Victorian Society Events

Written by hdc on Sep 6, 2007

METROPOLITAN CHAPTER of THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA

Please Join Us For These Fabulous Fall Programs!

Lecture Series

All lectures are at the Donnell Library Auditorium, 20 W. 53rd St., New York City
Admission is FREE; no reservations required!

Tuesday, September 11, 6 PM

Henry Ward Beecher, the Most Famous Man in America

Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a Metropolitan Chapter Book Award for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, a Brooklyn clergyman, won international notoriety for transforming American religion with his “Gospel of Love.” He was also a flamboyant abolitionist and a cultural gadfly who shaped public opinion on matters great and small. At the peak of his career in the 1870s, he became embroiled in a spectacular sex scandal when he was accused of seducing one of his own parishioners.

Tuesday, October 9, 6 PM

True to Nature: Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand in the 1840s

Dr. Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum and author of the catalog American Paintings in the Brooklyn Museum: Artists Born by 1876

The confluence of Cole and Durand as landscape painters occurred from 1840 to 1848. Critical responses to their works in the 1840s identified overriding preoccupations and expectations that shaped the reception of their work. Inspired by their Christian beliefs, each artist subordinated other concerns to the evocation of a perfect American landscape imbued by a sense of age and pastoral ease suggestive of an ideal place.

Tuesday, November 13, 6 PM

Asserting Yourself in Men’s Clothes: Cross-Dressing in the Comedies of Alice Guy Blaché, the First Woman Filmmaker

Dr. Alison McMahan, president of Homunculus Productions and author of Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Cinematic Visionary and The Films of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action in Hollywood

The 25-year career of Alice Guy Blaché as a film producer and director began in 1896 and resulted in hundreds of films, many of which were groundbreaking in technology and subject matter. Her comedies focused on active female heroes, marital equality and cross-dressing. Although cross-dressing was a common trope in films of the period, hers were unique in their message about what it means to be a woman in a male-dominated world.

Tuesday, December 11, 6 PM

Schools of Design for Women in Late Nineteenth-Century New York

Margaret K. Hofer, curator of decorative arts at The New-York Historical Society and
co-curator of the recent exhibit A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

Rapid expansion of such industries as textile manufacturing and stained glass in the 1880s and 1890s in New York City opened new opportunities for women as cultural barriers toppled and “industrial art” became an acceptable career for them. Educational opportunities followed. The New York School of Applied Design for Women, Institute for Artist-Artisans and Art Students League trained numerous women to establish successful careers in industrial design.

Tours: Save the Date!

Friday, October 5, 3 PM

Regimental Review
Private tour explores the Seventh Regiment Armory (1877-79) designed by Charles W. Clinton. Responsible for the décor of individual rooms were Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Herter Brothers, Pottier & Stymus, Louis Marcotte and Alexander Roux.

Saturday, October 20, 8 AM

Capitalists on the Connetquot
All-day bus tour on the South Shore of Long Island features the homes of William Bayard Cutting and William Kissam Vanderbilt on opposite sides of the Connetquot River. The Bayard Cutting Arboretum and artists’ colony in the former farm buildings of the Vanderbilt estate, Idlehour, will be explored on foot. Also to be seen are the South Side Sports Club, where both men were members, and Vanderbilt’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Islip (1879) designed by Richard Morris Hunt. The buffet luncheon will be in the Cutting mansion and the end-of-day catered reception at Idlehour.

Don’t Miss!

The groundbreaking exhibition A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement is on view at the Bard Graduate Center through October 14, 2007.

Below is a sampling of some of the exciting public programs accompanying the exhibition. For more information or to register call (212) 501-3011 or e-mail [email protected]

WALKING TOUR
Reviving the Gothic in Brooklyn Heights
Date/Time: Saturday, September 15, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

On this walking tour, noted architectural historian Andrew Scott Dolkart will explore the architecture and development of this diverse neighborhood, with special emphasis on the area’s Gothic Revival row houses, mansions, and churches, including Grace Episcopal, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Episcopal, and First Unitarian (Church of the Saviour). The tour will highlight major works by architects Richard Upjohn, Minard Lafever, and James Renwick.

PANEL DISCUSSION
Beauty, But Also Function: Perspectives on Collecting and Living with the Aesthetic Movement
Date/Time: Monday, September 17, 6:00–8:00 p.m. (presentations and discussion)

In this illustrated discussion, Max Donnelly, Martin Levy, Robert Tuggle, and Deedee Wigmore share their perspectives on collecting Aesthetic Movement objects, addressing two parallel themes: how did these objects function (and “read”) in 19th-century rooms and buildings, and how do they do so today? The panel discussion will be moderated by Peter Trippi.

LECTURE
A Capricious Originality of Design: Japanese Sources for Aesthetic Ornament
Date/Time: Thursday, September 20, 6:00–8:00 p.m. (Lecture, exhibition viewing, and reception)

In this lecture, curator Barbara Brennan Ford will draw upon the renowned collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—whose evolution from the 1870s until World War I coincided with Japan’s emergence as a modern nation—to explore early collections and exhibitions of Japanese art as sources for American applied arts and interior decoration in the Aesthetic mode.

COLLECTION VISIT
The Mayer-Loeb House
Date/Time: Monday, September 24, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

The Mayer-Loeb house, a seven-floor brownstone townhouse, is a landmark of New York City’s historic Upper East Side. Over the last ten years, the current owners, Margie and Michael Loeb, have carefully adapted it for contemporary family use, while preserving and recreating the 1880s Aesthetic interiors. The house boasts sensitively preserved floral relief-carved mantels and door casings, original tile floors, dozens of period gas light fixtures, antique carpets, and major collections of Herter Brothers furniture and English Aesthetic ceramics. On this private tour, historian Mimi Findlay and restoration architect David Scott Parker will discuss the research, sources, and evidence they discovered during this extensive restoration.

LECTURE
The Rage for Art Brass: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement
Date/Time: Thursday, September 27, 6:00–8:00 p.m. (lecture, exhibition viewing, and reception)

In this lecture, curator Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio will explore visually and materially complex objects—tables, accent chairs, mirrors, sconces, candelabra, other lighting, and fireplace implements—and will discuss their design antecedents and major manufacturers. She will also hi
ghlight how innovative brass and mixed-metal furniture and accessories became ubiquitous in well-appointed homes in the 1880s, as a response to consumer demand for two-dimensional surface ornamentation, artful craftsmanship, and decoration derived from nature.

LECTURE
Dress and the Aesthetic Movement
Date/Time: Thursday, October 4, 6:00–8:00 p.m. (lecture, exhibition viewing and reception)

In this lecture, dress historian Kristina Haugland will review the cultural context of mainstream Victorian fashion and examine alternative Aesthetic ideals of beauty, which were reflected in dress that featured flowing, “classical” or “medieval” lines for women, knee breeches for men, nondescript “greenery-yallery” colors, and exotic imported Eastern fabrics. Much discussed and lampooned in cartoons and on stage, Aesthetic dress was worn primarily by the consciously artistic, yet paved the way for looser fashionable styles in the early 20th century.

LECTURE
Sparkle, Flicker, and Glow: Light in the Aesthetic Interior
Date/Time: Thursday, October 11, 6:00–8:00 p.m. (lecture, exhibition viewing, and reception)

In this lecture, historian (and Metro VSA board member) Karen Zukowski will revive the magical experience of Aesthetic Movement lighting and its capacity to articulate decorative elements and amplify a sense of mystery within the domestic interior.

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