1.
National Register of Historic Places
–
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
National Register of Historic Places
–
Logo used for the NRHP.
National Register of Historic Places
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Old Slater Mill, a historic district in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the first property listed in the National Register on November 13, 1966.
National Register of Historic Places
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The
Loren Andrus Octagon House in
Washington, Michigan has been on the NRHP since September 3, 1971.
National Register of Historic Places
–
Built in 1800 by
Samuel McIntire in
Salem, the
Stephen Phillips House is operated as a
historic house museum by
Historic New England and open for public tours.
2.
National Historic Landmark
–
A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
National Historic Landmark
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USS Constitution
National Historic Landmark
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Frank Lloyd Wright 's
Taliesin is a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
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The
American Legation in Tangiers, Morocco, was the first National Historic Landmark on foreign soil.
National Historic Landmark
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Navajo Nation Council Chamber, the seat of government for the
Navajo Nation,
Window Rock, Arizona.
3.
Washington, D.C.
–
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
Washington, D.C.
–
Clockwise from top left:
Smithsonian Institution Building,
Rock Creek Park,
National Mall (including the
Lincoln Memorial in the foreground),
Howard Theatre and the
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Washington, D.C.
–
Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the
retrocession
Washington, D.C.
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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865
assassination of
President Lincoln
Washington, D.C.
–
Crowds surrounding the
Reflecting Pool during the 1963
March on Washington
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
6.
Visual arts of the United States
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Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by American artists. Early colonial art on the East Coast initially relied on artists from Europe, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, artists primarily painted portraits, and some landscapes in a style based mainly on English painting. American artists who remained at home became increasingly skilled, although there was awareness of them in Europe. The American Revolution produced a demand for art, especially history painting. A parallel development taking shape in rural America was the American craft movement, which began as a reaction to the industrial revolution. After 1850 Academic art in the European style flourished, and as richer Americans became very wealthy, the flow of European art, new and old, to the US began, museums began to be opened to display much of this. Developments in modern art in Europe came to America from exhibitions in New York City such as the Armory Show in 1913, after World War II, New York replaced Paris as the center of the art world. Since then many American movements have shaped Modern and Postmodern art, Art in the United States today covers a huge range of styles. One of the first painters to visit British America was John White, eventually the English settlements grew large enough to support professional artists, mostly portrait-painters, often largely self-taught. Among the earliest was John Smybert, a trained artist from London who emigrated in 1728 intending to be a professor of fine art and his friend Peter Pelham was a painter and printmaker. Both needed other sources of income and had shops, most of early American art consists of history painting and especially portraits. As in Colonial America, many of the painters who specialized in portraits were essentially self-taught, notable among them are Joseph Badger, John Brewster, Jr. and William Jennys. The young nations artists generally emulated the style of British art, which they knew through prints, Robert Feke, an untrained painter of the colonial period, achieved a sophisticated style based on Smiberts example. Charles Willson Peale, who gained much of his earliest art training by studying Smiberts copies of European paintings, Peales younger brother James Peale and four of Peales sons—Raphaelle Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Rubens Peale and Titian Peale—were also artists. John Singleton Copley painted emblematic portraits for the prosperous merchant class. Benjamin West painted portraits as well as paintings of the French. John Trumbull painted large battle scenes of the Revolutionary War, when landscape was painted it was most often done to show how much property a subject owned, or as a picturesque background for a portrait. Americas first well-known school of painting—the Hudson River School—appeared in 1820, Thomas Cole pioneered the movement which included Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Doughty and several others
Visual arts of the United States
–
John White,
Roanoke Indians, 1585, watercolor,
British Museum
Visual arts of the United States
–
Gilbert Stuart,
George Washington, also known as The Athenaeum and The Unfinished Portrait, 1796,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is his most celebrated and famous work.
Visual arts of the United States
–
John Singleton Copley,
Watson and the Shark, (original version), 1778
7.
National Gallery of Art
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The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D. C. located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated an art collection and funds for construction. The Gallery often presents temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art and it is one of the largest museums in North America. In 1930 Mellon formed the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, when quizzed by Abbot, he explained that the project was in the hands of the Trust and that its decisions were partly dependent on the attitude of the Government towards the gift. Designed by architect John Russell Pope, the new structure was completed and accepted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the American people on March 17,1941. Neither Mellon nor Pope lived to see the completed, both died in late August 1937, only two months after excavation had begun. At the time of its inception it was the largest marble structure in the world, as anticipated by Mellon, the creation of the National Gallery encouraged the donation of other substantial art collections by a number of private donors. The Gallerys East Building was constructed in the 1970s on much of the land left over from the original congressional joint resolution. It was funded by Mellons children Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce, designed by famed architect I. M. Pei, the contemporary structure was completed in 1978 and was opened on June 1 of that year by President Jimmy Carter. The new building was built to house the Museums collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures. The design received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1981, the final addition to the complex is the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Completed and opened to the public on May 23,1999, the National Gallery of Art is supported through a private-public partnership. The United States federal government provides funds, through annual appropriations, to support the museums operations, all artwork, as well as special programs, are provided through private donations and funds. The museum is not part of the Smithsonian Institution, noted directors of the National Gallery have included David E. Finley, Jr. John Walker, and J. Carter Brown. Rusty Powell III is the current director, entry to both buildings of the National Gallery of Art is free of charge. From Monday through Saturday, the museum is open from 10 a. m. –5 p. m. it is open from 11 –6 p. m. on Sundays and it is closed on December 25 and January 1. The museum comprises two buildings, the West Building and the East Building linked by an underground passage
National Gallery of Art
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National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
–
The East Building
National Gallery of Art
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Exhibitions in the West Building
National Gallery of Art
–
Exhibitions in the East Building
8.
George Washington University
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The George Washington University is a private research university in Washington, D. C. GW is the largest institution of education in Washington, D. C. In his will, Washington left his 50 shares in the Potomac Company to help endow the university, however, due to the companys financial difficulties, the funding did not materialize. The university was chartered by an act of Congress on February 9,1821 and its name was changed to Columbian University in 1873 and to the George Washington University in 1904, in honor of Washington. GWs Graduate School of Political Management is the school of applied politics in the nations capital. GWs professional schools and the Elliott School of International Affairs are consistently ranked highly in national and international college rankings lists, the Princeton Review consistently ranks GW as one of the Most Politically Active schools. Some of the graduates have gone on to high positions within both the U. S. government and foreign governments. Notable alumni include former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and he presented numerous letters to Congress and included the subject in his last will and testament. Baptist missionary and leading minister Luther Rice raised funds to purchase a site in Washington, the first commencement in 1824 was considered an important event for the young city of Washington, D. C. In attendance were President Monroe, John C, Calhoun, Henry Clay, Marquis de Lafayette and other dignitaries. During the Civil War, most students left to join the Confederacy, walt Whitman was among many of the volunteers to work on the campus. Following the war, in 1873, Columbian College became the Columbian University and moved to a downtown location centered on 15th and H streets. The university moved its operations to the D. C. neighborhood of Foggy Bottom in 1912. The George Washington University, like much of Washington, D. C. traces many of its origins back to the Freemasons, the Bible that the presidents of the university use to swear an oath on upon inauguration is the Bible of Freemason George Washington. Freemasonry symbols are displayed throughout the campus including the foundation stones of many of the university buildings. Many of the Colleges of the George Washington University stand out for their age, the Law School is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. The School of Medicine and Health Sciences is the 11th oldest medical school in the nation, the Columbian College was founded in 1821, and is the oldest unit of the university. The Elliott School of International Affairs was formalized in 1898, the majority of the present infrastructure and financial stability at GW is due to the tenures of Presidents Cloyd Heck Marvin, Lloyd Hartman Elliott and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
George Washington University
–
George Washington, the university's namesake
George Washington University
–
The George Washington University
George Washington University
–
The historic
1925 F Street Club currently serves as the President's Residence.
International Monetary Fund buildings are seen behind it.
George Washington University
–
The Midcampus Walk, through Professor's Gate, leading to Monroe Court and Kogan Plaza
9.
William Wilson Corcoran
–
William Wilson Corcoran was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He started the Corcoran Gallery of Art and his father was born in Ireland, settled in Georgetown in 1788, and established a leather business. Instead of finishing his education, he joined the family business, Corcoran joined the Potomac Lodge No.5 of Free and Accepted Masons in Georgetown and was raised as a Master Mason on July 26,1827. In 1835, Corcoran eloped and married Louise Morris, who was the daughter of Commodore Charles Morris and his wife died in 1840, but not before they had three children — Harriet Louise, Louise Morris, and Charles Morris. The middle child, Louise Morris, was the one to survive into adulthood, she later married George Eustis. After his wife died in 1841, Corcoran chose not to marry again. He died on February 24,1888 in Washington, DC. Corcoran entered business at the age of 17, Corcoran brothers established a wholesale auction and commission business, but their ventures failed after the Panic of 1819. He worked in family business, and in 1828, he took control of large amount of real estate from his father. Corcoran was employed as a clerk at the Bank of Columbia at Georgetown branch, in 1837, Corcoran established a brokerage firm on Pennsylvania Avenue at 15th Street. He was successful and in 1840 entered into a partnership with George Washington Riggs, the Corcoran and Riggs private banking firm enjoyed the patronage of Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury and prospered after it re-sold to investors $5 million of U. S. Treasury notes in 1843. In 1845, it purchased the former Second Bank of the United States building located on 15th Street at New York Avenue. In Spring 1847, the Corcoran and Riggs sold to investors at home, in 1854, Corcoran retired from Corcoran and Riggs to focus on his investments in real estate, land grants, armaments, railroads, as well as pursue pleasure and philanthropic endeavors. In 1854, Corcoran was able to retire with a fortune and devote himself to art. In 1848, Corcoran had purchased 15 acres of land for Oak Hill Cemetery and he organized the Oak Hill Cemetery Company to oversee the cemetery, which was formally incorporated by Act of Congress on March 3,1849. Corcoran paid for the construction of a Gothic Revival chapel in Oak Hill Cemetery, Corcoran also established a $10,000 fund, administered by the Benevolent Society, to purchase firewood for the poor in Georgetown. Corcoran also contributed to a fund to purchase George Washingtons Mount Vernon estate, after his family could no longer keep it up, one of William Wilson Corcorans longtime business associate and friend was the renowned George Peabody. In contrast to contemporary art patrons, Corcoran was not exclusively interested in European works. Before it was ready, however, the Civil War began, and Corcoran, a Southern sympathizer, left Washington for Paris, architect James Renwick was commissioned in 1859 to a museum building to house William Wilson Corcoran’s growing art collection
William Wilson Corcoran
–
William Wilson Corcoran
William Wilson Corcoran
–
Portrait by
William Oliver Stone
10.
Riggs Bank
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Riggs Bank was a Washington, D. C. -based commercial bank with branches located in the surrounding metropolitan area and offices around the world. For most of its history, it was the largest bank in the U. S. capital, Riggs had been controlled by the Allbritton family since the 1980s, but they lost control after corporate scandals and management problems. On May 16,2005, the merged with PNC Financial Services. The earliest incarnation of Riggs Bank was formed in 1836 when William Wilson Corcoran opened a brokerage house. In 1840, Corcoran and George Washington Riggs, the son of a neighbor, formed Corcoran & Riggs, the bank got a major boost in 1844, when the U. S. government assigned Corcoran & Riggs to be the only federal depository in Washington. Corcoran & Riggs financed Samuel Morses invention of the telegraph in 1845, the bank also lent $16 million to the U. S. government to pay for the Mexican-American War in 1847 and in 1868, provided $7.2 million in gold towards the purchase of Alaska. Other notable financing included the Robert Peary’s first expedition to the North Pole, in 1854 Corcoran retired and George Washington Riggs re-assumed leadership, resulting in the bank changing its name to Riggs & Co. After accepting a government charter, Riggs National Bank was born in 1896, by 1900, Riggs was twice as large as any other bank in the capital. In 1909, Riggs president formally presented to the U. S. Congress a plan for economic relief, many financial reforms were implemented as a result of this plan, including the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Throughout the early 20th century, the continued to flourish. During World War I, Riggs National Bank participated in a Liberty bond drive, after the war in the 1920s, the bank established a new savings deposit system as a result of the large deposit boom during the previous decade. Throughout the Great Depression, Riggs Director, Robert V. Fleming, while all of these things were occurring, the bank was also strategically expanding its clientele by opening branches in different areas of Washington, D. C. Beginning in the early 20th century, the bank embarked on a project to become known as the bank of embassies and diplomats. Many branches thereafter opened within embassies in Washington D. C. through its history Riggs Bank served many notable personalities. Twenty-three U. S. Presidents or their families banked at Riggs, including Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon. Accounts were also held by Senators Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, anthony, and generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Douglas MacArthur. The bank traded on its history with a campaign that proclaimed Riggs as The Most Important Bank in The Most Important City in The World. A Saudi named Omar al-Bayoumi housed and opened bank accounts for two of the 9/11 hijackers, upon discovery of these transactions, the FBI began investigating the bank for possible money-laundering and terrorist financing
Riggs Bank
–
Former
Riggs National Bank headquarters, located on
Pennsylvania Avenue in
Washington, D.C. The rightmost section is the
American Security and Trust Company Building.
