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George
W. Vanderbilt's Country Chateau at Biltmore N.C. (1889-95)
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Richard Morris Hunt
1895
Commissioned by G.W.V.
(Architect
of the Biltmore house)
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Frederick Law Olmsted
1895
Commissioned by G.W.V.
(Architect
of the Biltmore grounds)
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George
Washington Vanderbilt
John Singer
Sargent
-- American
painter
1890
The Biltmore
House, Ashville, North Carolina
Oil on Canvas
106.6 x 67.3 cm (42 x 26 1/2 in.)
Inscribed ul: John S Sargent
Inscribed ur: 1890
Jpg: local
This guy is a
real interesting and eccentric character. He was a
supporter of Sargent and commissioned a number of portraits, this being
one of them. In many ways George Vanderbilt defined his generation of
what Mark Twain would call the Gilded Age.
From his inheritance from his parents he would set out to build the
largest private home in the United States, the Biltmore House in
Asheville North Carolina, and would employ the most renowned architects
and artisans to build it and he would amass an amazing collection of
art.
His name was George Washington Vanderbilt III -- the youngest of
eight kids and he lived 1861-1914.
Unlike any other person, a whole lithely of Sargent paintings can be
used to describes the links of George Vanderbilt’s life.
Notes:
The painting
was orriginally thought to have been done at the time of the other two
commissions -- Hunt and Olmsted (1895) but Ormond and Kilmurray publish
in their book "Portraits of the 1890's" that a faint date of 1890 can
be found and that it was probably painted in New York.
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Mrs. William
Henry Vanderbilt
1888
(mother to George Washington Vanderbilt)
Margaret Louisa
Vanderbilt
(Mrs. Elliot Fitch Shepard)
1888
(sister to George Washington Vanderbilt)
Mrs. Walter Bacon
1896
(cousin to
George Washington Vanderbilt)
Giovanni
Boldini
(1845
-1931)
Edith
Stuyvesant Dresser Vanderbilt
1900
(1st wife to George Washington
Vanderbilt)
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