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Circa 1910. "The Picture Gallery, New York Public Library." Please, no talking while we gaze upon the Art. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.
This is the Edna Barnes Salomon Exhibition Room, on the same floor as the Main Reading Room. It still serves as exhibition space.
The New York Public Library published a guide in 1911: Catalogue of Paintings in the Picture Galleries. This lists several Gilbert Stuart paintings on display in the General Gallery including two paintings of George Washington; neither is the "Landsdowne Portrait." The large full length portrait visible here was painted for Peter Jay Munro and is now referred to as the Munro-Lenox Portrait. It was auctioned off by the library in 2004 and is now in private hands.
The large painting on the far wall is Mihály Munkácsy’s The Blind Milton Dictating 'Paradise Lost' to His Daughters.
Is this gallery still there? What is it called?
Whoever arranged the paintings seems to have had an eye for symmetry. Note the size of the pieces, as well as the 2 portraits, one facing right, the other to the left.
Is that Gilbert Stuart's "Lansdowne Portrait," 1796, on the left wall?
Interesting the little "stalls" they have set up on the outside walls so that one needs to approach the art from the front and cannot walk along the wall (and possibly brush against a painting, damaging it). I'm no great art aficionado, but I've been to a number of museums over the years and don't recall seeing this before... maybe for an isolated work, but not along the whole lengths of walls.
Are the use of stalls to prevent walking along the walls still practiced?
[This is a continuous railing. Not "stalls." - Dave]
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