Riggs Bank
–
Riggs National Corporation
Riggs Bank
–
Former Riggs Bank building, now the
Courtyard by Marriott Washington Convention Center Hotel
11.
Fine art
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Historically, the five main fine arts were painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry, with performing arts including theatre and dance. Today, the fine arts commonly include additional forms, such as film, photography, video production/editing, design, sequential art, conceptual art, and printmaking. However, in some institutes of learning or in museums, fine art, in that sense, there are conceptual differences between the fine arts and the applied arts. The word fine does not so much denote the quality of the artwork in question and this definition originally excluded the applied or decorative arts, and the products of what were regarded as crafts. According to some writers the concept of a category of fine art is an invention of the early modern period in the West. Larry Shiner in his The Invention of Art, A Cultural History locates the invention in the 18th century, There was a traditional “system of the arts” in the West before the eighteenth century. ”Similar ideas have been expressed by Paul Oskar Kristeller, Pierre Bourdieu, and Terry Eagleton, though the point of invention is often placed earlier, in the Italian Renaissance. The separation of arts and crafts that often exists in Europe, in Japanese aesthetics the activities of everyday life are depicted by integrating not only art with craft but man-made with nature. Traditional Chinese art distinguished within Chinese painting between the mostly landscape painting of scholar gentlemen and the artisans of the schools of court painting. A high status was given to many things that would be seen as craft objects in the West, in particular ceramics, jade carving, weaving. Drawing is a form of expression and is one of the major forms of the visual arts. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, There are a number of subcategories of drawing, including cartooning. Mosaics are images formed with pieces of stone or glass. They can be decorative or functional, an artist who designs and makes mosaics is called a mosaic artist or a mosaicist. Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper, except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print is considered an original, as opposed to a copy, the reasoning behind this is that the print is not a reproduction of another work of art in a different medium — for instance, a painting — but rather an image designed from inception as a print. An individual print is also referred to as an impression, prints are created from a single original surface, known technically as a matrix. But there are other kinds, discussed below. Multiple nearly identical prints can be called an edition, in modern times each print is often signed and numbered forming a limited edition
Fine art
–
Self-Portrait with Two Circles, oil on canvas,
Rembrandt, c. 1665–1669.
Fine art
–
Black Square, oil on canvas,
Kazimir Malevich, 1923–29
Fine art
–
History of art
Fine art
–
Mosaic of
Christ Pantocrator from
Hagia Sophia
12.
Financial endowment
–
A financial endowment is a donation of money or property to a nonprofit organization for the ongoing support of that organization. An endowment may come with stipulations regarding its usage, the total value of an institutions investments is often referred to as the institutions endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust. Among the institutions that commonly manage endowments are academic institutions, cultural institutions, service organizations, the earliest endowed chairs were those established by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in AD176. Aurelius created one endowed chair for each of the schools of philosophy, Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism. Later, similar endowments were set up in other major cities of the Empire. Today, the University of Glasgow has fifteen Regius Professorships, private individuals soon adopted the practice of endowing professorships. Isaac Newton held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge beginning in 1669, unrestricted endowment can be used in any way the recipient chooses to carry out its mission. Term endowment funds stipulate that all or part of the principal may be expended only after the expiration of a period of time or occurrence of a specified event. Quasi endowment funds must retain the purpose and intent as specified by the donor or source of the original funds, Endowment revenue can be restricted by donors to serve many purposes. Endowed professorships or scholarships restricted to a subject are common. Ignoring the restriction is called invading the endowment, but change of circumstance or financial duress like bankruptcy can preclude carrying out the donors intent. A court can alter the use of restricted endowment under a doctrine called cy-près meaning to find an alternative as near as possible to the donors intent, the restricted/unrestricted distinction focuses on the use of the funds, see quasi-endowment below for a distinction about whether principal can be spent. Academic institutions, such as colleges and universities, will control a endowment fund that finances a portion of the operating or capital requirements of the institution. In addition to an endowment fund, each university may also control a number of restricted endowments that are intended to fund specific areas within the institution. The most common examples are endowed professorships, and endowed scholarships or fellowships, in the United States, the endowment is often integral to the financial health of educational institutions. Alumni or friends of institutions sometimes contribute capital to the endowment, the endowment funding culture is strong in the United States and Canada but less pronounced overseas, with the exceptions of Cambridge and Oxford universities. Endowment funds have also created to support secondary and elementary school districts in several states in the United States. An endowed professorship is a position permanently paid for with the revenue from an endowment fund set up for that purpose
Financial endowment
–
Basic investment types
13.
Art museum
–
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
Art museum
–
The Louvre in
Paris,
France, is one of the world's largest museums and
the most visited art museum in the world.
Art museum
–
The Gallery of
Cornelis van der Geest,
Willem van Haecht, 1628. A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.
Art museum
–
University of Tartu Art Museum is the oldest museum in
Estonia.
Art museum
–
The art collection at the
Palace of Versailles in
France was periodically open for 'respectable' public viewing.
14.
District of Columbia
–
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
District of Columbia
–
Clockwise from top left:
Smithsonian Institution Building,
Rock Creek Park,
National Mall (including the
Lincoln Memorial in the foreground),
Howard Theatre and the
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
District of Columbia
–
Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the
retrocession
District of Columbia
–
Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865
assassination of
President Lincoln
District of Columbia
–
Crowds surrounding the
Reflecting Pool during the 1963
March on Washington
15.
Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
–
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D. C. that connects the White House and the United States Capitol. Called Americas Main Street, it is the location of official parades and processions, moreover, Pennsylvania Avenue is an important commuter route and is part of the National Highway System. The avenue runs for a total of 5.8 miles inside Washington and it continues within the city for 3.5 miles, from the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds through the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and over the Anacostia River on the John Philip Sousa Bridge. At this point, as a highway, it becomes Southern Maryland Boulevard. At one point in the century, Pennsylvania Avenue was designated DC4. Northwest of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue runs for 1.4 miles to its end at M Street NW in Georgetown, from 1862 to 1962, streetcars ran the length of the avenue from Georgetown to the Anacostia River. Although Pennsylvania Avenue extends six miles within Washington, D. C. the expanse between the White House and the Capitol constitutes the heart of the nation. Washington called this stretch most magnificent & most convenient, and it has served the country well, laid out by Pierre Charles LEnfant, Pennsylvania Avenue was one of the earliest streets constructed in the Federal City. The first reference to the street as Pennsylvania Avenue comes in a 1791 letter from Thomas Jefferson, one theory is that the street was named for Pennsylvania as consolation for moving the capital from Philadelphia. Both Jefferson and George Washington considered the avenue an important feature of the new capital, after inspecting LEnfants plan, President Washington referred to the thoroughfare as a Grand Avenue. Jefferson concurred, and while the avenue was little more than a wide dirt road ridiculed as The Great Serbonian Bog. At one time Pennsylvania Avenue provided an unobstructed view between the White House and the Capitol, the construction of an expansion to the Treasury Building blocked this view, and supposedly President Andrew Jackson did this on purpose. In November 2012, as part of preparations for the inauguration of Barack Obama. On September 30,1965, portions of the avenue and surrounding area were designated the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, the National Park Service administers this area which includes the United States Navy Memorial, Old Post Office Tower, and Pershing Park. Congress created the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation on October 27,1972 to rehabilitate the street between the Capitol and the White House, an area seen as blighted. In 2010, the District of Columbia designated Pennsylvania Avenue from the terminus of John Philip Sousa Bridge to the Maryland state line to be a D. C. The city spent $430 million to beautify the street and improve the roadway, ever since an impromptu procession formed around Jeffersons second inauguration, every United States president except Ronald Reagan has paraded down the Avenue after taking the oath of office. From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford, the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office, franklin Roosevelt was the only president who died in office whose cortege did not follow this route
Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
–
Looking southeast down Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW towards the
United States Capitol seen here from the
Old Post Office Pavilion.
Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
–
Pennsylvania Avenue NW street sign near
The White House
Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
–
A 1942 photo of a DC 4 shield.
Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
–
Drawing of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capitol before it was burned down in 1814
16.
Renwick Gallery
–
The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D. C. and focuses on American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to the 21st century. It is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that was begun in 1859 on Pennsylvania Avenue, when it was built in 1859, it was known as the American Louvre. The Renwick Gallery building was built to be Washington, D. C. s first art museum. The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and finally completed in 1874 and it is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after the Louvres Tuileries addition, at the time of its construction, it was known as the American Louvre. Meigs converted the building into his headquarters office, on May 10,1869, the building was returned to Corcoran, and, on January 19,1874, the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened to the public. The gallery quickly outgrew the space and relocated to a new building nearby in 1897, starting in 1899, the building housed the federal Court of Claims. By the 1950s, in need of space, the Court of Claims proposed to demolish the building, however. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of the Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley, in 1965, President Johnson signed an executive order transferring the Renwick building to the Smithsonian Institution for use as a gallery of arts, craft and design. After a renovation, it opened in 1972 as the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft program, the Renwick Gallery is now a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, housing the museums collection of decorative art and crafts. Renwick Gallery closed December 9,2013, in order to permit a major renovation of the historic structure, the building was slightly damaged during the 2011 Washington D. C. earthquake, and the construction process required reworking of the original infrastructure. The museum reopened on November 13,2015 with an exhibition entitled Wonder featuring site-specific instillation by nine artists, fundraising for the renovation began in 2013, and was completed in June 2014 when local real estate developer David Rubenstein donated $5.4 million toward the project. Smithsonian officials renamed the gallerys Grand Salon in Rubensteins honor, the Renwicks Grand Salon was also renovated to create a more contemporary event space. Applied Minds was chosen to create concepts for the Grand Salon. The Renwick Gallery opened its doors after renovation on Friday, November 13,2015, the gallery is open daily from 10,00 a. m. to 5,30 p. m. The gallerys visitors have almost doubled due to the popularity of the Wonder exhibition, the first-floor gallery typically featured temporary exhibits that rotated about twice a year. One commentator said, the crafts displayed are high art, not everyday objects, historically, the second floor Grand Salon has been one of the most famous art-filled rooms in Washington. Since November 2015, the paintings are no longer on display, and the curtains, red carpeting
Renwick Gallery
–
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Renwick Gallery
–
Image of the Corcoran Gallery from ca. 1884-88 showing the lost sculpture niches and historic first floor windows.
Renwick Gallery
–
Renwick Gallery
17.
American Civil War
–
The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
American Civil War
–
New Orleans the largest cotton exporting port for New England and Great Britain textile mills, shipping Mississippi River Valley goods from North, South and Border states.
American Civil War
–
Clockwise from top:
Battle of Gettysburg,
Union Captain John Tidball's artillery,
Confederate prisoners,
ironclad USS Atlanta, ruins of
Richmond, Virginia,
Battle of Franklin
American Civil War
–
Sen. Stephen Douglas, author of the
Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854
American Civil War
–
Sen. John J. Crittenden, of the 1860
Crittenden Compromise
18.
Ernest Flagg
–
Ernest Flagg was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for reform and architectures social responsibility. Flagg was born in Brooklyn, New York and his father Jared Bradley Flagg was an Episcopal priest and a notable painter. Ernest left school at 15 to work as a boy on Wall Street. In 1891, Flagg began his practice in New York, greatly influenced by his knowledge of the French ideas of architectural design. During this time he joined with John Prentiss Benson to create Flagg & Benson, fB&B designed St. Lukes Hospital in New York City. In 1894, he established the firm of Flagg & Chambers with Walter B. Chambers, whom he met in Paris, usually, Flagg alone credited for some of the work he and Chambers worked on together, such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Louisa Flagg Scribner, Flaggs sister, was the wife of Charles Scribner II, through this familial connection, Flagg designed six structures located in Manhattan for the publishing family. His contributions to zoning and height regulations were essential to New Yorks first laws governing this aspect of the citys architecture, Flagg argued in favor of zoning laws which would regulate the height and setback of buildings, to allow light and air to reach the streets below them. He was a president of the New York Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, a small collection of Flaggs personal and professional papers is held in the Department of Drawings & Archives at Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. Ernest Flagg married Margaret E. Bonnell on June 27,1899 in New York City and they had one daughter, Betsey Flagg, who married John Melcher and become a well-respected small-scale portrait painter. In 1912, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Flagg were on their way to a party held by Stowe Phelps, a fellow architect, the couple drove the boy to the hospital but he died en route. Gov. Samuel J. Tilden Monument, New Lebanon, New York, 1895–1896 St. Nicholas Skating Rink,69 West 66th Street, New York –1896 St. Lukes Hospital,1, New York City,1896 Mills House No. 2, New York City,1897 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.1897 Indian Neck Hall, estate of Frederick Gilbert Bourne, Oakdale, No.1900 Charlesbank Apartments, Boston, Massachusetts, c. Ernest Flagg at NYC Architecture Ernest Flagg at MIT Press Ernest Flagg information at Structurae Buildings by Ernest Flagg at the Library of Congresss Historic American Buildings Survey database
Ernest Flagg
–
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg
–
Sheldon Library, 1901
Ernest Flagg
–
Lawrence Library, 1901
Ernest Flagg
–
The
Singer Building, once the tallest building in the world
19.
