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illustrators, and masterpieces by Howard Pyle, who is known as the father of American illustration. There ace major works by Howard Chandler Christy, creator of the Christy girl, which set the criteria of feminine beauty for the Miss America Pageant. The companion piece to James Montgomery Flagg’s World War I Uncle Sam poster "I Want You" depicts Columbia embracing a sol- dier and sailor it hangs in the grand marble entrance hall. There are paintings for World War I and World War II posters by Charles Dana Gibson of Gibson girl fame and paintings by Jessie Willcox Smith, the first successful female illustrator Newport, Rhode Island of children’s books. The books are also there, and lots more. The plans for the house and gardens and the three-and-a-half-acre park across Victoria Avenue from Vernon Court were drawn by Laurence Judy likes to call these artists who Cutler for the zoning hearing. This plan shows the Circle of Architects and benches near the center of captured the national persona “the Olmsted Park. The footprint of the Louis Kahn arch is shows at the The National Museum of American Illustration bottom of the plan. American imagists,” and the years same year Vernon Court was built. by Lita Solis-Cohen 1860 to 1960 “the golden age of American illustration.” Leyendecker The architect Thomas Hastings was a created the image of the baby that member, along with Cornelius here is a new museum, the Hastings, the architects of the New in Newport, including Peter Harrison, rings in the new year, Thomas Nast Vanderbilt, National Museum of American York City Public library the U.S. H.H. Richardson, Richard Morris created the image of Santa Claus as who built The Breakers around the Illustration in Newport, Rhode Senate Office Building, Alfred L. du Hunt, Stanford White, Horace T we know him, and James corner, Stanford White, who Island, and its architecture, garden, Ponts house Nemours in Wilmington, Trumbauer and, of course, Carrere Montgomery Flagg created our designed the house next door, and state-of-the-art restoration, and paint- Delaware, and the Henry Morrison and Hastings. It will also include a image of Uncle Sam, she points out. George Wetmore, who built Chateaux ings are dazzling. This private muse- Flager house in Palm Beach, Florida, replica of an arch designed by Louis “This is a movement with a history, sur Mer, which can be seen from the um at Vernon Court, 492 Bellevue now a museum Carrere and Hastings Kahn for the Indian Institute of hut until it has a name, it doesn’t loggia. Artists Louis Comfort Avenue requires reservations. Tickets used the plan of Vernon Court for the Management at Ahmedabad, the exist,” she said. Tiffany and Howards Chandler are $25 each and worth every nickel. 1913 Frick Mansion on Fifth Avenue Harvard Business School of Asia. She emphasizes that the artists Christy were also members,” It is the creation of Judy Goffman that now houses the Frick Collection Laurence thinks Kahn was the great- who created these images were Laurence pointed out. Cutler and her husband Laurence and Art Reference library. est architect of the second half of the trained at academies in the United The Cutlers have also assembled Cutler. Judy is the New York City The formal gardens designed by 20th century. States and at ateliers abroad. They an impressive group of trustees. The dealer who made the market for noted New York garden designers and "People involved in museums created some fine paintings, though honorary trustees include J. Carter America illustration art over the last florists Wadley & Smvthe, were often become art dealers when they often under deadline and commis- Brown, director emeritus, the 35 years. Laurence, an architect and inspired by the Pond Garden at retire. Judy went in the reverse direc- sioned for a specific purpose. This is National Gallery of Art; Martin city planner, saw Vernon Court as an Hampton Court built by Henry VIII tion. She was a dealer first, and now not art for art’s sake, but the paintings Meyerson, president emeritus, architectural masterpiece and, acting for Anne Boleyn. The design of the she is a museum director," said are of high quality. University of Pennsylvania (both as general contractor, masterminded garden houses was inspired those Laurence. Judy and Laurence Cntler were childhood sweethearts in Woodbridge, Once disparaged by art histo-rians, Cutlers went to school there); retired the conservation of this Beaux Arts built for Louis XIV at Versailles. The Judy has not closed her New York Connecticut. Laurence took Judy to his senior prom, and she followed him American illustration is getting a sec- Senator Claiborne Pell; and Vincent adaptation of a 17th-century French adjacent property. Stoneacre, laid out City gallery, her daughter Jennifer is to the University of Pennsylvania. Larry wasn t ready to get married, so ond look from scholars and curators. Scully, professor emeritus, Yale chateau while creating a state-of-the- in 1884 by the first American land- running the day-to-day operations. I married Alan Goffman and had two children, a girl and a boy, said A traveling Maxfield Parrish show University. There are 21 members on art museum environment. scape architect. Frederick Law Judy has had a good deal of experi- Judy. Larry married an architect and city planner he met at Harvard and opened at the Pennsylvania Academy the national council of the boards of The house was designed in 1898 Olmsted. will be restored as a park ence putting on art shows. In the had two boys. We both divorced and married each other five years ago on of the Fine Arts last fall and recently directors, including movie producer for Mrs. Richard Gambrill by the dedicated to Olmsted and honoring early 1990’s she was the first to take the fortieth anniversary of our first date. George Lucas, author Tom Wolfe, In 1966 Laurence Cutler founded ECODESIGN International Inc., closed at the Brooklyn Museum. In New York firm of Carrere and architects whose work can he found illustration art on world tours organiz- entertainer Whoopi Goldberg, and ing exhibitions in Paris, Rome, and Architects/Engineers/Planners, as an interdisciplinary ecology based con- 2001 an exhibition of Norman sultancy. He subsequently formed subsidiary companies in Europe, Africa, Rockwell’s paintings now on tour television host Matt Lauer. On the Build to Kill, a painting for a World War I U.S. Tokyo. Her Norman Rockwell show, New England council are Ralph Shipping Board poster by J.O. Todahl, hangs in Latin America, and the Middle East. In 1972 ECODESIGN was acquired will arrive at the Guggenheim in New the library, which is off-limits to tours, but the a Maxfield Parrish show, and a ‘Great by Combustion Engineering Inc., and as president of CE Tec International Emerson Carpenter, Hugh American Illustrators" show each York City, founded as the bastion of painting can be seen from the salon. The power- Inc., Cutler built the division into a 1750-person professional services abstract art! The Norman Rockwell Auchincloss III, and others involved ful image shows a U.S. ship ramming a German traveled to several cities in Japan. group with 37 offices in seven countries. In 1980 he reacquired ECODE- submarine. Norman Rockwell s Miss Liberty was painted for the Museum reports a growing audience in art museums. restoration and con- When Parrish’s masterpiece SIGN to regain its independent status in order to undertake private ven- September 4, 1943, Saturday Evening Post cover. The of several hundred thousand visitors servation. 