A Month on The Hudson

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. -- Historic Hudson Valley, Boscobel Restoration and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are hosting their first annual "Hudson River Valley Art and Antiques Month." Five weeks of decorative and fine arts programs are planned at seven landmark properties along the Hudson River in March.

Curators from the sponsoring organizations, plus guest speakers and lecturers from other institutions, are leading the series. Participants will include Wendell Garrett, editor at large of The Magazine Antiques; American furniture dealer Robert Sack; Historic Hudson Valley curator Kathleen Eagen Johnson; Amelia Peck, curator of American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; garden writer Ogden Tanner; Kykuit curator Cynthia Bronson Altman; Gothic Revival expert Kathleen Mahoney; Kevin O'Rourke, author of a new work on Currier & Ives; and specialists from Christie's in New York.

Boscobel is the Federal-style house built between 1804 and 1808 by States and Elizabeth Dyckman. Restored and opened to the public in 1961, it is one of the finest surviving examples of American Neo-classical domestic architecture in America. The house contains a premiere collections of New York Federal furniture, including works by Duncan Phyfe, Michael Allison and Charles-Honore Lannuier. Complementing the furniture are exceptional collections of English lighting and European dining equipage.

Boscobel, on Route 9D in Garrison-On-Hudson, N.Y., offers dramatic views of the Hudson River Highlands and West Point.

Van Cortlandt Manor is an estate complex situated on the banks of the Croton River. Now a National Historic Landmark, the Eighteenth Century brick manor house is the centerpiece of the estate.

The decorative arts collection at Van Cortlandt Manor is of exceptional significance and interest, as much of it is original to the house and original to the family. The Van Cortlandt family purchased furniture of mahogany and other fine woods from Manhattan, Philadelphia and England and placed Anglo-Irish and American wine decanters and glasses, Chinese export porcelain and English pewter on their dining and tea tables. Curators have supplemented the collection with New York country furniture, English ceramics and Eighteenth Century textiles. The collections continue to evolve. A recent bequest, for example, will return to the house the original Eighteenth Century Chippendale chairs used at Van Cortlandt Manor. Van Cortlandt Manor was acquired from Van Cortlandt family descendants by John D. Rockefeller, Jr, in 1945, and is a property of Historic Hudson Valley, which maintains it as a museum of living history. Van Cortlandt Manor is on South Riverside Avenue in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Lyndhurst is an outstanding example of Gothic Revival architecture in America, and one of the nation's preeminent architectural landmarks. The mansion, overlooking the Hudson River from a hill above the Tappan Zee, was designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892) and was enlarged by him in 1864.

Fine and decorative arts on exhibit in the mansion include furniture designed by the architect, A.J. Davis; silver and household objects by Tiffany and Company; Aesthetic furniture by Herter Brothers; and glass, metalworks, and lighting fixtures designed by Tiffany Studios. Stained glass windows by Tiffany range from less than one square foot to dramatic two-story high cathedral-style windows.

The last owner of Lyndhurst, Jay Gould's youngest daughter, Anna, bequeathed the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation at her death in 1961. The estate grounds were opened to the public in 1965.

The first historic property in Westchester preserved and restored by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was Philipsburg Manor. The manor was established by Royal charter in 1693. The manor house on this property contains a premier collection of Seventeenth Century and early Eighteenth Century decorative arts made and used in the colony of New York. William and Mary and Queen Anne furniture, Chinese porcelain and European Delft and brass are represented. The international trade connections of the Philipse family are evident here.

Visitors may also enjoy an exhibition in the Philipsburg Manor Visitors Center Gallery titled, "Eighteenth Century Painting in Colonial and Federal America." The exhibition, assembled by curator Kathleen Eagen Johnson, includes important paintings and other works that are rarely on view, including portraits by Charles Wilson Peale, Gilbert Stuart and John Wollaston. Philipsburg Manor is a property of Historic Hudson Valley and is on Route 9 in North Tarrytown, N.Y.

Washington Irving's Sunnyside, the author's historic home, is a romantic cottage of the mid-Nineteenth Century. Situated in a picturesque riverside setting in Tarrytown, N.Y., Sunnyside contains some of the best documented interiors in America. The house is filled with Empire, Gothic Revival and Rococo Revival decorative arts. The vivid imagination that Washington Irving displayed in his writing is reflected in the rich decorating taste of the house that Irving called his "snuggery."

Many of the author's personal possessions remain in the house, particularly in the study, bedroom and parlor. European objects reflecting Irving's taste and travels are evident as well. A National Historic Landmark, Sunnyside is the property of Historic Hudson Valley.

Kykuit, in North Tarrytown, N.Y., was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family. Kykuit commands a view of the Hudson River and occupies a landscape of extensive stone terraces, formal gardens and glorious fountains. The gardens include Gov Nelson A. Rockefeller's collection of Twentieth Century sculpture.

The house itself contains furniture from the Eighteenth through Twentieth Centuries selected by decorator Ogden Codman; Asian ceramics collected by John D. Rockefeller, Jr, and his son, Nelson A. Rockefeller; and Chinese Export and English table services. Contemporary art and sculpture enliven the traditional and largely intact Eighteenth Century English-style interiors designed by Codman.

Kykuit is a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is maintained and administered by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, by agreement with the National Trust. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund operates the site as a center for the fund's philanthropic programs. Historic Hudson Valley, a network of museum properties founded as Sleepy Hollow Restorations by John D. Rockefeller, Jr, in 1951, administers the visitation program.

Kykuit opened to the public for the first item in 1994 and is now open from April through October each year. Special decorative arts tours during March are offered as part of "Hudson River Valley Art and Antiques Month" by reservation.

At the Union Church of Pocantico Hills in North Tarrytown, N.Y., stained glass windows created by modern masters Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Marc Chagall (1887-1985) are on view. Commissioned as memorials by members of the Rockefeller family whose estate, Kykuit, is nearby, the windows represent the final work of Matisse, completed just two days before his death, and the only cycle of church windows created by Chagall in the United States.

Matisse was commissioned to create a rose window to be in memory of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1876-1948), a distinguished patron of the arts and the wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Before his death, Matisse had finished the design and had also selected the colors and exact type of glass to be used in the window. His daughter carried out his instructions, and the window was dedicated on Mother's Day, 1956.

Marc Chagall was commissioned in 1963 to design a similar memorial to John D. Rockefeller, Jr, who had died in 1960. The large "Good Samaritan" window was installed and dedicated in 1965. Chagall went on to create eight side windows, seven of which are devoted to Old Testament subjects. The eight windows, established as a memorial to Michael Rockefeller, who was lost in New Guinea, is entitled "The Crucifixion (See and ye shall find)."

For details on specific programs being conducted at each site, contact Historic Hudson Valley's administrative offices at 914/631-8200.