Beaux-Arts architecture
–
Beaux-Arts architecture expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style of instruction that produced Beaux-Arts architecture continued without interruption until 1968. The Beaux-Arts style heavily influenced the architecture of the United States in the period from 1880 to 1920, in contrast, many European architects of the period 1860–1914 outside France gravitated away from Beaux-Arts and towards their own national academic centers. American architects of the Beaux-Arts generation often returned to Greek models, for the first time, repertories of photographs supplemented meticulous scale drawings and on-site renderings of details. Beaux-Arts training emphasized the production of quick conceptual sketches, highly finished perspective presentation drawings, close attention to the program, site considerations tended toward social and urbane contexts. In the façade shown to the right, Diana grasps the cornice she sits on in an action typical of Beaux-Arts integration of sculpture with architecture. A sense of appropriate idiom at the craftsman level supported the teams of the first truly modern architectural offices. The prestige of the École gave the style Beaux-Arts a second wind in combining the new manner with the traditional training and they were followed by an entire generation. Henry Hobson Richardson absorbed Beaux-Arts lessons in massing and spatial planning and his Beaux-Arts training taught him to transcend slavish copying and recreate in the essential fully digested and idiomatic manner of his models. Richardson evolved a personal style freed of historicism that was influential in early Modernism. The White City of the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago was a triumph of the movement, the Beaux-Arts curriculum was subsequently begun at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. From 1916, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City schooled architects, painters, bosworth, Carnegie Mellon University, designed by Henry Hornbostel, and the University of Texas, designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Beaux-Arts architecture also brought a civic face to the railroad, two of the best American examples of the Beaux-Arts tradition stand within a few blocks of each other, Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library. Another prominent U. S. example of the style is the largest academic dormitory in the world, in the late 1800s, during the years when Beaux-Arts architecture was at a peak in France, Americans were one of the largest groups of foreigners in Paris. Many of them were architects and students of architecture who brought this back to America. Beaux-Arts was very prominent in public buildings in Canada in the early 20th century, notably all three prairie provinces legislative buildings are in this style. Buenos Aires is a center of Beaux-Arts architecture which continued to be built as late as the 1950s, national Theatre, Melbourne General Post Office building, Forrest Place, Perth Argus Building. Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York, A Photographic Guide United States, sixteenth Street Architecture – profiles of Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington D. C
Beaux-Arts architecture
–
The
Palais Garnier (1861-75), an example of
Second Empire Beaux Arts style, typically employing
Neo-Baroque decorative elements
Beaux-Arts architecture
–
Farmer Palace in
Kazan,
Russia
Beaux-Arts architecture
–
The
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House of 1932, among the last major American buildings constructed in the Beaux-Arts style
Beaux-Arts architecture
–
Beaux-Arts building decoration presenting images of the Roman
goddesses Pomona and
Diana. Note the naturalism of the postures and the
channeled rustication of the stonework.
20.
William A. Clark
–
William Andrews Clark, Sr. was an American politician and entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads. Clark was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania and he moved with his family to Iowa in 1856 where he taught school and studied law at Iowa Wesleyan College. In 1862, he traveled west to become a miner, after working in quartz mines in Colorado, during 1863 Clark made his way to new gold fields to find his fortune in the Montana gold rush. He settled in the capital of Montana Territory, Bannack, Montana and he soon changed careers again and became a banker in Deer Lodge, Montana. He repossessed mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans, placing him in the mining industry, between 1884 and 1888, Clark constructed a 34-room, Tiffany-decorated home on West Granite Street, incorporating the most modern inventions available, in Butte, Montana. This home is now the Copper King Mansion bed-and-breakfast, as well as a museum, in 1899, Clark built Columbia Gardens for the children of Butte. It included flower gardens, a pavilion, amusement park, lake. He died on March 2,1925, and is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, Clark served as president of both Montana state constitutional conventions in 1884 and 1889. Clark yearned to be a statesman and used his newspaper, the Butte Miner, at this time, Butte was one of the largest cities in the West. He became a hero in Helena, Montana, by campaigning for its selection as the capital instead of Anaconda. This battle for the placement of the capital had subtle Irish vs. English, Catholic vs. Protestant, and Masonic vs. non-Masonic elements. Clarks long-standing dream of becoming a United States Senator resulted in scandal in 1899 when it was revealed that he bribed members of the Montana State Legislature in return for their votes, senators were chosen by their respective state legislators. The corruption of his contributed to the passage of the 17th Amendment. The U. S. Senate refused to seat Clark because of the 1899 bribery scheme, but a later campaign was successful. In responding to criticism of his bribery of the Montana legislature, Clark is reported to have said, Clark died at the age of 86 in his mansion at 962 Fifth Avenue in New York City, one of the 50 richest Americans ever. To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweeds time, mark Twains comments must be taken in context. He was a friend of Henry H. Rogers, one of the organizers of the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. Twain is not an unbiased observer and his first wife was Katherine Louise Kate Stauffer
William A. Clark
–
William A. Clark
William A. Clark
–
Clark buying newspaper, circa 1906
William A. Clark
–
Political cartoon depicting William A. Clark bribing state legislators.
William A. Clark
–
Clark with his daughter, Huguette, donating 135 acres to the Girl Scouts after his daughter's (Andrée) death. It was named Camp Andree Clark, November 26, 1920
21.
