Orchestrating elegance

By Kathleen M. Morris, Alexis Goodin, Melody Barnett Deusner, Hugh Glover

Subjects: Homes and haunts, Exhibitions, Music rooms and equipment, Decoration and ornament, Art patronage, Piano music, Greek influences, Johnstone, Norman & Co, History

Description: "During the 19th century, New York City's grand mansions on Fifth and Madison Avenues boasted sumptuous interiors, often with each room decorated in a different historic style. Financier, art collector, and philanthropist Henry Gurdon Marquand famously commissioned eminent British painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) to create the Greco-Pompeian music room for his home. This beautiful publication documents and examines the celebrated design, which included an elaborately decorated Steinway grand piano, a large suite of matching furniture, and an embroidery scheme for the upholstery and coordinated curtains. Alma-Tadema secured Frederic Leighton to create a major painting for the room's ceiling and Sir Edward Poynter to paint the piano's fallboard. One of Alma-Tadema's most famous paintings A Reading from Homer, was painted for this room."--Jacket.