and businesses in Worcester County, Massachusetts...
and a group of his friends gathered together to created the Art Museum Corporation. Salisbury then gave a tract of land, on what was once the Salisbury farm (now fronting Salisbury Street in Worcester, Massachusetts), as well as $100,000 USD to build an art museum. The museum was designed by Stephen C. Earle
Stephen C. Earle
Stephen Carpenter Earle was an architect who designed a number buildings in Massachusetts and Connecticut that were built in the late 19th century, with many in Worcester, Massachusetts. For a time he worked with architect James E. Fuller, under the firm "Earle & Fuller", and later with Clellan W...
, a Worcester architect, and formally opened in 1898. The museum's collection at this point consisted largely of plaster cast
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
s of "antique and Renaissance" sculptures as well as a selection of 5,000 Japanese prints, drawings, and books, willed to the museum from John Chandler Bancroft, son of John Bancroft
John Bancroft
Dr John H.J. Bancroft is a physician who was Director of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University from 1995 to 2004. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine....
.
In 1905, Stephen Salisbury died and left the "bulk" of his five million dollar estate to the Art museum.
The Worcester Art Museum continued to grow and slowly gathered a world class art collection. The WAM became the first museum in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to purchase works by Claude Monet
Claude 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...
as well as Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
. The museum was also the first institution to transport a medieval building, the chapter house, from Europe and install it in America.
Between 1932 and 1939, the Worcester Art Museum joined a consortium of museums and institutions to sponsor expeditions to the archaeological sites where the city of Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
once stood. This group of museums, including Princeton University
Princeton University Art Museum
The Princeton University Art Museum is Princeton University's gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1882, it now houses over 72,000 works of art that range from antiquity to the contemporary period...
, the musée du Louvre, 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 Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's affiliate Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks is the conventional name for the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, situated on a historic property in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The institution is administered by the Trustees for Harvard University. Its founders, Robert Woods Bliss and his wife...
, discovered hundreds of intricate floor mosaics. the Antioch mosiacs as they are now known, were split up amongst the institutions The WAM received many mosiacs including the Worcester Hunt which now is installed in the Renaissance Court's floor.
On May 17, 1972, The Art Museum suffered a major theft of artwork. Two men wearing masks entered the museum just before closing and shot a guard in the side. The two men stole The Brooding Woman and Head of a Woman by Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, and St. Bartholomew by Rembrandt, a collection of works worth over one million dollars. Four individuals were charged with the theft as well as the theft of seven artworks stolen from the Boyden Library at Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
.
Beginning in the 1990s the WAM began renovating all of its galleries. Beginning with the European galleries and then the Chinese Decorative Arts Gallery, the museum then moved onto its Early American Galleries, and Art Since the Mid-20th Century Galleries. The Art Snce the Mid-20th Century galleries had been closed for about a decade before they were reopened as part of this program. The renovation of there two galleries cost $85,000USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
and included new flooring, lighting, wall refinishing, and some conservation work.
Architecture
The Worcester Art Museum started as a small three story building, designed by Stephen Earle and constructed by Messrs. Norcross Brothers, in 1898. Very little of the exterior this original building can be viewed due to the multiple expansions the museum has undertaken.In 1927, the Museum purchased a 12th-century, French chapter house that was originally part of the Benedictine Priory of St. John at Le Bas-Nueil near Poitiers. Installed in 1932 and linked to the Museum in 1933 via the grand Renaissance Court, the chapter house was the first medieval building ever transported from Europe to America. In 1933 alone, the Museum attracted 200,000 visitors.
Decorating the Renaissance Court floor is unequivocally one of Worcester's greatest ancient treasures – a group of Antioch mosaics
Antioch mosaics
The Antioch mosaics are a grouping of over 300 mosaic floors created around the 3rd century AD, and discovered during archaeological excavations of Antioch between 1932 and 1939 by a consortium of five museums and institutions...
dating from the first through the sixth century A.D. that was excavated at Antioch in Syria. The Worcester Art Museum supported the excavation between 1932 and 1939 in partnership with universities and other Museums.
The Museum building has expanded several times, in 1940, 1970 (Higgins Education Wing addition), and 1983 (Frances L. Hiatt Wing for special exhibitions; study and storage area for prints, drawings, and photographs; and an expanded conservation area). The Higgins Education Wing contains studios and classrooms, a professional printmaking studio, a computer studio, photography lab and an exhibition space for student works.
Collection
In addition to the Roman mosaic-laden Renaissance court and French chapter house, strengths of the permanent collection include collections of European and North American painting, prints, photographs, and drawings; Asian art; Greek and Roman sculpture and mosaics; and Contemporary art.European paintings include some fine Flemish Renaissance paintings, an El Greco, a Rembrandt, and a room of impressionist and 20thcentury works by the likes of Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, and Kandinsky. The American painting collection includes works by Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, William Morris Hunt, Elizabeth Goodridge, among others. In the 20th century gallery, the Museum displays works by Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Joan Mitchell. Notable works include:
- El Greco, The Repentant Magdalene, about 1577
- Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1908 and Waterloo Bridge, 1903
- Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, St. Bartholomew
- Paul Gauguin, The Brooding Woman, 1891
- Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom, about 1833
- Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of a Man in a Top Hat, 1882
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Coco Eating His Soup, 1905
- Paul Cézanne, Study for The Cardplayers, 1890–1892
- Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Fernande Olivier, 1906
In 1901, John Chandler Bancroft, a wealthy Bostonian, bequeathed more than 3,000 Japanese prints. The Bancroft collection spans the history of woodcut printmaking in Japan, with particular strength in rare, early images from the late 17th and 18th centuries. Salisbury's estate donation included many portraits commissioned by his family, as well as sculpture, furniture, and silver. These works, by artists such as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Crawford, and Samuel F.B. Morse and the craftsmen Paul Revere, Edward Winslow, and Nathanial Hurd, constituted the nucleus of the American collections.