Walters Art Museum

Museum building of the Walters Art Museum

The Walters Art Museum is an art museum in Baltimore , Maryland .

history

The origin of the collection goes back to William Thompson Walters . He began collecting works by regional artists in the 1850s. When the American Civil War began , he went to Paris with his family. Here he began to acquire European works of art from artists, dealers and at exhibitions in France, England, Italy and Switzerland. He returned to the United States in 1865 and first opened his home on Mount Vernon Place in Baltimore in 1874 to show the collection to a wide audience.

After the death of William Thompson Walters in 1894, his son Henry Walters inherited the art collection. He expanded the collection and in September 1900 acquired three neighboring properties to expand the exhibition area. A large extension in the Renaissance and Baroque styles was built here by 1909, using 1,700 original parts of a Roman palace . Henry Walters inherited the Baltimore City collection and buildings in 1931.

The Walters Art Gallery opened as a public art collection on November 3, 1934 . In 1974 and 1991 extensions were built. The name was changed to Walters Art Museum in 2001.

From 1999 to 2008, was in the Walters Art Museum Archimedes Palimpsest digitized, a pergamentener Palimpsest - Code , the otherwise preserved writings of Archimedes includes.

Collections

The collections are divided into seven sections. The antique collection houses works from the Near East as well as Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan art . The group of Walters 48.42 , a group of Attic vase painters, was named after a bowl from the collection of Greek vases. Secular and religious objects from the Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine periods are shown in the Middle Ages section. The art of the Renaissance and Baroque is represented by masterpieces by Pietro Lorenzetti , Hugo van der Goes , Raffael , Giulio Romano , Heemskerck , Veronese , Pontormo , El Greco , Ribera , Lievens , Bernini , Reni , Pannini , and Tiepolo . This section also shows old furniture, ceramics and historical weapons and armor. 19th century painting is presented in the museum by artists such as Eugène Delacroix , Ingres , Millet , Daumier , Gérôme , Monet , Sisley , Pissarro and Manet . This area is complemented by one of the largest collections with works by the sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye . A precious Easter egg from Fabergé's workshop is one of the highlights of the decorative arts department, along with jewelry from Lalique and Tiffany . In the Asian section, Korean, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Cambodian and Japanese sculptures, weapons, lacquer work and porcelain are on display. Rare manuscripts and manuscripts as well as old books are another collection area of the museum.