Southern Folk Artist & Antiques Dealer/Collector: The New Orleans Museum of Art French Art

Saturday, August 18, 2012

The New Orleans Museum of Art French Art

Portrait of Mother and child 1782 by François-André Vincent

The New Orleans Museum of Art sits in City Park once a swampy, oak-filled forest, and home to Accolapissa and Biloxi Indians who traded by dugout canoes along the banks of Bayou St. John. By the 18th century it was the site of Allard Plantation facing Bayou St. John. In 1845 John McDonogh purchases Allard plantation property at sheriff's auction and five years latter dies and leaves the large estate to the cities of New Orleans and Baltimore, Maryland. Today City Park, is a 1,300 acre (5.3 km²) public park in New Orleans, Louisiana, it is the 6th-largest and 7th-most-visited urban public park in the United States. City Park is approximately 50% larger than Central Park in New York City. The land which City Park occupies today is especially romantic for its long favor with Creole gentlemen as a place to conduct their "affaires d'honneur" - dueling, in fact, dueling was not outlawed in the park until 1890 - 36 years after the land left to the city by philanthropist John McDonogh was declared a public park. In December 16, 1911 the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art was dedicated, renamed in 1971 "New Orleans Museum of Art".

The New Orleans Museum of Art was initially funded through a charitable grant by local philanthropist and art collector Isaac Delgado. The Classical museum building itself was partly designed by the former chief engineer of New Orleans Benjamin Morgan Harrod.
At the age of 71 Isaac Delgado, a wealthy sugar broker, wrote to the City Park Board about his intention to build an art museum in New Orleans. “I have been lead to believe that you would willingly donate in the park the site for a building I propose erecting to be known as the ‘Isaac Delgado Museum of Art’. My desire is to give to the citizens of New Orleans a fire proof building where works of art may be collected through gifts or loans and where exhibits can be held from time to time by the Art Association of New Orleans”. The board approved his request and designated the circle, at the end of what would become Lelong Avenue, for the museum. On December 11, 1911, the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art opened its doors. Issac Delgado did not attend the opening due to medical issues; he did soon after on January 4, 1912. This legacy lives on in City Park today and into the future.

Portrait of Mother and child 1782 by François-André Vincent

In 1970/1971, The Edward Wisner Foundation funded the Wisner Education Wing, which is a three level addition to NOMA’s left side. 1993 brought the opening of the $23 million expansion and renovation project to NOMA. The scale of the expansion and renovation, combined with amplified art acquisitions, positioned NOMA into the top 25 percent of the nation’s largest and most important fine art museums. Today, the art museum is rated among the best art institutions in the country, having presented many unique and rare exhibits.

The permanent collection at the museum features over 40,000 objects, from the Italian Renaissance to the modern era. The museum is noted for its collection of European and American works, including works by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Pissarro, Rodin, Gauguin, Braque, Dufy, Miró, Jackson Pollock, Mary Cassatt, and Georgia O'Keeffe. The museum features a comprehensive survey of French art, including several important works by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, who lived with his mother's family in New Orleans between 1871 and 1872. Among the permanent exhibition is a survey of local Louisiana artists, as well as other American artists. The museum also features collections of photography, glass, ceramics, Fabergé eggs, portrait miniatures, Native American Art, Central American art from pre-Columbian and Spanish eras, Chinese ceramics, Japanese painting, Indian sculpture and folk arts from Africa, Indonesia, and the South Pacific.