Inside the Cosmos Club

 The Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20008/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. "founded in 1878, is a private social club for men and women distinguished in science, literature and the arts or public service. Members come from virtually every profession that has anything to do with scholarship, creative genius or intellectual distinction."

Members in the Cosmos Club have included three U.S. presidents, two U.S. vice-presidents, 12 U.S. Supreme Court justices, and more than a few Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winners, in addition to recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  (Please see below.)

A few Saturdays ago I got to go on a public tour and saw:

This portrait of artist and inventor Samuel Morse (1791-1872) in the entrance hall.  (Terra Foundation's 2014 Gallery of the Louvre about Morse's painting is a fabulous book which may be in the Cosmos library.  It should be.)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Also in the entrance hall on the right side is a bust of ...?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the second floor and centered at the end of the Long Gallery is a couple taking a dance lesson in the recently restored Warne Ballroom/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The recently restored (2012) Beaux-Arts Warne Ballroom where a dance lesson was underway. It was shocking to see...across the floor! Men in coats and ties on a Saturday. I declare!  Magnifico.  Maybe it is close to the apocalypse, after all/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Back to the Long Gallery above this mantle is a portrait of Henry Clay (1777-1852), statesman, member of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, three time unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. presidency, and not a member of the Cosmos Club which was founded after Mr. Clay died/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A closer view of Henry Clay with a bad light reflection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From the Long Gallery, peeking into what is perhaps a private dining room where luncheon is served?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the second floor is a bust of John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), the Cosmos founder and in whose home the Club was born/Photo by Patricia Leslie

One of the most spectacular rooms at the Club is the library which the website says contains 9,500 volumes.  It is a lovely, comfortable room where bookish luxuriate/Photo by Patricia Leslie

These visitors became like statues, unable to move, starstruck by the sight of a wealth of books in an elegant setting/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What? Cards?  Paper cards?  Used for checkouts?  Are the Digital Police aware?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Books written by living Cosmos Club members are found on these shelves, and once the authors die, their places here terminate and their books are moved elsewhere in the Club, a docent told me/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Another view of the library.  Can you tell it's one of my fav digs at the Cosmos Club?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

And another view. Don't you like the circular arrangement of books on the table?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Titles you may have read/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Another view of an unusual book arrangement.  I am the bookish sort who relishes them!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Atlas, anyone?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Through a curtain darkly, a window at the front of the mansion looks out on Mass Ave./Photo by Patricia Leslie

How about a blind date with a book? What a clever idea!
/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Club's chess champions for all to see, in the Periodicals Room which features 140 journal titles and adjoins the library/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Periodicals Room/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A hallway which separates the Periodicals Room from the Warne Ballroom over which Mathilde Townsend (on wall) presides in a digital presentation, donated by members and hung in 2015. The original, painted by John Singer Sargent in 1907, was given in 1952 by Ms. Townsend, the daughter of the mansion's previous owner, to the National Gallery of Art where it is currently not on view/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Mathilde Townsend by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).  Please pardon the light's reflection/Photo by Patricia Leslie At this link is a better photograph. From just a cursory search, I was unable to find the birth and death years for Ms. Townsend.

One of the Cosmos' grandfather clocks, this one at the top of the stairwell on a second floor landing/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The view from the grandfather clock/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Some of the 61 Pulitzer Prize winners and Cosmos' members, pictured on the ground floor beyond the entrance hallway/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Some of the 36 Nobel Prize winners and Cosmos' members, pictured on the ground floor beyond the entrance hallway/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Some of the 55 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award and Cosmos' members, pictured on the ground floor beyond the entrance hallway/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Dolley Madison (1768-1849) presides over her room with a face rendered not as attractive as the one we have come to love and adore/Photo by Patricia Leslie
 
 A U.S. silver dollar commemorating Dolley Madison who lived in what is now known as Madison Place on Lafayette Square from 1837 until 1849 when she died. The Cosmos Club bought the house in 1886 and occupied it until 1952 when it moved to the present mansion/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Postage stamps in the U.S. and beyond honoring past Cosmos Club members/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Darling, how pleasant it was, so unusual to see gentlemen dressed in coats and ties on a Saturday.  A Saturday.  Men dressed up as men!  

Dearie, they were taking dancing lessons, no less, with gentlewomen dressed as if they were going to a White House event.  Quelle surprise!  People dressed to impress! On a Saturday morning in this town where the fashion de jour is to look as bad and as wrinkled as you possibly can.

At the Cosmos Club, gentle people treat each other with respect and dignity and dress the part. Thank goodness, some are still left. Come and see for yourself!  And, perhaps, join the Club!  Membership is open to all presidents, vice presidents, other VIPs named above, and others with proper credentials and pedigree. Fees are not as costly as one might think.

What:  Public tours of the Cosmos Club

When:  Every other month at 10 a.m. on Saturdays.  The next tour is scheduled for November 11, 2017 (Veterans Day weekend).

Where: 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20008

How much:  No charge

For more information:  202-387-7783 or clubservices@cosmosclub.org.

patricialesli@gmail.com

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The 'Louvre' exits Washington on Sunday

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833, oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

What?

The Gallery of the Louvre is going to leave the National Gallery of Art on July 8 after a year's sojourn in Washington, alas.

Say it isn't so.  Can't it stay here forever?  The people love it and want it to remain in the West Building in that perfect gallery.

It is going to leave.  The Terra Foundation for American Art has been gracious to loan it to the National Gallery of Art where it has occupied prominent position, and there is only one day more to see it.

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), yes, the inventor (Morse code), painted Gallery of the Louvre between 1831-1833, and it is big.  He copied 38 masterpieces from the Louvre, and hung them in his Gallery of the Louvre's Salon Carre in desired arrangements that he favored. You may read more about it here. 

When I went over to the National Gallery at lunch to check out George Bellows again, I remembered the exit date for Louvre and swung around the corner for one last look. Sigh.

Have you ever heard of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs?  You must not be from the South.  A modification of their hit "Stay" (1961) may be applied to the people's desire to re-arrange the location of Morse's Gallery.

Stay, ahhh
Just a little bit longer
Please, please, please, please, please
Tell me that you're going to

Now your owner won't mind
And the Gallery won't mind
If we have another look, ya
Just one more time

Oh, won't you stay
Just a little bit longer
Please let me hear you say
That you will

Say you will!

Oh ya, just a little bit longer
Please, please, please, please, please
Tell me your going to
Come on, come on, come on, stay
Come on, come on, come on, stay, oh la de da
Come on, come on, come on, stay, my, my, my, my
Come on, come on, come on , stay

What: Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When: Now through July 8, 2012, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

patricialesli@gmail.com

National Gallery of Art hosts 'Louvre' symposium

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833
oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

This Friday and Saturday the National Gallery of Art will hold a public symposium devoted to Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre, a 19th-century painting of 38 paintings hung, according to the artist's desires, in a grand salon at the Louvre. 

Artist Morse (1791-1872), yes, the same person who developed the Morse Code,
rearranged painting placements and did not draw them to scale, according to Peter John Brownlee of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the owner of the work and lender to the National Gallery.  Mr. Brownlee is one of the Friday guest lecturers.

Morse's subject matter can halt visitors in their tracks as they walk the main level of the West Building and come upon Gallery of the Louvre where a detailed brochure names the paintings in the work and the history behind it. The art is wonderfully intriguing and mysterious and full of details which you can see for yourself now through July 8, the last day of its display in Washington, D.C.

How many single paintings can you cite which warrant a two-day event filled with commentary, questions, discussion, eight lectures by experts from around the globe, and a film?

Here's the schedule:

Public Symposium
Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre in Focus
Held in conjunction with the exhibitionA New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

April 20, 2012 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.West Building Ground Floor, Lecture Hall
3:00–3:05
Opening Remarks
Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art
3:05–3:10
Introduction
Franklin Kelly, chief curator and deputy director, National Gallery of Art
3:10–3:40
A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre
A documentary on the extensive six-month conservation treatment of the Gallery of the Louvre, this 30-minute film shares new information about the painting and features interviews with conservators, curators, and other specialists. Produced by Sandpail Productions for the Terra Foundation for American Art.
3:40–4:25
Morse's Materials and Techniques
Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, independent conservators
4:25–5:00
Samuel F. B. Morse's Lectures on the Affinity of Painting with the Other Fine Arts and the Creation of Gallery of the Louvre
Peter J. Brownlee, associate curator, Terra Foundation for American Art

Saturday, April 21 from 11:00 to 5:00West Building Ground Floor, Lecture Hall
11:00–11:10
Opening Remarks
Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art
11:10–11:20
Introduction
Franklin Kelly, chief curator and deputy director, National Gallery of Art
11:20–11:55
Samuel Morse's Louvre in Context
Andrew McClellan, professor and dean of academic affairs for arts and sciences, Tufts University