Frank O. Gehry
–
Frank Owen Gehry, CC is a Canadian-born American architect, residing in Los Angeles. A number of his buildings, including his private residence, have become world-renowned attractions and it was his private residence in Santa Monica, California, that jump-started his career. Gehry is also the designer of the future National Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg on February 28,1929, in Toronto, Ontario, to parents Sadie Thelma and Irving Goldberg. His father was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish parents, a creative child, he was encouraged by his grandmother, with whom he would build little cities out of scraps of wood. With these scraps from her husbands store, she entertained him for hours, building imaginary houses. His use of corrugated steel, chain link fencing, unpainted plywood and he would spend time drawing with his father, while his mother introduced him to the world of art. So the creative genes were there, Gehry says, but my father thought I was a dreamer, I wasnt gonna amount to anything. It was my mother who thought I was just reticent to do things and he was given the Hebrew name Ephraim by his grandfather, but only used it at his bar mitzvah. In 1947, his family immigrated to the United States settling in California, Gehry got a job driving a delivery truck, and studied at Los Angeles City College, eventually to graduate from the University of Southern Californias School of Architecture. During that time, he became a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, according to Gehry, I was a truck driver in L. A. going to City College, and I tried radio announcing, which I wasnt very good at. I tried chemical engineering, which I wasnt very good at and didnt like and you know, somehow I just started wracking my brain about, What do I like. And I remembered art, that I loved going to museums and I loved looking at paintings and those things came from my mother, who took me to concerts and museums. I remembered Grandma and the blocks, and just on a hunch, Gehry graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from USC in 1954. After graduating from college, he spent time away from the field of architecture in other jobs. In the fall of 1956, he moved his family to Cambridge and he left before completing the program, disheartened and underwhelmed. Gehry returned to Los Angeles to work for Victor Gruen Associates, in 1957 he was given the chance to design and construct his first private residence at the age of 28, with friend and old classmate Greg Walsh. Built in Idyllwild, California for his wife Anita’s family neighbor Melvin David, The David Cabin, completed in 1958, beams protrude from the exterior sides and exposed, unfinished ceiling beams are prominent features. In 1961, he moved to Paris where he worked for architects Pereira, in 1962, Gehry established a practice in Los Angeles which became Frank Gehry and Associates in 1967 and then Gehry Partners in 2001
Frank O. Gehry
–
Frank Gehry in 2007
Frank O. Gehry
–
External video
Frank O. Gehry
–
Gehry Residence in
Santa Monica,
California
Frank O. Gehry
–
Chiat/Day Building in
Venice, California
22.
Rembrandt Peale
–
Rembrandt Peale was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington. Peales style was influenced by French Neoclassicism after a stay in Paris in his early thirties, Rembrandt Peale was born the third of six surviving children to his mother, Rachel Brewer, and father, Charles Willson Peale in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on February 22,1778. The father, Charles, also a notable artist, named him after the noted 17th-century Dutch painter and engraver Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. His father also taught all of his children, including Raphaelle Peale, Rubens Peale and Titian Peale, to paint scenery and portraiture, Rembrandt began drawing at the age of 8. A year after his mother’s death and the remarriage of his father, Peale left the school of the arts, the canvas displays the young artists early mastery. The clothes, however, give the notion that Peale exaggerated what a 13-year-old would look like, later in his life, Peale often showed this painting to young beginners, to encourage them to go from bad to better. In July 1787, Charles Willson Peale introduced his son Rembrandt to George Washington, in 1795, at the age of 17, Rembrandt painted an aging Washington, making him appear far more aged than in reality. The portrait was well received, and Rembrandt had made his debut, at the age of 20, Peale married 22-year-old Eleanor May Short at St. Josephs Catholic Church in Philadelphia. During their marriage, Peale and Short had nine children, Rosalba, Eleanor, Michael Angelo, Angelica, in 1822, Peale moved to New York City where he embarked on an attempt to paint what he hoped would become the standard likeness of Washington. He studied portraits by artists including John Trumbull, Gilbert Stuart and his own father. Peale subsequently attempted to capitalize on the success of what became known as his Porthole picture. Patriae Pater was purchased by Congress in 1832 for $2,000 and it currently hangs in the Old Senate Chamber. In 1826 he helped found the National Academy of Design in New York City, Peale went on to create over 70 detailed replicas, including one of Washington in full military uniform that currently hangs in the Oval Office. Peale continued to paint other noted portraits, such as those of the third president Thomas Jefferson while he was in office, noted for his itinerant nature, Peale visited Europe several times to study art. Throughout his life, Peale traveled across the Western Hemisphere in search of inspiration and his father helped pay his way to Paris, where he stayed from June to September 1808, and again from October 1809 to November 1810. In Paris, Peale studied the works of Jacques-Louis David, which influenced him to paint in the Neoclassical style and he painted the famous explorer Alexander von Humboldt and several other noted patrons such as Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and François André Michaux. After his successes in France, Peale returned to Philadelphia in 1810 and his efforts to establish his knowledge and mastery of art were displayed in his painting The Roman Daughter
Rembrandt Peale
–
Rembrandt Peale,
Self-portrait, 1828,
Detroit Institute of Arts
Rembrandt Peale
–
Miniature of Rembrandt Peale in 1795, by his uncle
James Peale
Rembrandt Peale
–
"The oldest living American artist", Detail of a photograph of Rembrandt Peale taken by
Mathew B. Brady
Rembrandt Peale
–
Rembrandt Peale, Rubens Peale with a Geranium, 1801
23.
Edgar Degas
–
Edgar Degas was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance, more than half of his works depict dancers and he is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. He was a draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers, racecourse subjects. His portraits are notable for their complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation. At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, in his early thirties, he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life. Degas was born in Paris, France, into a wealthy family. He was the oldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, Louisiana, and Augustin De Gas and his maternal grandfather Germain Musson, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti of French descent and had settled in New Orleans in 1810. Degas began his schooling at age eleven, enrolling in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and his mother died when he was thirteen, and his father and grandfather became the main influences on him for the remainder of his youth. Degas began to paint early in life, by the time he graduated from the Lycée with a baccalauréat in literature in 1853, at age 18, he had turned a room in his home into an artists studio. Upon graduating, he registered as a copyist in The Louvre Museum, Degas duly enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in November 1853, but applied little effort to his studies. In April of that year Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts and he studied drawing there with Louis Lamothe, under whose guidance he flourished, following the style of Ingres. In July 1856, Degas traveled to Italy, where he would remain for the three years. In 1858, while staying with his aunts family in Naples and he also began work on several history paintings, Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah in 1859–60, Sémiramis Building Babylon in 1860, and Young Spartans around 1860. In 1861 Degas visited his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon in Normandy and he exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1865, when the jury accepted his painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages, which attracted little attention. The change in his art was influenced primarily by the example of Édouard Manet, upon the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas enlisted in the National Guard, where his defense of Paris left him little time for painting. During rifle training his eyesight was found to be defective, after the war, Degas began in 1872 an extended stay in New Orleans, Louisiana, where his brother René and a number of other relatives lived. Staying at the home of his Creole uncle, Michel Musson, on Esplanade Avenue, Degas produced a number of works, many depicting family members. One of Degass New Orleans works, A Cotton Office in New Orleans, garnered favorable attention back in France, Degas returned to Paris in 1873 and his father died the following year, whereupon Degas learned that his brother René had amassed enormous business debts
Edgar Degas
–
Self-portrait (Degas au porte-fusain), 1855
Edgar Degas
–
Edgar Degas c. 1850s
Edgar Degas
–
A Cotton Office in New Orleans, 1873
Edgar Degas
–
The Dance Class (La Classe de Danse), 1873–1876, oil on canvas, by Edgar Degas
24.
