Date: Fri 03-Sep-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Cornish-Parrish-mural

Full Text:

ESTATE ENTRUSTS HUG MAXFIELD PARRISH MURAL TO SMALL NEW ENGLAND MUSEUM

(with 1 cut)

CORNISH, N.H. -- The Cornish Colony Gallery and Museum, one of the smaller and

certainly the newest New England museum (it opened June 20, 1998), scored a

coup when the second-largest mural ever created by Maxfield Parrish arrived in

June to join the other murals which were created by the artist for Gertrude

Vanderbilt Whitney during the period 1914 to 1918. The museum was selected by

the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney estate as the best location for exhibition of

the Parrish mural until a suitable buyer can be found. The Cornish Colony

Gallery and Museum has been appointed the exclusive world-wide agent for the

sale of the mural, which until recently adorned the north wall of the Gertrude

Vanderbilt Whitney residence on Long Island.

The mural was removed from the wall, cleaned and mounted on a new stretcher

frame. There has been no damage to the mural during the 80 years since its

creation in Parrish's studio, nor upon its removal from the wall. Contact the

museum for a complete conservator's report.

This largest of the Whitney murals, known simply as the "Whitney Panel --

North Wall," measures 5« feet high and 18« feet wide. It is the longest

single-panel mural ever created by Parrish. It was shipped from Sotheby's in

New York to its destination in Cornish where it will be exhibited through

October.

This massive painting, which may be the most beautiful of all Parrish murals,

was created in 1918 for the north wall of Mrs Whitney's reception room in Old

Westbury (Long Island), N.Y. It features over 54 people arriving at a festive

gathering. Edith Wharton once described it as "one of the last hurrahs of the

age of innocence."

Alma Gilbert, director of the Cornish Colony Gallery and Museum, was recently

feted at a dinner for benefactors at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

in Philadelphia, which is displaying many of the Parrish works Gilbert has

given to the academy.

Gilbert has also donated many Parrish works to the Brandywine River Museum in

Chadds Ford, Pa. and to other non-profit institutions upon the closing of the

Maxfield Parrish Museum once located at his former home "The Oaks" in

Plainfield, N.H. The Brandywine Museum is having an auxiliary display of

Maxfield Parrish, based on gifts donated to them by Alma Gilbert, owner and

broker of Parrish originals for three decades.

The Cornish Colony Gallery and Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10

am to 5 pm and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. It is located on Route 12-A, the main

highway along the Connecticut River, a mile north of the Saint-Gaudens

National Park site. Telephone 603/675-6000.