11:55–12:30
American Artists and the Louvre
Olivier Meslay, associate director of curatorial affairs, Dallas Museum of Art
12:30–1:30
BREAK
1:30–2:05
Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre as a Religious Painting
David Bjelajac, professor of art and American studies, The George Washington University
2:05–2:40
1832: The Gallery of the Louvre and the Electric Telegraph
Jean-Philippe Antoine, professor, department of visual arts, Université Paris 8
2:40–3:15
The Tradition of Paintings-within-Paintings
Catherine Roach, assistant professor, department of art history, Virginia Commonwealth University
3:15–3:40
BREAK
3:40–4:15
Painting and Technology: Samuel F. B. Morse and the Visual Transmission of Intelligence
Richard Read, Winthrop Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts,
The University of Western Australia
4:15–4:50
The Forest of the Old Masters: The Chiaroscuro of American Places
Alexander Nemerov, Vincent Scully Professor of the History of Art, Yale University
This program is coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art

I would like to thank Marie Stafford for directing my attention to the book The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris (2011) by David McCullough which tells the stories about the Parisian lives of Mr. Morse and others.

In the West Building at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie


What: Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When: Now through July 8, 2012, every day from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

patricialesli@gmail.com

'The Louvre' at the National Gallery of Art

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833
oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

A small portion of the collection from the Louvre may be found in one large painting at the National Gallery's West Building closest to the Fourth Avenue entrance, steps from the tranquil East Garden Court, in a hall gallery all by itself.  It is entitled Gallery of the Louvre.

The painter was Samuel Morse (1791-1872), yes, that Samuel Morse, the same person who developed the Morse Code for telegraphs and a co-inventor of the telegraph itself, who began his adult life as a painter. 

Have your seen this marker on the side of a building in downtown Washington?  Where is it? /Patricia Leslie

Like so many artists of varying genres, Morse had to fund his passion of composing historical painting by doing what comes financially rewarding, in his case, making portraits.  While working on one of the Marquis de Lafayette in Washington in 1825, Morse received the chilling news that his wife was ill in New Haven.  By the time he reached home, Lucretia Pickering Walker was dead. 

A central figure in the Gallery of the Louvre which Morse painted a few years after Lucretia's death may indeed be she.

The large painting is filled with Morse's recreation of 38 masterpieces found at the Louvre which he "re-hung" in one of the Louvre's grandest galleries, the Salon Carre.  Morse made his Louvre piece into a workshop where students studied and copied paintings, much like they do today at the National Gallery of Art
 
His painting of the paintings is not drawn to scale, said tour leader Peter John Brownlee, the associate curator for the Terra Foundation for American Art, chief sponsor of the exhibition and the owner of the work. 

A viewer will immediately wonder about the yellow veil which covers the painting, caused, said Mr. Brownlee, by resinous materials Morse used to produce richer colors, and by the layers of varnish the artist applied for quicker drying.

Morse did not identify any of the people in the painting, however, the experts have.  The couple in the center is likely the artist resting his arm on his daughter's shoulder, and to the right of them, a solitary woman, perhaps the deceased Mrs. Morse or a student. In the left corner are, most likely, Morse's friend, James Fenimore Cooper and Cooper's wife and daughter, and in the left foreground, another artist friend, Richard Habersham.

Standing in the center background at the entrance to the Grand Hall with a little girl and talking to another artist friend, Horatio Greenough, is an unidentified woman who bears resemblance to Marge Simpson with upswept hair, fashioned pyramid-style. (Homer would be proud Marge made it to the walls of the National Gallery of Art.)

Some of the works Morse copied were drawn by Claude Lorrain, Raphael, Titian, Antoine Watteau, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Simone Cantarini.  It is a totally stunning work which I have been to personally visit only three times, and I always make sure to chart Gallery on my daily (well, almost) walks through the National Gallery to see what new details I can uncover.  There are many!  And it is fun.

Mr. Brownlee describes Gallery of the Louvre in a handsome eight-paged color brochure provided by Terra Foundation and available at no charge in the gallery.

Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

What:  Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When:  Now through July 8, 2012, every day from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where:  West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission:  No charge

Metro stations:  Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

patricialesli@gmail.com