Orchestrating elegance

Description:

"During the 19th century, New York City's grand mansions on Fifth and Madison Avenues boasted sumptuous interiors, often with each room decorated in a different historic style. Financier, art collector, and philanthropist Henry Gurdon Marquand famously commissioned eminent British painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) to create the Greco-Pompeian music room for his home. This beautiful publication documents and examines the celebrated design, which included an elaborately decorated Steinway grand piano, a large suite of matching furniture, and an embroidery scheme for the upholstery and coordinated curtains. Alma-Tadema secured Frederic Leighton to create a major painting for the room's ceiling and Sir Edward Poynter to paint the piano's fallboard. One of Alma-Tadema's most famous paintings A Reading from Homer, was painted for this room."--Jacket.

subjects: Greek influences,  Johnstone, Norman & Co,  Homes and haunts,  Exhibitions,  Music rooms and equipment,  Art patronage,  Decoration and ornament,  History,  Piano music

People: Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912),  Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819-1902)

Places: New York (State),  New York

Times: 19th century