Thomas Gainsborough
–
Thomas Gainsborough FRSA was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He surpassed his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds to become the dominant British portraitist of the half of the 18th century. He painted quickly, and the works of his maturity are characterised by a light palette and he preferred landscapes to portraits, and is credited as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Gainsborough was a member of the Royal Academy. He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woollen goods, and his wife, the artist spent his childhood at what is now Gainsboroughs House, on Gainsborough Street. The original building survives and is now a dedicated House to his life. Gainsborough was allowed to leave home in 1740 to study art in London and he assisted Francis Hayman in the decoration of the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens, and contributed to the decoration of what is now the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. In 1746, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, a daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. The artists work, then consisting of landscape paintings, was not selling well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748–1749 and concentrated on painting portraits, in 1752, he and his family, now including two daughters, moved to Ipswich. Commissions for personal portraits increased, but his clientele included mainly local merchants and he had to borrow against his wifes annuity. The Artists family and Self-Portrait In 1759, Gainsborough and his moved to Bath. There, he studied portraits by van Dyck and was able to attract a fashionable clientele. In 1761, he began to work to the Society of Arts exhibition in London. He selected portraits of well-known or notorious clients in order to attract attention, the exhibitions helped him acquire a national reputation, and he was invited to become a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1769. His relationship with the academy was not a one and he stopped exhibiting his paintings in 1773. In 1774, Gainsborough and his moved to London to live in Schomberg House. A commemorative blue plaque was put on the house in 1951, in 1777, he again began to exhibit his paintings at the Royal Academy, including portraits of contemporary celebrities, such as the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland
Thomas Gainsborough
–
Self-portrait (1759)
Thomas Gainsborough
–
Lady Lloyd and Her Son, Richard Savage Lloyd, of Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk (1745–46). At the time, his clientele included mainly local merchants and squires.
Thomas Gainsborough
–
Margaret Burr (1728–1797), the artist's wife, c. early 1770s
Thomas Gainsborough
–
Self-Portrait (1754)
25.
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 his oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida. His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior to moving to London and his commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work and he lived most of his life in Europe. Art historians generally ignored the society such as Sargent until the late 20th century. Before Sargents birth, his father, FitzWilliam, was an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia 1844–1854, after Johns older sister died at the age of two, his mother, Mary, suffered a breakdown, and the couple decided to go abroad to recover. They remained nomadic expatriates for the rest of their lives, although based in Paris, Sargents parents moved regularly with the seasons to the sea and the mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. While Mary was pregnant, they stopped in Florence, Tuscany, Sargent was born there in 1856. A year later, his sister Mary was born, after her birth, FitzWilliam reluctantly resigned his post in Philadelphia and accepted his wifes entreaties to remain abroad. They lived modestly on an inheritance and savings, living a quiet life with their children. They generally avoided society and other Americans except for friends in the art world, four more children were born abroad, of whom only two lived past childhood. Although his father was a patient teacher of basic subjects, young Sargent was a rambunctious child, as his father wrote home, He is quite a close observer of animated nature. His mother was convinced that traveling around Europe, and visiting museums and churches. Several attempts to have him formally schooled failed, owing mostly to their itinerant life, Sargents mother was a fine amateur artist and his father was a skilled medical illustrator. Early on, she gave him sketchbooks and encouraged drawing excursions, young Sargent worked with care on his drawings, and he enthusiastically copied images from The Illustrated London News of ships and made detailed sketches of landscapes. FitzWilliam had hoped that his sons interest in ships and the sea might lead him toward a naval career, at thirteen, his mother reported that John sketches quite nicely, & has a remarkably quick and correct eye. If we could afford to give him really good lessons, he would soon be quite a little artist, at the age of thirteen, he received some watercolor lessons from Carl Welsch, a German landscape painter. Although his education was far from complete, Sargent grew up to be a literate and cosmopolitan young man, accomplished in art, music
John Singer Sargent
–
Self-Portrait, 1906, oil on canvas,
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
John Singer Sargent
–
Fanny Watts, Sargent's childhood friend. The first painting at Paris Salon, 1877,
Philadelphia Museum of Art
John Singer Sargent
–
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
John Singer Sargent
–
An Out-of-Doors Study, 1889, depicting
Paul César Helleu sketching with his wife Alice Guérin. The
Brooklyn Museum, New York.
26.
Claude Monet
–
Monets ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property, Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. He was the son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude. Despite being baptized Catholic, Monet later became an atheist, in 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the familys ship-chandling and grocery business and his mother was a singer, and supported Monets desire for a career in art. On 1 April 1851, Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of the arts, locals knew him well for his charcoal caricatures, which he would sell for ten to twenty francs. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard, a student of Jacques-Louis David. On the beaches of Normandy around 1856 he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, Boudin taught Monet en plein air techniques for painting. Both received the influence of Johan Barthold Jongkind, on 28 January 1857, his mother died. At the age of sixteen, he left school and went to live with his widowed, childless aunt, when Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would go and sit by a window. Monet was in Paris for several years and met other painters, including Édouard Manet and others who would become friends. After drawing a low number in March 1861, Monet was drafted into the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for a seven-year period of military service. His prosperous father could have purchased Monets exemption from conscription but declined to do so when his son refused to give up painting. While in Algeria Monet did only a few sketches of scenes, a single landscape. In a Le Temps interview of 1900 however he commented that the light, after about a year of garrison duty in Algiers, Monet contracted typhoid fever and briefly went absent without leave. Following convalescence, Monets aunt intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete a course at an art school and it is possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter
Claude Monet
–
Claude Monet, photo by
Nadar, 1899.
Claude Monet
–
Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), 1872; the painting that gave its name to the style.
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
Claude Monet
–
The Woman in the Green Dress,
Camille Doncieux, 1866,
Kunsthalle Bremen
Claude Monet
–
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, (right section), 1865–1866, with
Gustave Courbet,
Frédéric Bazille and Camille Doncieux, first wife of the artist,
Musée d'Orsay,
Paris
27.
