360Photography

Some cool visual art images:

Scratching the foam

Image by Roberto Giannotti

My life as seen from a washing machine

Image by Roberto Giannotti

RI – Newport: Newport Art Museum/John N.A. Griswold House

Image by wallyg
Completed in 1864, the John N.A. Griswold House, at 76 Bellevue Avenue, is a seminal work by the noted American architect Richard Morris Hunt and is considered by architectural historians to be the first example of the mature Stick Style of architecture, drawing from the vernacular styles of rural France. Hunt’s first major commission in Newport, it was designed for John Noble Alsop Griswold, a China Trade merchant and financier. Hunt was the first American to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris where he met John N.A. Griswold, and his wife Jane Emmet Griswold in 1846. The Griswold’s decision to build a summer house in Newport designed by a major architect established a trend that continued throughout the 20th century.

A 2-1/2 story wood frame building is magnificently offset with asymmetrical elevations, and sheltered by a steep, complex slate roof comprised of a central mansard with multiple intersecting gables and corners. An asymmetrically placed porte cochere, projecting polygonal and rectangular bays, and a deep veranda on the west with an offset rear ell all contribute to the pictuersque silhouette.

It is also nationally significant as the home, since 1916, of the Art Association of Newport, now called the Newport Art Association, America’s oldest known surviving art association, established in 1912. Its founding took place during a transitional period in the history of American art, developing out of the art colony movement and the rise of American Impressionism at the turn of the century, and at the same time introducing innovative New York shows to a New England audience.

The museum collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets historic and contemporary visual arts of the highest quality with an emphasis on the rich artistic heritage of Newport, the state of Rhode Island and southeastern New England. Today, the museum is housed on a two-acre campus, also including the Cushing Memorial Gallery and the Gilbert S. Kahn Building. The Griswold House currently houses restored rooms, galleries, a children’s art classroom, administrative offices, a lecture hall, the Griffon Shop and the Museum Store. The surrounding park and sculpture garden is used for many outdoor programs during the summer months.

Explore: August 22, 2007