Building a Reputation: Henry Gurdon Marquand’s New York Mansion

Orchestrating Elegance: Alma-Tadema and the Marquand Music Room

Melody Barnett Deusner
Publication Date
2017
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This catalogue essay illuminates the relationships between the artistic tastes and the business and social activities of Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819–1902), New York banker, Metropolitan Museum of Art president and donor, and patron of Lawrence Alma-Tadema. It demonstrates how Marquand’s investments in railroads, life insurance, and other fields first supported, and later undermined, his public reputation as a connoisseur worthy of holding masterpieces “in trust” for the nation.

Citation

Deusner, Melody Barnett. “Building a Reputation: Henry Gurdon Marquand’s New York Mansion.” In Orchestrating Elegance: Alma-Tadema and the Marquand Music Room, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute exhibition catalogue, edited by Kathleen M. Morris and Alexis Goodin, 37–61. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.