Winter 2016

2016 Antiques & Fine Art 153 triglyphs in the cornice are crisply carved and each block of rusticated wood is carefully beveled. The building is a triumph of reason, appropriate to its educational purpose to enlighten, where every feature is clearly articulated and the spaces create a serene atmosphere. Celebrated as an architectural triumph upon its completion in 1750 and hailed as a singular building in the colonies, the Redwood Library sat proudly on a high point of ground at the edge of the city overlooking the harbor in the distance (Fig. 5). Ezra Stiles, the distinguished theologian and a founder of Brown University, served as librarian, until he became president of Yale University. This golden age of scholars and lively discussion ended when the British occupation during the Revolution left the library forlorn, albeit still standing, and much of its collection dispersed. As a Loyalist, Peter Harrison f led Newport for New Haven, where he died in 1775. With its famed architect gone and Newport no longer a thriving commercial center, the Redwood Library entered a beleaguered phase, but it aged well over time. Artists, writers, and numerous visitors, among them George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, came to see the famous site. Generations of eminent schola rs and Fig. 6: Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828). Self Portrait at Twenty Four , 1778. Oil on canvas, 16¾ x 12¼ inches. Gift of Louisa Lee Waterhouse, 1864. The Redwood Library and Athenaeum. The Rhode Island-born artist first found patrons in Newport. He later studied under Benjamin West in London. next page , clockwise from far left : Fig. 7: John Smibert (1688–1751). Henry Collins , ca. 1736. Oil on canvas, 49¾ x 25 inches. The Gladys Moore Vanderbilt Széchényi Memorial Collection; Gift of Mrs. Alexander E. Eltz, 1991. The Redwood Library and Athenaeum. The artist was a member of the entourage accompanying Dean George Berkeley to Newport in 1729. Smibert stayed in New England and eventually designed Faneuil Hall (1740-1742) in Boston, Mass. Fig. 8: Card table attributed to John Townsend (1733–1809), ca. 1760. Mahogany. H. 26½, W. 34¼, D. 18 in. Owned by Sarah Pope Redwood, daughter-in-law of Abraham Redwood. Presented by Ellen Townsend to the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, 1883. Photograph courtesy of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum. Fig. 9: Samuel Vernon (1683–1737). Tankard , ca. 1715. Silver. H. 7, D. 5¼ in. Descended in the Easton family of Newport to Ellen Townsend, who gifted the tankard to the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in 1880. Photograph courtesy of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum.