Stuart picture gallery, ca. 1883. From Artistic Houses: being a series of interior views of a number of the most beautiful and celebrated homes in the United States; with a description of the art treasures contained therein.

1883 - 1884

Photogravure

Overall: 9 x 11 1/2 in. (22.9 x 29.2 cm)

Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, New-York Historical Society

PR.087.StuartResidence

As their collection grew, Robert L. Stuart and Mary McCrea Stuart planned for a new mansion to house it: a second empire-style house at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 68th Street. Designed by J. William Schickel, it featured wrought-iron balconies, bay windows, and a mansard roof with dormer windows and cast-iron cresting. The New York Times proclaimed during construction that it would “prove one of the most notable ornaments of the avenue.” While Stuart passed away the year before the home’s completion, Mary McCrea Stuart finished the project. An 1883 book titled Artistic Houses: being a series of interior views of a number of the most beautiful and celebrated homes in the United States… described the gallery as “an oblong room with the corners cut off, devoted to the late Mr. Stuart’s fine collections of modern oil-paintings and of minerals, its chief architectural feature being the series of ebonized-oak cabinets below the picture-line.” Above the picture-line was a dramatic salon-style display of sixty-six canvases from the vast art collection, with the entire space “copiously illuminated by a sky-light.” This photograph shows a portrait of Robert L. Stuart by Seymour Joseph Guy (S-70) prominently displayed on an easel to the right. The Stuarts' remaining paintings hung throughout the house, mainly in the halls of the lower three floors.

DescriptionMrs. Robert L. Stuart (Mary) residence, 961 Fifth Avenue, New York City. William Schickel, Architect, 1881-1883; interior view, picture gallery.

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