Allentown Art Museum facts for kids
 |
|
The Allentown Art Museum in July 2008
|
|
| Established | March 17, 1934 |
|---|---|
| Location | 31 N. 5th Street Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Public transit access |  LANta bus: 102, 107, 209, 210, 220, 324 |
The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was started in 1934 by a group led by the painter Walter Emerson Baum. He was known for a style called Pennsylvania Impressionism, which uses light and color to show the beauty of the local landscape.
Today, the museum is home to a huge collection of over 20,000 works of art, making it a very important museum for the region. It also has a library with thousands of books about art.
Contents
How the Museum Began
Starting Small
The museum first opened on March 17, 1934, in a local school. It was originally called the Allentown Art Gallery. It started by showing 70 paintings by local artists, and it quickly became popular with people who loved art.
Even during the Great Depression, a difficult time for the country, the museum's collection grew. This was partly thanks to government programs that supported artists. In 1936, the city of Allentown gave the museum a permanent home in a historic house in Cedar Park. The museum's first curator, a person who manages the collection, was an artist named John E. Berninger. He and his wife even lived on the second floor of the museum!
A Major Gift
A big change came in 1959. A man named Samuel H. Kress, who grew up nearby, gave the museum 53 amazing paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods of European history. This was a very generous gift that included art from hundreds of years ago.
This incredible gift inspired the community to find a bigger and better home for the museum. They moved the collection into a building that used to be a church, which was perfect for showing off the new art.
Growing and Changing
In 1975, the museum added a new section to its building. This expansion included a special room: a library designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The library was originally part of a house he designed.
The museum's collection also grew. It added more European paintings and a large collection of textiles, which are artworks made from cloth. In 1978, the museum got a special portrait of Ann Penn Allen. She was the granddaughter of William Allen, the man who founded the city of Allentown.
In 2010, the museum expanded again. It added more space for galleries and classrooms, a new cafe, and a modern glass entrance. This made the museum even more welcoming for visitors.
Famous Art at the Museum
The museum has many incredible pieces of art. Some have very interesting stories.
The Lost-and-Found Rembrandt
For a long time, the museum had a painting called Portrait of a Young Woman. Many people thought it was painted by the famous artist Rembrandt, but they weren't sure. For years, experts believed it might have been painted by one of his students.
But in 2020, after careful cleaning and study, experts confirmed that Rembrandt himself had painted it in 1632. This exciting discovery meant the museum had a real masterpiece from one of history's greatest artists.
Franz Kline's Giant Mural
In 2016, the museum got a huge painting by Franz Kline, an important modern artist. The painting, called Lehighton, was created as a mural for an American Legion building in a nearby town.
The mural was very large and needed a lot of work to be restored. After experts carefully cleaned and repaired it, the powerful black-and-white painting was put on display for everyone to see in 2017.
Highlights from the Collection
The museum's collection is divided into different types of art. Here are just a few examples of what you can see.
American Art
- Ann Penn Allen by Gilbert Stuart (1795): A portrait of the granddaughter of Allentown's founder.
- Niagara Falls by Gustav Johann Grunewald (1834): A dramatic painting of the famous waterfall.
- Floriform Vase by Tiffany Studios (1905): A beautiful glass vase shaped like a flower.
European Art
- Saint Jerome Penitent by Lorenzo Lotto (1515): A religious painting from the Italian Renaissance.
- Game Stall at Market by Frans Snyders (1625–37): A busy market scene full of animals and food.
- Portrait of a Young Woman by Rembrandt (1632): The famous painting that was rediscovered as a real Rembrandt.
Textiles
- Table Cover by Margaret Oothout (1764): A beautifully decorated piece of fabric made over 250 years ago.
- Bed Curtain (Palampore) from India (1775): An intricately painted cotton curtain from the Coromandel Coast.
See Also
