University of Virginia Art Museum curator Andrea Douglas, along
with associate art professor Maurie McInnis and architecture
professor Richard Guy Wilson, working with the Landons, selected
and researched the objects included in the show. They also
developed courses at the university and prepared an American
studies symposium on the collection. Art history graduate
students visited the collection, studied the pieces and wrote the
catalog entries. It was truly an academical village cooperation
and the result is most impressive.
A 1745 Boston mahogany bureau table or knee-hole desk
demonstrates the more reserved form of pieces made in
Massachusetts at the time.
"A Jeffersonian Ideal: Selections from the Dr and Mrs Henry
C. Landon III Collection of American Fine and Decorative Art"
comprises some 70 pieces of American fine and decorative art. The
objects are, according to Douglas, a balanced representation of the
Landon holdings, which are divided equally between fine and
decorative art. Douglas and her team made their selections of
objects to be placed on view considering the pieces the Landons
enjoyed the most and with an eye toward representing the important
schools, forms or figures in the panoply of decorative arts in the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
For example, Douglas points to a Benjamin West genre painting,
the 1796 "Laborers Resting Near London" that is an atypical West.
Not only is it fairly small (15 by 21 inches) for a West picture,
but the subject matter is considerably less grand than his usual
epic representations. Its inclusion in the exhibit, notes
Douglas, rounds out our knowledge of the artist. Other works on
view are there specifically to expand the visitor's knowledge.
They may not be iconic works, but they have been chosen carefully
by the collectors and by the museum for what they tell us.
Douglas remarks that the Landons never sought those iconic
pieces, but looked instead for pieces by important makers in
forms that are seldom seen. She says that they were as interested
in scholarship as they were in collecting. It is fitting that the
collection is on view at the university where exposure to the
arts is a requirement. As Douglas points out, the Jeffersonian
ideal drives what happens at the University of Virginia.
Among the major furniture pieces on view is a Hartford, Conn.,
Federal cherry sideboard. Its flamboyant inlay suggests the
influence of Massachusetts furniture maker Nathan Lombard, and
the influence of the Hepplewhite tradition is evident in its
form. It is, as Andrea Douglas says, simply, "Unbelievably
beautiful."
The Landons acquired the sideboard in the 1960s through Craig and
Tarlton of Raleigh, N.C., who guided them to a number of other
pieces, including a Garvan Philadelphia high chest, a pair of
Philadelphia Chippendale side chairs and eight late Eighteenth
Century Philadelphia dining chairs.
The circa 1810 giltwood girandole mirror has four arms and a
nice eagle finial.
A 96-inch Philadelphia walnut high chest with carving
attributed to Nicholas Bernard dates from 1760 and demonstrates the
exuberance of ornament that was typically Philadelphian. It stands
in marked contrast to a Salem cherry example that was executed with
regional restraint.
Collector Henry Landon describes his and his wife Barbara's early
collecting, freely admitting to the mistakes of many novices. As
he explains, "We both grew up in homes filled with antiques," he
in North Wilkesboro, N.C., where he practiced internal medicine
for years, and his wife along the eastern shore of Maryland.
Their 1958 meeting was a romantic one - aboard the RMS Queen Mary
on the second night out en route to England where Henry Landon
was headed for the first conference on the link between cigarette
smoking and cancer. Barbara Landon spoke French like a native and
captured his interest straightaway. When they married the next
year, they looked to furnish their home in a way similar to what
they had known. When they began, they bought reproductions of
late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century pieces, some
outright fakes, some married pieces and what he describes as
"Americanized English" pieces. From the start, they concentrated
on American furniture made between 1715 and 1810. The consistent
unifying factor in their collecting has been originality of form.
As their taste evolved and Landons determined that they wanted
the best and truest of particular forms, they sought out dealers
who would be straightforward about a piece's qualities and
shortcomings. It was an extensive search until they found James
Craig and Sam Tarlton. Craig offered guidance and honest
opinions. Through him the Landons eventually extended their
dealer range around the country. They studied as they searched,
recycling early mistakes, researching and refining their holdings
along the way.
Each acquisition was special and remains so, and the result is a
simply superlative collection.
Some objects in their collection represent the third and fourth
iteration of a particular form. As Landon puts it, "We sometimes
went through three or four replacements until we found 'the real
McCoy.'" For example, the stunning Hartford sideboard on view is
the third such piece in their collection's evolution.
