The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt: Architecture and Art for an American Civilization

ISBN: 1913875814

Author: Watters, Sam

Condition: New

The illustrated story of the life and times of architect Richard Morris Hunt, his forty-year career, and his impact on American culture after the Civil War.Celebrated internationally in the nineteenth century as Americas premier architect, Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) is best known for his opulent Gilded Age Vanderbilt mansions, including Biltmore, the Breakers, Marble House, and other landmark works. Yet Hunts impact on American culture after the Civil War ranges far beyond his lavish palaces. In The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt, historian Sam Watters reveals Hunts remarkable influence in creating the institutions and their conventions that transformed Old World traditions into his generations idea of an American civilization, through architecture, interior design, sculpture, painting, and the ardent advocacy of artisan trades.Watters repositions Hunt and his forty-year career in light of new discoveries and connections made through his meticulous study of the Richard Morris Hunt Collection at the Library of Congress. Featuring 200 illustrations, including Hunts drawings, images he collected, portraits of his privileged New York and Newport inner circle, and new photographs and plans, this dynamic biography follows the contours of American thought that shaped Hunts life and work among the ruling one percent.