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


As the first president of the Art Students League, founded in 1875, Waller advocated for the educational mission of museums. In this work, the artist depicts The Met’s second location between 1873 and 1879, the Douglas Mansion, formerly at 128 West Fourteenth Street. From the Museum’s earliest years, sculpture held a dominant physical presence in its galleries, as this view attests. Based on drawings made on-site, Waller carefully recorded the entrance hall, later noting that, "as far as it goes, it may be depended upon as accurate, and therefor [sic] historical." Here, a woman attentively consults a guidebook in front of William Wetmore Story’s Polyxena (1873), then on loan to The Met and now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

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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