Wadsworth Atheneum facts for kids
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| Established | 1844 |
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| Location | 600 Main Street, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Type | Art museum |
| Public transit access |   61, 63, 69 |
The Wadsworth Atheneum is a famous art museum located in Hartford, Connecticut. It is known for its amazing collections of art from different times and places. You can see old European art, ancient Egyptian statues, and colorful French and American paintings. The museum also has beautiful landscapes from the Hudson River School and modern art. Plus, there are collections of old American furniture and decorative items.
This museum was started in 1842 and opened its doors in 1844. It is the oldest public art museum in the United States that has been open continuously since it began.
The Wadsworth Atheneum is at 600 Main Street in downtown Hartford. It looks like a cool castle! It has about 75,000 square feet of space for showing art. This makes it the biggest art museum in Connecticut. In 1970, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Contents
History of the Museum
How the Museum Started
The Wadsworth Atheneum is often just called "The Wadsworth." It was built on the land where Daniel Wadsworth's family home used to be, right in the middle of Hartford. The "castle" building, which is the oldest part of the museum, was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and Ithiel Town. Building started in 1842. The museum officially opened on July 31, 1844, and it has been open ever since.
The Wadsworth family was one of the oldest and richest families in the city. They gave many valuable art pieces to the museum when it first opened. The first collection had 78 paintings, two marble statues called busts, one small portrait miniature, and one bronze sculpture.
Besides the art, the first building also housed early versions of the Hartford Public Library and the Connecticut Historical Society. This is why it was named "Atheneum," which means a place for learning and culture. Because of this, the Wadsworth has always hosted many cultural and community events. These include plays, dance shows, historical exhibits, and social gatherings.
Modern Times at the Museum
Over the years, many people have given art and money to the museum. Two very important donors were Elizabeth Jarvis Colt and John Pierpont Morgan. Elizabeth Colt was the wife of the famous gun maker Samuel Colt. She gave over 1,000 items, including many Hudson River School landscapes and the Colt firearms collection. John Pierpont Morgan, a financier from Hartford, also gave over 1,000 items. These included valuable Renaissance decorative arts and old American furniture.
Another important donor was Samuel P. Avery. He gave many different items, from ancient Babylonian clay tablets to Chinese porcelain and French sculptures. He also gave money for new buildings. This helped create the first museum interior in the country designed in the International Style.
In 1927, the museum received a large gift of money from banker Frank Sumner. This money helped the museum buy many important artworks. With this fund, museum directors like A. Everett 'Chick' Austin and Charles Cunningham bought major works by famous artists. These artists include Caravaggio, Dalí, Gauguin, Miró, and Van Dyck.
In the 1940s and 1950s, more gifts helped the museum get more Hudson River School and Impressionist paintings. Famous pieces by Church, Cole, Gifford, Monet, and Renoir joined the collection. During this time, Henry Schnakenberg also gave art and money. This led to the museum getting ancient items from Cyprus, Egypt, and Greece. It also helped them get paintings by modern artists like Peter Blume and Stuart Davis.
More recently, the museum's modern and contemporary art collection has grown. Gifts from Tony Smith and Susan Morse Hilles include works by Josef Albers, Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko. With money from several families and individuals, the museum has bought pieces by Alexander Calder, Artemisia Gentileschi, Cindy Sherman, and Kara Walker. In 2004, a gift of 125 photographs added works by artists like On Kawara and Ed Ruscha.
In 2010, the museum started a big project to fix up all five of its buildings. This $33 million renovation was finished in 2015. It added 16,000 square feet of new gallery space. The museum's collections of European art, European decorative arts, and contemporary art were also reinstalled. This project received praise from art critics.
Museum Buildings and Art
The Wadsworth Atheneum is made up of the original castle-like building and four other parts. These parts were added over the years in different styles, like Tudor Revival and International. The museum holds about 50,000 objects!
These objects include ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian bronze statues. There are also paintings from the Renaissance, Baroque, and French and American Impressionist periods. You can see 18th-century German and French porcelain (like Meissen and Sèvres). The museum also has Hudson River School landscapes, old American clothes and decorations, and early African-American art. The collections cover more than 5,000 years of world history.
Outside the "castle" building, there is a statue of Nathan Hale from 1899. It was made by Enoch S. Woods. Nathan Hale was an American soldier during the Revolutionary War.
The Atheneum also owns the A. Everett Austin House. This house is a National Historic Landmark. It was the home of one of the museum's most important directors. You can visit this house in Hartford's historic West End.
Museum Firsts
The Wadsworth Atheneum has a long history of being "first" in many ways!
In 1933, the Wadsworth helped George Balanchine come to the United States from the Soviet Union. Balanchine later started the School of American Ballet, which led to the famous New York City Ballet. He chose the Wadsworth's Avery Memorial Theatre for the first performances of his School of American Ballet in December 1934. This included his first ballet made in America, called Serenade.
The museum was the first in America to buy art by Salvador Dalí, Caravaggio, Piet Mondrian, and many other famous artists. In 1931, the Wadsworth held the first American exhibition of surrealism. In 1934, it also had the first big U.S. show of Pablo Picasso's art. Also in 1934, the first performance of the opera Four Saints in Three Acts by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson happened at the Atheneum.
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Orazio Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, 1621-1624
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St. Francis in Ecstasy by Caravaggio, c. 1595, oil on canvas, 92,5 x 128,4 cm, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
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Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Interior of a Picture Gallery with the Collection of Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga, 1740
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Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford, in 1636, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil, 1873
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The Lady of Shalott, William Holman Hunt, c. 1888-1905
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See also
In Spanish: Wadsworth Atheneum para niños
