Like a decadent lady cake crafted by the finest chef a Gilded Age heiress could hire, the artwork of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artist Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855–1919) exudes a rich taste.
Books: Treasure House
John Soane’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Yale University Press, $45) certainly lives up to its title. For starters, it’s a visual delight, leading readers through the haunting, eclectic maze of a London relic: a house museum, frozen in amber since 1837, that displays its trove of forty thousand objects in arrangements fixed by the architect and collector who bequeathed it to the nation.
“Gracious and artful devices for the adornment of life”
An excerpt from the new book English Needlework, 1600–1740, The Percival D. Griffiths Collection charts the origins of the twentieth-century reappraisal of the embroiderer’s art.
Field notes: Facing Unpleasant Facts
On John James Audubon (1785–1851) and John Muir (1838–1914), both of whom have come in for an overdue reckoning…
The Finest Piece of Walnut Furniture of its Type
An excerpt from the new book English Furniture 1680–1760, The Percival D. Griffiths Collection examines the famed Dickinson desk and bookcase.
On books: September/October 2022
A memoir from the late French illustrator Pierre Le-Tan
On books: July/August 2022
On the acclaimed Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui
On books: March/April 2022
A new authoritative biography of artist Florine Stettheimer
Renovated Gowns Counterfeit Corsets
An excerpt from a new book about fashion in the Gilded Age explores the underworld and afterlife of French couture in the United States
On books: January/February 2022
On the recently published Lover’s Eyes: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection