AFA 18th Anniversary

2018 Antiques & Fine Art 183 Fig. 14 : Robert Henri (American, 1865–1929), Miss Kaji Waki, 1909. Oil on canvas. VMFA; The James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection (L2015.13.30). J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art, the first of its kind at VMFA. That fund has since acquired more than fifty master works by American artists from the eighteenth to the twentieth century (Figs. 10, 11). The last decades of the twentieth century were watershed years for American art, in the wake of which arrived two extraordinary gifts of the twenty-first century. In 2008, the Museum of the Cit y of New York donated t he Worsham- Rockefeller Bedroom (Fig. 12). Though gifts from one institution to another are always a rarity, this i n s t a nc e wa s pa r t icu l a rly me a n i ng f u l . A remarkable example of a period interior crafted during t he inaugura l dec ades of domest ic decoration, the bedroom embodies the high-style tastes and techniques fashioned at the hands of America’s most talented craftsmen. The room’s aesthetic value is enriched by the story it tells of R ichmond-born Cat herine A rabel la Duva l Yarrington (1850–1924), a Virginia phoenix who, out of the ashes of the Civil War, remade herself in Gilded Age New York. After her 1884 marriage to Collis P. Huntington (1821–1900), she sold the residence to John D. Rockefeller. Similarly imbued with the power of place is the gift of Virginians James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin (Fig. 13). More than seventy works by American masters now grace the wing that bears their name (Fig. 14). In tribute to a century of art patrons united by their shared idea l of philanthropy as good citizenship, VMFA is honored to host the loan exhibition at the 2018 Winter Antiques Show in support of East Side House Settlement. Collecting for the Commonwealth/Preserving for the Nation: Celebrating a Century of Art Patronage, 1919– 2018—Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will be on view at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, January 19–28, 2018.  Susan J. Rawles is the associate curator of American painting and decorative art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond . 1. Cited in The Red Cross Courier, XIV, 9 (March 1935): 8. 2. The New York Times , January 25, 1935, cited in The Red Cross Courier: 16. 3. “Secretary Lane Preaches Gospel of True Americanism for Home and Foreign Born,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, Vol. 69, no 12 (January 12, 1919): 1.