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illwood Museum and Gardens, the former estate of visionary
collector, philanthropist and businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather
Post, reopened to the public on September 26, 2000, following
an extensive three-year renovation of the museum. The revitalized
estate now provides a superior showcase for Hillwood's world-class
collections, including an improved museum-quality environment,
renewed plantings and restored sculpture in the surrounding
gardens and enhanced public facilities. A new Visitor Center
houses an updated orientation film, as well as information
and audio-tour desks and an expanded museum shop.
One of the premier house museums in this
country, Hillwood is the legacy of Postum Cereal Company heiress
Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973) and features her internationally
renowned personal collection of fine and decorative arts.
The museum includes the most comprehensive collections of
18th– and 19th– century Russian imperial art outside
of Russia, as well as one of the world’s most important
collections of the 18th– century French decorative arts.
Hillwood is set upon twenty-five acres, twelve of which are
enchanting formal gardens, including a Japanese-style garden,
and a French parterre.
Mrs. Post was a pioneering collector who
assembled Russian imperial works of art long before they were
widely recognized or appreciated in the West, and she acquired
the nucleus of her superb collection while living in Russia
in the late 1930s. The care and passion with which she selected
each piece demonstrate her insight as well as her great love
and enthusiasm for Russian, as well as French culture. She
was especially interested in the decorative and applied arts,
including porcelain, glass, jeweled objects, textiles and
furniture selected for their beauty, superb craftsmanship,
historical importance and overall contribution to the context
of the collection.
"Marjorie Merriweather Post was one
of America's great collectors of fine and decorative arts
who chose to create a museum out of her home, like Isabella
Stewart Gardner, Henry C. Frick or Henry du Pont," said
Frederick J. Fisher, Director of the Hillwood Museum and Gardens.
"Mrs. Post, who was schooled early in her collecting
career by leading art dealers including Sir Joseph Duveen,
was a knowledgeable and passionate collector and philanthropist
who devoted her life to sharing her treasures and good fortune
with others."
Highlights of the Russian collection at
Hillwood include an 1884 diamond crown worn by Empress Alexandra
at her marriage to Nicholas II; a comprehensive collection
of approximately 80 works by Carl Fabergé, including
two imperial Easter eggs; a gold chalice with diamonds and
carved stones by I.W. Buch; delicate imperial porcelain and
ormolu vases depicting painted scenes in a contemporary Western
style; and a selection of ornate Russian Orthodox icons and
religious objects.
The museum also features an extensive
collection of French furnishings, tapestries and porcelain,
primarily from the 18th century, including furniture by such
masters as Jean-Henri Riesener and David Roentgen; numerous
pieces of famed Sèvres porcelain spanning the early
years of manufacture at Vincennes to the time of the French
Revolution; objets d'art by Louis Cartier; and spectacular
Beauvais tapestries designed by François Boucher that
later inspired works by Fabergé and Sèvres.
MARJORIE MERRIWEATHER POST, COLLECTOR
Pioneer collector Marjorie Merriweather
Post was the only child of cereal magnate C.W. Post. She inherited
the Postum Company in 1914 and began collecting art -- primarily
Sèvres porcelain and French furniture and tapestries
-- in the 1920s after her marriage to financier Edward F.
Hutton. In furnishing her 54-room Manhattan apartment, she
adopted her taste for French neoclassicism that was then fashionable
in New York society.
Mrs. Post became interested in Russian
art when husband Joseph E. Davies served as ambassador to
the Soviet Union in the late 1930s. During these years, the
Soviet government was selling many of the treasures it had
appropriated from the church, the imperial family and the
aristocracy in an effort to finance the new government's industrialization
plan. She acquired the nucleus of her holdings at this time,
but she continued to collect French and Russian art for the
rest of her life, eventually amassing the most comprehensive
Russian imperial collection in the West.
Mrs. Post bought Hillwood in 1955 and
immediately decided her home would be a museum that would
educate and inspire the public. Originally designed by John
Diebert in 1926, the mansion was extensively enlarged and
redesigned in the mid 1950s by New York architect Alexander
McIlvaine and the New York design firms of McMillen, Inc.
and French and Company. Mrs. Post lived at Hillwood, named
after a Long Island residence she owned for many years, until
she died in 1973.
Hillwood Museum and Gardens is located
on 4155 Linnean Avenue, in Northwest Washington, D.C., overlooking
Rock Creek Park. The museum is closed in January and open
from February through December on Tuesdays through Saturdays,
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on select Sundays in the Spring
and Fall. Hillwood is closed on all national holidays. Admission
is by reservation only. For general information call the toll
free line at 1- (877) HILLWOOD or (202) 686-8500 or visit
the museum website at www.hillwoodmuseum.org.
For reservations call (202) 686-5807, fax (202) 966-7846 or
send an email request to reservation@hillwoodmuseum.org.
Hillwood Museum and Gardens is an accredited museum with the
American Association of Museums.
For images and additional information:
Jennifer Yeager
Publicist
202.243.3918
jyeager@hillwoodmuseum.org
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