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The Cathedrals of Art, 1942–44
Florine Stettheimer (American, 1871–1944)
Oil on Canvas; 60 1/4 x 50 1/2 in. (153 x 127.6 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of Ettie Stettheimer, 1953 (53.24.1)

The Museum World

Three New York art museums are featured in this composition: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (center), the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, left) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (right). At the time, the museums were discussing various mergers, which never happened. Having the more encyclopedic collection and being the eldest of the three institutions, the Metropolitan commands the composition's center, with its prominent staircase flanked by double columns supporting an elegantly scripted sign. At the top of the staircase, Francis Henry Taylor the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1940, invites a small child to view some of the collection: a portrait by Frans Hals, an Egyptian sculpture of Queen Hapshetsut and a horse wearing parade armor. Founded in 1929 and dedicated to the art of the twentieth century, MoMA has a modern, two-story structure on the left showing elements of famous paintings by Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, and Henri Rousseau. Alfred H. Barr Jr., the well-known MoMA director rests in a lounge chair designed by the architect Le Corbusier and observes a small girl playing hopscotch on a Mondrian-like composition. Under the large red eagle on the right, Juliana Force, the Whitney's director at the time, stands with crossed arms and grim face in front of a single, monumental sculpture of the Whitney's benefactrice, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The emptiness of the Whitney's galleries boldly contrast with the more resplendent MoMA and Met galleries, perhaps revealing the reason for Force's stern expression.

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