1

Great PlacesPreliminary Program

Monday, May 2 through Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Newport Symposium Committee

The Preservation Society of Newport County Donald O. Ross, Chairman Trudy Coxe, CEO & Executive Director John R. Tschirch, Symposium Director

George H. McNeely IVPauline C. Metcalf Lee Paula Miller

Betsy D. Ray

U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management William F. Hatfi eld, Managing Director, Market President Rhode Island,

Regional Executive, Upper New England

Natonal Trust Insurance Services, LLC. Lee Dipietro, Chairman Brian Phoebus, Vice President Ann Gonya, Vice President

The Preservation Society of Newport County with

U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management,National Trust Insurance Services, LLC.

and Christie’s presents

Christie’sStephen S. Lash, Chairman Emeritus, Christie’s America

Marc Porter, Chairman, Christie’s America John A. Hays, Deputy Chairman

David W. Dangremond, ChairmanDavid P. Diefenbach

Dean F. Failey Angela Brown Fischer

Lynn Springer Roberts

2

Sunday, May 1

12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Symposium Registration: The Hotel Viking

2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Pre-Symposium Tour Great Places in Colonial Newport: Hunter House (1748) and

The Samuel Whitehorne House (1811)

5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Opening Reception at The Elms (1901)

Dinner on one’s own

The Newport Symposium

What makes a great place? An enlightened or eccentric patron, a setting of outstanding beauty, a brilliant designer, and a signifi cant collection displayed with exquisite care. A truly great place combines all of these aspects and elevates them to an exceptional level of artistic excellence and cultural importance. The 19th annual NewportSymposium will examine the great places of the world, and their creators, whether they are stately houses, gardens, galleries of art treasures, or entire cities.

The Breakers (1895), Newport, RI

3

Monday, May 2

8:00 a.m. Registration: The Hotel Viking

9:00 a.m. Welcome Donald O. Ross, Chairman The Preservation Society of Newport County

9:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Lectures at The Hotel Viking Conference Center

Piranesi’s Rome: The Imagination of an Archaeological FantasyDr. Sarah E. Lawrence, Director of the Masters Program in the History of Decorative Arts and DesignCooper-Hewitt MuseumNew York, New YorkPiranesi, who signed every one of his famous etchings as Piranesi architetto, never had the opportunity to see one of his buildings constructed. Yet, in his extraordinary prints, Piranesi did indeed construct a pictorial realization of Rome that has come to defi ne this city in our imaginations. This lecture will look at the artist’s fabrication of ancient Rome, the role of fantasia in his archaeology, and the didactic purpose of his vision to promote a modern idiom for urban architecture.

Gondola Days: Venice in the American Imagination Dr. Erica E. Hirschler, Croll Senior Curator of American PaintingsMuseum of Fine ArtsBoston, MassachusettsVenice, Lord Byron’s “fairy city of the heart,” had long been one of the principal stops on the European Grand Tour. Increasing numbers of Americans traveled there in the late 18th and 19th centuries, seeking the lessons of Titian, Veronese, and Turner and feasting on the exotic architecture, mysterious spaces, and swirling colors of the city on the lagoon. From West and Copley to Whistler and Sargent, take an artist’s tour of the place one American writer called “the most paintable city on earth.”

12:00 p.m. Lunch: The Hotel Viking . Optional. Fee.

4

Monday afternoon2:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Concurrent afternoon lectures and tours in Newport’s historic buildings.

Illusions of Grandeur: Chick Austin’s Stage-Set HouseEugene R. Gaddis, William G. DeLana Archivist and Curator of the Austin HouseWadsworth Athenaeum Museum of ArtHartford, ConnecticutIn 1930 the twenty-nine-year-old Chick Austin, director of the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, built a pastiche of a Palladian villa, which became a personal stage set combin-ing Baroque, Rococo, Art Deco, and early Bauhaus interiors. Such radical contrasts refl ected Austin’s achievements as a museum director. He acquired the fi rst Caravaggio as well as the fi rst Dali, Mondrian, and Miro to be seen in an American museum. Chick presented the fi rst comprehensive American exhibitions of Italian baroque paintings, surrealism, and Pablo Picasso, as well as the fi rst public performances of Balanchine’s ballets in this country. The cast of characters that entered the stage-set house in the 1930s—Calder, Dali, Le Corbusier, Lincoln Kirstein, Gertrude Stein—tells the story of how the legendary Chick Austin helped transform the arts in America.

Beauport: Henry Davis Sleeper’s Eclectic ShowpiecePilar E. Garro, Site Manager BeauportGloucester, MassachusettsBeauport, Sleeper-McCann House, was the summer home of one of America’s fi rst professional interior designers, Henry Davis Sleeper. Perched on a rock ledge overlook-ing Gloucester Harbor, Beauport became Sleeper’s retreat, backdrop for entertaining, professional showcase, and an inspiration to all who visited. The interior and exterior of the house contain Sleeper’s lifetime collection of curiosities, colored glass, folk art, china, and silhouettes in every nook and alcove. In this lecture, Ms. Garro will discuss Beauport’s architectural evolution, prevalent themes, the sources of Sleeper’s inspira-tion, and how Beauport infl uenced other designers and popular taste.