Pablo Picasso
–
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, also known as Pablo Picasso, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, Picassos work is often categorized into periods. Much of Picassos work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style and his later work often combines elements of his earlier styles. Ruiz y Picasso were included for his father and mother, respectively, born in the city of Málaga in the Andalusian region of Spain, he was the first child of Don José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López. His mother was of one quarter Italian descent, from the territory of Genoa, though baptized a Catholic, Picasso would later on become an atheist. Picassos family was of middle-class background and his father was a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. For most of his life Ruiz was a professor of art at the School of Crafts, Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. According to his mother, his first words were piz, piz, a shortening of lápiz, from the age of seven, Picasso received formal artistic training from his father in figure drawing and oil painting. Ruiz was an academic artist and instructor, who believed that proper training required disciplined copying of the masters. His son became preoccupied with art to the detriment of his classwork, the family moved to A Coruña in 1891, where his father became a professor at the School of Fine Arts. On one occasion, the father found his son painting over his sketch of a pigeon. In 1895, Picasso was traumatized when his sister, Conchita. After her death, the moved to Barcelona, where Ruiz took a position at its School of Fine Arts. Picasso thrived in the city, regarding it in times of sadness or nostalgia as his true home, Ruiz persuaded the officials at the academy to allow his son to take an entrance exam for the advanced class. This process often took students a month, but Picasso completed it in a week, the student lacked discipline but made friendships that would affect him in later life. His father rented a room for him close to home so he could work alone, yet he checked up on him numerous times a day. Picassos father and uncle decided to send the young artist to Madrids Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, at age 16, Picasso set off for the first time on his own, but he disliked formal instruction and stopped attending classes soon after enrolment
Pablo Picasso
–
Picasso in 1908
Pablo Picasso
–
Pablo Picasso with his sister Lola, 1889
Pablo Picasso
–
Pablo Picasso, 1901, Old Woman (Woman with Gloves), oil on cardboard, 67 x 52.1 cm,
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Pablo Picasso
–
Pablo Picasso, 1901-02, Femme au café (Absinthe Drinker), oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm,
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
28.
Edward Hopper
–
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While he was most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was proficient as a watercolorist. Both in his urban and rural scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his vision of modern American life. Hopper was born in Upper Nyack, New York, a center on the Hudson River north of New York City. He was one of two children of a comfortably well-to-do family and his parents, of mostly Dutch ancestry, were Elizabeth Griffiths Smith and Garret Henry Hopper, a dry-goods merchant. Although not so successful as his forebears, Garrett provided well for his two children with help from his wifes inheritance. Edward and his only sister Marion attended both private and public schools and they were raised in a strict Baptist home. His father had a nature, and the household was dominated by women, Hoppers mother, grandmother, sister. His birthplace and boyhood home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and it serves as a nonprofit community cultural center featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, performances, and special events. Hopper was a student in grade school and showed talent in drawing at age five. He readily absorbed his fathers intellectual tendencies and love of French and he also demonstrated his mothers artistic heritage. Hoppers parents encouraged his art and kept him supplied with materials, instructional magazines. By his teens, he was working in pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor, in 1895, he created his first signed oil painting, Rowboat in Rocky Cove. It shows his early interest in nautical subjects, in his early self-portraits, Hopper tended to represent himself as skinny, ungraceful, and homely. Though a tall and quiet teenager, his sense of humor found outlet in his art. Later in life, he mostly depicted women as the figures in his paintings, in high school, he dreamed of being a naval architect, but after graduation he declared his intention to follow an art career. Hoppers parents insisted that he study commercial art to have a means of income. In developing his self-image and individualistic philosophy of life, Hopper was influenced by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and he later said, I admire him greatly. I read him over and over again
Edward Hopper
–
Edward Hopper, Self-Portrait, 1906
Edward Hopper
–
Childhood home of Edward Hopper in Upper Nyack, New York
Edward Hopper
–
Summer Interior (1909)
Edward Hopper
–
Night on the El Train (1918) by Edward Hopper
29.
Willem de Kooning
–
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and moved to New York in 1927. Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on April 24,1904 and his parents, Leendert de Kooning and Cornelia Nobel, were divorced in 1907, and de Kooning lived first with his father and then with his mother. He left school in 1916 and became an apprentice in a firm of commercial artists, until 1924 he attended evening classes at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen, now the Willem de Kooning Academie. In 1926 de Kooning travelled to the United States as a stowaway on the Shelley, a British freighter bound for Argentina and he stayed at the Dutch Seamens Home in Hoboken, New Jersey, and found work as a house-painter. In 1927 he moved to Manhattan, where he had a studio on West Forty-fourth Street and he supported himself with jobs in carpentry, house-painting and commercial art. De Kooning began painting in his time and in 1928 he joined the art colony at Woodstock. He also began to some of the modernist artists active in Manhattan. None of them were executed, but a sketch for one was included in New Horizons in American Art at the Museum of Modern Art, De Kooning met his wife, Elaine Fried, at the American Artists School in New York. She was 14 years his junior, thus was to begin a lifelong partnership affected by alcoholism, lack of money, love affairs, quarrels and separations. They were married on December 9,1943, at this time, de Koonings work borrowed strongly from Gorkys surrealist imagery and was influenced by Picasso. This only changed when de Kooning met the younger painter Franz Kline, Kline died young and he was one of de Koonings closest artist friends. Klines influence is evident in de Koonings calligraphic black images of this period, in the late 1950s, de Koonings work shifted away from the figurative work of the women and began to display an interest in more abstract, less representational imagery. He became a US citizen in 1961 and moved to East Hampton in 1963 and this became his primary residence and he remained there until the end of his life. On Long Island de Kooning, in addition to his painting, inspired in part by the work of Henry Moore, de Kooning created highly abstracted figurative sculpture very reminicent of his figurative paintings. It was revealed toward the end of his life that de Kooning began losing his memory in the late 1980s and had been suffering from Alzheimers disease for some time. This revelation has initiated considerable debate among scholars and critics about how responsible de Kooning was for the creation of his late work, succumbing to the progress of his disease, William de Kooning painted his final works in 1991. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 92, upon death William de Kooning was cremated. His final place of rest is publicly unknown, De Koonings paintings of the 1930s and early 1940s are abstract still-lifes characterised by geometric or biomorphic shapes and strong colours
Willem de Kooning
–
De Kooning in his studio in 1961
Willem de Kooning
–
Willem de Kooning, Woman V (1952–53),
National Gallery of Australia
Willem de Kooning
–
Woman III, (1953), private collection
Willem de Kooning
–
Willem de Kooning (1968)