42" x 32" oil painting depicting a woman going off to do Daybreak returned from its tour in tures. He walked away from his architectural business in 1990 and in 1994 For the operation and administra- a man s job during World War II hangs in the marble founded ARTShows and Products, exhibition coordinators, fine art pub- each year. Japan, she advised it be sold at auc- tion of the museum, the Cutlers entrance hall. tion and an American collector lishers, licensors, and derivative art product developers. He is now Before establishing their mu-seum, cofounder, CEO, and chairperson of the National Museum of American the Cutlers formed an alli-ance with established the American Civilization bought it for a record $4.29 million at Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) organiza- Illustration, Judy is co-founder and museum director. the National Arts Club in New York director. Another foundation has already set up a pur- Sotheby’s in May 1996. tion. “We are going to raise thirty- City to sponsor edu-cational pro- chase fund for the museum, and a collector has given a After graduating from the five million dollars for an endowment grams in Newport and New York. group of Stevan Dohanos paintings. University of Pennsylvania in 1963 Howard Chandler Christy, and she um shop at the National Museum of so the museum can last forever.” said Laurence and Judy are both mem- As remarkable as the finished product is the speeds with a major in art history and has kept together Maxfield Parrish’s American Illustration. Laurence. The Cutlers volunteer bers. “The National Arts Club is an with which the museum was put together. After seeing American civilization and completing masterpiece A Florentine Fete, which One of the unwritten rules of art their time now, but they know that educational institution founded in the the house in April 1998, the Cutlers had purchased it by a master’s program in education in once decorated a dimming room on dealing is never collect what you sell, one day they may need to hire a paid 1964, Judy began buying illustration time top floor of the Curtis Publishing but Judy collected before she became August. Laurence gave up other business interests in The three-and-a-half-acre sunken garden once had pond. Now there is art at a time when few people paid Company. It is now installed in the a dealer and can’t seem to stop. To architecture and advertising to direct the restoration. a swimming pool and two tennis courts. any attention to it. She restored the loggia at Vernon Court. get some idea of the breadth of the With unsolicited help front distinguished Newport resi- paintings, framed them, and sold "It was in the Jack Merriam estate, collection log on to the museum’s dents who believed in their project, they won a zoning them first at Sanford Smith’s Fall An- and for years I’d been looking for a Website (www.americanillustration. fight brought by neighbors who testified that they tiques Show’s at the Pier, and from museum to house it. When we found org) and take a virtual tour. shouldn’t have their residence in the museum. Using the her house near Philadelphia. In 1978 Vernon Court, I knew it would fit in The collection inclues over 2000 precedent of English country houses, which are open to she opened her American Illustrators the loggia. Judy said, ‘It tells a story, works by American illustrators, all the public and lived in by the owners amid the fact that Gallery at 18 East 77th Street in New and it should stay together. It was created for reproduction in books, some family members also stay at other Newport “cot- York City. Over the years she has put Parrishs’s greatest commission; for magazines, and advertising. There are tages” the zoning board approved the museum. Knowing together collections for Steven five years he worked on the eighteen 124 Norman Rockwells, only the col- that Newport is the fifth-poorest city in Rhode Island, Spielberg, George Lucas, and paintings." lection of 400 at the Norman the real estate is owned by a corporation called the Whoopi Goldberg, and advised Ross In 1994 the Cutlers founded Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Alliance for Art and Architecture so we pay real estate Perot and Malcolm Forbes, among ARTShows and Products (ASaP) to Massachusetts, is larger. It includes taxes,” Cutler volunteered. others. produce exhibits and to represent the largest collection of Maxfield It had taken the Cutlers seven years to find the right In the 1980’s she was paid re- artists’ estates in licensing images for Parrish works, 68 in all, and the place for their museum “We had put a bid on the cord prices: $75,000 for a J.C. cards, calendars gift products, and largest holding of the work of J.C. Wedding Cake house in Kennebunk [Maine], but it Leyendecker, $250,000 for a limited-edition art prints. The estates Leyendecker, illustrator of 322 wouldn’t have worked,” said Judy. “We were at a sale at Rockwell, and more recently of Maxfield Parrish and Paul- Saturday Evening Post covers and Christie’s in the spring of 1998 when we saw a flyer for $660,000 for N.C. Wyeth’s The Cézanne are just two estates for best known for his Arrow Collar man. an Ogden Codman house in Newport and decided to go Doryman (Evening), which now which ASaP generates income, and in There are many works by N.C. Most of the 18 panels of Maxfield Parrish s A Florentine Fete, which once decorated up to look at it. It was not right, but the realtor said hangs in the grand salon at Ver-non time the products will stock the muse- Wyeth, the greatest of book a dining room on the top floor of the Curtis Publishing Company, are now installed Vernon Court was for sale. When I found out that Peter Court. She was the first to collect in the loggia at Vernon Court. Other panels will he hung on the staircase in the de Savary owned it, and I knew him from my days work- One of two giant fern beech tres that flank the loggias. entrance hall.

