Gilded Mansions Cl

by Craven,Wayne

• ISBN13: 9780393067545
• ISBN10: 0393067548
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

The Gilded Age (1865'1918) saw the sudden rise of America's first High Society, including such prominent families as the Astors, Whitneys, and Vanderbilts. As an aristocracy based on fortunes recently acquired, these families endeavored to live like Europe's blue-blooded nobility, shedding Puritan restraint as they joyously flaunted their new wealth'”especially where their homes were concerned. They erected French chateaus and Italian palazzos on New York's Fifth Avenue, at Newport, and elsewhere, often taking inspiration from Parisian styles of the Second Empire. They rejected more modest American styles just as they rejected middle-class society, and for interior decoration they turned to such artisans as Tiffany, Herter Brothers, and Allard's of Paris. Immensely readable and illuminated with 250 stunning color and black-and-white illustrations, this is the fascinating story of America's first millionaire society, the way they lived and partied, and the lush artistic and cultural legacy they established.

Author Biography

Wayne Craven is the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Professor of Art History, Emeritus, at the University of Delaware.

Table of Contents

An Introduction to the Gilded Age	p. 7
Society, Europe, and Aristocracy: The Empire of the Parvenu	p. 19
The Early Mansions - Part One	p. 33
The Early Mansions - Part Two	p. 53
The Commodore and Beetlehead: The William Henry Vanderbilt Mansion	p. 81
Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt: A Petit Chateau on Fifth Avenue	p. 107
The Cornelius Vanderbilt II Mansion	p. 129
Newport: Vernacular versus Grandeur	p. 151
Richard Morris Hunt: Biltmore and The Rothschild Factor	p. 185
The Astor Mansion	p. 207
McKim, Mead and White: Origins of the Firm and the Early Work at Newport	p. 227
McKim, Mead and White: The Villard Houses	p. 239
Stanford White: Collector, Dealer, and Interior Decorator	p. 257
The William C. Whitney Houses	p. 275
Newport Revisited: Rosecliff Crossways, and The Elms	p. 291
The Progeny of the Petit Chateau and the Villard Houses	p. 309
Facades in the Modern French Manner	p. 337
Endnotes	p. 362
Bibliography	p. 371
Index	p. 375
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