Evergreen: The Garrett Family, Collectors and Connoisseurs,Used

A lavishly illustrated guide to the stunning art, dcor, and library of historic Evergreen, the home of Baltimores Garrett family.Evergreenthe longtime home of the Garrett family in north Baltimoreoffers a preeminent example of antebellumAmerican Italianate architecture. It also houses a remarkably diverse collection of over 50,000 objects, including paintings, furniture, sculpture, ceramics, and rare books. Acquired by two generations of the prominent Garrett family, selfdescribed collectors by instinct and by education, the assemblage of fine and decorative arts is remarkable in scope and inventiveness. Now part of the Johns Hopkins University, the mansion endures as a rare visual encyclopedia, representative of nearly all major architectural and design movements indicative of Americas transition from a predominantly agrarian society to a world industrial power.This meticulously researched and handsomely illustrated volume honors the distinct and richly layered collections that characterize Evergreen. The book opens with a history of the philanthropic family itself, which helped run the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and develop many of the Monument Citys most important civic and cultural institutions. Tracing their evolution as collectors and philanthropists, the book charts the familys artistic tastes and aesthetic sensibilities from the Gilded Age to the World Wars while also describing the physical landscape and architecture of Evergreen.The Asian Art section explores the world renowned Garrett Collection of Chinese and Japanese art. As one of the earliest American collections of Japanese art assembled, it provides an important insight into collecting habits of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among its highlights is one of only a half dozen examples of blue lacquer known to exist, as well as examples of Chinese Imperial porcelain.The Decorative Arts section highlights the furniture, textiles, and other applied arts largely commissioned or collected by the Garretts. Beginning with the Aesthetic Movement of the 1880s and the talents of renowned design firms such as Herter Brothers, Liberty & Company, and Louis C. Tiffany and Company, Evergreens interiors have embraced each succeeding decorative trendincluding the Bourbon, Colonial, Empire, and Renaissance revivals, the Arts and Crafts movement, and European modernism.The Fine Arts section showcases modernist art assembled by Alice Warder Garrett and her husband, Ambassador John Work Garrett. Credited as the first Baltimore gallery to exhibit a Picasso, Evergreens collection of drawings, paintings, and sculpture document the couples aesthetic appreciation and connoisseurship, which began at the threshold of World War I. Included are works by such artists as Pierre Bonnard, Jeandouard Vuillard, Lon Bakst, Miguel Covarrubias, Raoul Dufy, Herbert Haseltine, Amedeo Modigliani, and Ignacio Zuloaga.Evergreens John Work Garrett Library, built between the years immediately following the American Civil War and World War II, ranks among the most extensive private American collections of its kind from that period. Highlights include a recently discovered and ambitious rare book desiderata manuscript from the headiest period of John Work Garretts book collecting in 1929; an original John James Audubon engraved metal plate for his doubleelephant folio Birds of America, a complete copy of which is also held by the library; the Garrett Zafarnama, a sumptuously illustrated fifteenthcentury Persian illuminated manuscript by the renowned artist Bihzad; and all four seventeenthcentury folios of Shakespeares collected plays.A celebration of one of Baltimores grandest nineteenthcentury mansions, Evergreen reveals fascinating life stories through the richly preserved family archive and the historical context that remains through Evergreens evolving architectural spaces and growing collections. This volume will appeal to art collectors and lovers