Maine Antiue Digest, November, 2000 Maine Antiue Digest, November, 2000 ¥FEATURE¥

THE N ATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION

The entrance to the National Museum of American Illustration at Vernon Court on Bellevue and Victoria Avenues, Newport, Rhode Island.

In December 1998 Laurence Cutler bought Hiram Powers s America at Sotheby s for the niche in the entrance hall at Vernon ing in London, I called him and learned marble entrance hall and Italian walnut Court. I have always called Judy he also owned the next block, which paneling in the salon. Allard commis- Judy America. When that bust came up for sale, I had to have it, had been the parking lot when the sioned James Wall Finn, an associate of said Laurence. She has Judy s house was a junior college. He wanted Louis Comfort Tiffany, to paint vases nose and her curly hair and stars to sell it all.” of flowering vines on the walls and in her tiara. We always say American illustrators are the Finding themselves with a 52-room ceiling of the loggias. In the south log- stars on our flag. Newport cottage with slate tiles miss- gia this painting remains in fine condi- ing from the roof, glass missing from tion, but the painting was gone in the 61 windows, and in need of heating, air north loggia where the Cutlers have The Disabled Veteran by Norman Rockwell, oil on canvas, 43" installed most of Parrish’s A Florentine x 34", traveled with The Four Freedoms to raise money for conditioning, weatherproofing, UV war bonds and was used as a Saturday Evening Post cover for protection on the windows, humidity Fete. “When I walked in and saw at the July 1, 1944 issue. It hangs in the grand salon against control, plaster, and paint, the Cutlers once A Florentine Fete would fit, I Italian walnut paneling installed by Allard et ses Fits in 1898. employed 50 to 60 local artisans every knew this was the right place for the day for two years to make the house museum.” said Judy. look as if they did nothing at all to it. For reservations, call (401) 851- The interiors, designed by Jules Allard 8949 ext. 16 now, or the dates you want et ses Fils, decorators who worked in a might not be available. number of Newport cottages, include a

The garden statuary are reproductions of Classical and 18th-century statuary. In the Gilded Age much of the garden statu- ry was reproduction. We had period pho- tographs, so we went to Italy aod bought replacements, Laurence said.

M AINE A NTIQUE D IGEST NOVEMBER 1999