Entrance Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in Fourteenth Street

Frank Waller American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 773

The former Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street was The Met’s second home from 1873 to 1879 before it moved to its current location. From the museum’s earliest years, sculpture has had a dominant physical presence, as this view of the entrance hall attests. Based on in situ drawings, Waller carefully recorded the installation, later noting that "as far as it goes it may be depended upon as accurate, and therefor [sic] historical." The first president of the Art Students League, a school founded in 1875, he advocated for the educational mission of museums. Here a woman attentively consults a guidebook in front of William Wetmore Story’s Polyxena (1873), then on loan to The Met.

Entrance Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in Fourteenth Street, Frank Waller (American, New York 1842–1923 Morristown, New Jersey), Oil on wood, American

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Entrance Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in Fourteenth Street, Frank Waller (American, New York 1842–1923 Morristown, New Jersey), Oil on wood, American
Entrance Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in Fourteenth Street, Frank Waller (American, New York 1842–1923 Morristown, New Jersey), Oil on wood, American
Entrance Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in Fourteenth Street, Frank Waller (American, New York 1842–1923 Morristown, New Jersey), Oil on wood, American

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