american illustration

 

Welcome to the National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI)

'The Most American of American Art'

Welcome to the National Museum of American Illustration, where artworks from the ‘Golden Age of American Illustration’ are presented in the ‘Gilded Age’ architectural frame of Vernon Court (1898). Visitors can appreciate the American Imagist Collection as a medley of beautiful pictures, but also as an historical overview of our unique culture. These works are our visual history, indeed they are American civilization illustrated. The original drawings and paintings in the Collection were specifically created for reproduction in books, advertisements, art prints, and periodicals. In the process, illustrators created iconic images, a mythology of our history, and a virtual catalog of bygone styles and desires. We cordially invite you to take The Grand Tour of the Museum.

 

was designed by Carrére & Hastings, architects of the New York Public Library, The Frick Collection, The Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Nemours (Du Pont mansion museum in Wilmington), the Neue Galerie, The United States Senate Office Building, and other nationally recognized architectural monuments.

The adjacent Stoneacre grounds, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the legendary first American landscape architect (designer of Central Park, the White House grounds, the National Park System, many Newport estates, and other notable projects) are to be restored, revitalized and preserved along with the dedication of a Memorial Arch in honor of Louis I. Kahn, the greatest American architect of the second half of the 20th century.

This unique tripartite project will comprise another great step forward towards protecting and enhancing Newport's architectural and artistic heritage.

 

Vernon Court combines art from the 'Golden Age of American Illustration' in 'Gilded Age' architecture. It is truly an alliance of art and architecture, rarely achieved and unique indeed. Other comparable institutions are the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Albert Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania, the Borghese Gallery in Rome, and Kenwood English Heritage, in London.

The National Arts Club is the Founding Institution supporting american illustration

 this Museum undertaking of great national significance.

 

The Cabinet of American Illustration (CAI) contains approximately 4,000 original drawings by 250 artists produced as illustrations for books and periodicals. Represented in the Cabinet are such leading illustrators as F.O.C. Darley, Thomas Nast, Arthur Burdett Frost, Alice Barber Stephens, Jessie Wilcox Smith, and Charles Dana Gibson. The collection includes works from the 1820s through the present, although drawings produced between 1880 and 1920, considered the golden age of American illustration, predominate.