Aesthetic Splendors: Highlights from the Gift of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore
At The Met Fifth Avenue
December 2, 2019–April 18, 2021
Aesthetic Splendors: Highlights from the Gift of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore presents nearly fifty superlative examples of paintings, furniture, metalwork, ceramics, and jewelry from the American Aesthetic movement and the Gilded Age. The works, most of which have never been seen by the public, date from the 1860s to the early 1890s, a period that coincides with many significant cultural achievements in New York, including the founding of The Met in 1870.
The exhibition in the American Wing evokes the scrupulously restored interiors of the Wigmores' home (which was constructed in 1883), with period light fixtures and reproduction wallpapers of the same era.
The objects in this exhibition are promised gifts from Museum trustee Barrie Wigmore and his wife, Deedee Wigmore, in honor of The Met's 150th Anniversary.
This episode of MetCollects traces the inventiveness across painting and decorative arts that typified the Aesthetic Movement in nineteenth-century America, as seen in five works recently given by Barrie and Deedee Wigmore.
Installation view of Aesthetic Splendors: Highlights from the Gift of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore
