Spectacles, ca. 18th century. These spectacles once belonged to Abraham Redwood, founder of the Redwood Library. Circular lens holders are filled with clear glass lenses within tortoise-shell frames and earpieces are adjustable in length by folding. The artist is unknown
George Washington, c. 1858. Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860)(after Charles Willson Peale 1741-1827). Oil on Canvas. Bequest of Roderick Terry, Jr. This painting is the earliest known depiction of George Washington, painted when he was only forty years old. Rembrandt Peale, son of Charles Willson Peale, was born in Pennsylvania. He received instruction in art from his father […]
Charles Bird King Self-Portrait at 30, c. 1815. Charles Bird King (1785-1862). Oil on Canvas. Bequest of Charles Bird King. Charles Bird King was born in Newport, made his living in Washington, DC as a painter of political figures and other celebrities of the day. Over the years, King contributed handsomely to the Library, giving […]
Gilbert Stuart Self-Portrait at 24, c. 1778. Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Oil on Canvas. Bequest of Louisa Lee Waterhouse. Gilbert Stuart was America’s great early portrait painter. He was born over a snuff mill in North Kingston, Rhode Island, and arrived to Newport virtually a penniless begger. He picked up artistic training from a traveling Scottish painter, […]
Mary Winthrop Wanton, c. 1740. Robert Feke (1707-1752). Oil on Canvas. Gift of Angelica Gilbert Gardiner. Mary Winthrop Wanton was the wife of Joseph Wanton, Rhode Island’s last colonial governor. The fashionable decolletage of her gown is cut so low that the scandalized Redwood directors a century later asked artist Jane Stuart (Gilbert Stuart’s daughter) […]
Henry Collins, c. 1736. John Smibert (1688-1751). Oil on Canvas. The Gladys Moore Vanderbilt Széchényi Memorial Collection. Henry Collins (1699-1764) was a Newport merchant, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. He was nicknamed, “Newport’s Lorenzo de Medici” for his generous and enthusiastic patronage of the emerging cultural life of colonial Newport. He donated the land on […]
Gilbert Stuart, c. 1825. John Henri Isaac Browere (1792-1834). Marble. Gift of Reverend Dr. Roderick Terry. Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) lived and studied art in Newport. Considered outstanding in his field, he spent his adult career in Newport, Scotland, London, Phildelphia, Boston, and Washington D.C., where he painted many familiar portraits, inculding the most famous […]
Pheidippides, Soldier of Marathon, c. 1917. Bronze. Gift of Mrs. George S. Scott. This bronze statue is a mechanical copy of the original marble in the Louvre by Jean Pierre Cortot (1787-1843), French School, and is known as The soldier of Marathon Announcing the Victory. Pheidippides is a character in a play by Aristophanes, he is said to have […]
The American School Boy, c. 1857. Joseph Mozier (1812-1870). Marble. Gift of Edward King. Joseph Mozier was born in Vermont and opened a studio in Rome in 1845 where he remained until his death. Most of Mozier’s themes had a strong literary, historical, or anecdotal appeal. His most famous work, The Prodigal Son, won the Grand […]
Captain Charles Hunter, c. 1875. Richard Saltonstall Greenough (1819-1904). Marble. Gift of Henry D. Phelps. Charles Hunter (1774-1849), son of Senator William Hunter (President of Redwood 1846-49) and Mary Robinson, was born in Newport 19 June 1813. He entered the Navy in 1831, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1841 and retired from service in 1855 due to ill […]
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