{"product_id":"william-and-henry-walters-the-reticent-collectors","title":"William and Henry Walters  the Reticent Collectors","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe story of the father and son who created the extraordinary collection that became Baltimores Walters Art Gallery. In the mid-nineteenth century  Baltimore businessman William Thompson Walters began to patronize the artists of Maryland. Today  the museum that bears his nameBaltimores Walters Art Galleryexcels in fields as diverse as Egyptian bronzes  Byzantine silver  illuminated manuscripts  medieval carved ivories  early Renaissance paintings  Svres porcelains  Islamic metalwork  and Chinese ceramics. Surprisingly  the story of how William Walters and his son Henry created one of the finest privately assembled museums in the United States has not been told. With this new book  William Johnston  the Walterss curator of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art  restores William and Henry Walters to their rightful place among Americas great art collectors. Drawing upon the knowledge of the early museum staff and gathering valuable information from the few other available sources  Johnston has painstakingly recreated the life and world of the Walterses. Though Henry Walters moved easily in Baltimore and New York social circles  Johnston explains  he kept much to himself and generally purchased art away from the publics eye. Despite the Walterses reticence  they had a significant influence on the development of American tastes and museumsWilliam in his role as the first chairman of the Committee on Works of Art for the Corcoran Gallery in Washington  D.C.  and Henry as the second vice-president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Their personal collection differs from those of other  more familiar collectors  such as J. P. Morgan and Henry Clay Frick  in that Henry Walters intended from the very first that the collection form a museum to serve the public. When the museum first opened its doors in 1934  Johnston relates  many visitors were surprised by the collections size and by its comprehensive representation of the history of art from the third millennium b.c. to the early twentieth century. Richly illustrated with black-and-white photographs and sixteen pages of full color  this book will fascinate anyone interested in Baltimore history  the history of museums and art collecting in America  and the art and culture of nineteenth-century America.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44952167612469,"sku":"ByrdShop_0801860407","price":29.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780801860409.jpg?v=1770153087","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/william-and-henry-walters-the-reticent-collectors","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}