The Grandest Room in the Colonies: The Cadwalader Furniture RediscoveredGeorge H. McNeely IV, Senior Vice President, Business Development Christie’sNew YorkA decade before the Revolutionary War, John Cadwalader, a successful Philadelphia merchant, and his wife, the heiress Elizabeth Lloyd, sought to create the grandest house in Philadelphia. They involved a number of cabinet makers, including the noted Benjamin Affl eck, who created for them a suite of highly carved mahogany Chippendale

5

furniture, perhaps the most elaborately ornamented of any created in the Colonies. The Cadwaladers complemented this furniture with fi ve family portraits by Charles Willson Peale, thus creating one of the grandest domestic interiors of that period. Records retained in the Cadwalader family enable us to follow the creation of this remarkable house, the sad dispersal of much of its contents a century later due to family discord, and the more recent rediscovery of certain missing pieces in Europe and America.

Great Galleries: Great Spaces for Art and ScienceGiles Waterfi eld, Director of Royal Collection Studies, Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of ArtLondon, EnglandFor many years, Giles Waterfi eld has been intrigued by the spaces that frame and enhance works of art, notably spaces that have been created around them. In this talk, he considers four galleries created for the display of paintings and other artifacts: the Elizabethan period Long Gallery at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire; Frederick the Great’s magnifi cent Picture Gallery in the grounds of Sans Souci in Potsdam; the Teylers Museum in Haarlem in the Netherlands, one of the earliest surviving museums housing both art and science collections; and the opulent Huntington Art Gallery in San Marino, Los Angeles. Though they are bound together by certain shared qualities, each refl ects the individuality of its creator, while shaping the experience of the visitor in contrasted and revealing ways.

Tour: The Breakers: A Gilded Age LandmarkPaul F. Miller, CuratorThe Preservation Society of Newport CountyOne of the “great places” of Gilded Age Newport, The Breakers (1895) was legendary from the moment it was built for Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II by architect Rich-ard Morris Hunt. Join us on this curatorial tour focusing on interiors by Hunt, Parisian designer Jules Allard and Sons, and Ogden Codman, and the Vanderbilts’ collection of fi ne and decorative arts.

Tour: Builder of Great Places: Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt’s ‘Temple to the Arts’Charles J. Burns, Associate Curator for ResearchThe Preservation Society of Newport CountyA renowned Paris trained architect, an international decorator/antiques dealer and a powerful, wealthy, and socially ambitious patron created one of Newport’s greatest Beaux-Arts summer cottages. Follow Charles J. Burns on a tour of the trend-setting Marble House (1892), the creation of architect Richard Morris Hunt, decorator Jules Allard and patron Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, as he explores the inspiration behind the building’s opulent interiors and looks in-depth at its art treasures.

6

Tuesday, May 3

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Lectures at The Hotel Viking Conference Center

Dumfries HouseLady Lucinda Shaw StewartArdgowanRenfrewshire, ScotlandDumfries House was rescued in 2007 by a consortium led by the Prince of Wales weeks before the imminent sale and dispersal of its contents. By this brave gesture, a perfect 18th century house – which retains its original fi xtures and fi ttings – has been saved for posterity and can be visited for the fi rst time in its history. Designed by the renowned architect brothers John, Robert, and James Adam, and with a unique collection of furniture by Thomas Chippendale, Dumfries House has been described as an 18th century time capsule, since the principle rooms and their contents have remained virtually unchanged for 250 years – truly a great place preserving the work of Britain’s greatest designers.

A Timeless Place: The Château de MontgeoffroyDr. Joan DeJean, Trustee ProfessorDepartment of Romance LanguagesUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe Château de Montgeoffroy is a perfectly preserved example of the 18th century French interior style. It has remained in the same family since its construction in 1777. The inventory of the château’s contents at the time of its completion still exists; it proves that, in most of its rooms, all the original furnishings are not only still there but are still in the spots for which they were designed. A casual grey and white color scheme with no heavy gilding; hardwood fl oors and chintz: Montgeoffroy proves how great simplicity can be.

12:00 p.m. Lunch: The Hotel Viking. Optional. Fee.

2:00 - 4:30 p.m. The series of Monday afternoon sessions will be repeated on Tuesday afternoon.

7:00 p.m. Dinner at The Breakers (1895)

7

Wednesday, May 4

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Lectures at The Hotel Viking Conference Center

StourheadDavid Adshead, Head Curator & Architectural Historian National TrustEnglandOne of the masterpieces of picturesque landscape design, Stourhead was created by Henry Hoare II and laid out between 1741 and 1780. Inspired by the classical vision of idealized Italian landscapes in paintings by Claude Lorrain and Poussin, Stourhead is a combination of temples, follies, and obelisks set among serpentine lakes and a rare col-lection of trees and shrubs from around the world. In sum, the place is one of the great achievements in garden making.

Storm King Art Center: A Destination for Monumental Sculpture in a Magnifi cent LandscapeJohn P. Stern, PresidentStorm King Art CenterMountainville, New YorkHow was a private Normandy-style château, surrounded by dense woods in the Hudson Valley, transformed into a vast landscape of native grass fi elds, rolling hills and long views in which to discover carefully sited works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Andy Goldsworthy, Maya Lin, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Serra, David Smith and Ursula von Rydingsvard? Storm King President John P. Stern discusses the contributions of the founders, artists, patrons, landscape architects, and curators that have made Storm King an extraordinary public museum and sculpture park – a destination for lovers of art and nature.

12:00 p.m. Lunch: The Hotel Viking. Optional. Fee.

Schedule in process of formation and subject to change.

The Preservation Society of Newport County424 Bellevue Avenue

Newport, Rhode Island 02840Telephone 401-847-1000 ext.154

Fax 401-847-1361E-mail ppeterson@NewportMansions.org

8The Elms (1901), Newport, RI