Meadows Museum presents art connoisseur William Hood Stewart's unique album of drawings and letters

DALLAS (SMU) — The Meadows Museum presents The Stewart Album: Art, Letters, and Souvenirs to an American Patron in Paris, celebrating its recent acquisition of a unique album compiled by the renowned American collector during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The exhibit opens August 25 and runs through November 10, 2013.

Kept in private hands until now, this will be the first time that audiences will have the opportunity to view a significant selection of letters, drawings, and photographs, which belong to this unique album that in total holds 370 photographs (254 portraits and 116 photographic reproductions of works by contemporary artists), six independent drawings, and 193 letters written to Stewart (a handful of them to his wife and two of his sons, Robert and Jules) by many of the most illustrious artists, collectors, aristocracy, and dealers from Europe and the United States.

Over half of these letters were written by artists of the “Modern” Spanish School, among them Martín Rico, Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (1838-1874), Eduardo Zamacois y Zabala (1841-1871), and Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (1841-1920). As a whole, the album is a testament to his connoisseurship, taste, and his important place in the international art scene during his time.

Rarely does the public get the opportunity to encounter such an extraordinary compendium of letters, drawings and photographs as the one compiled by William H. Stewart. It is extremely unique, especially when considering the possibility that the influential American collector personally assembled it, a personal document of his life and of the lives of artists working in France during the second half of the nineteenth century. 

Stewart was an American collector who favored Spanish art and artists, just as Algur H. Meadows was a collector who favored Spanish art and artists. The acquisition of this unique repertoire of letters, drawings, and souvenirs, the Stewart Album strengthens the Meadows Museum’s position as a primary center for the research of Spanish art in the United States.

This exhibition has been organized by the Meadows Museum, and is funded by a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation.

Read more about the exhibit and the acquisition of the album.

Ricardo de Madrazo y Garreta (1852-1917) “Portrait de R Madrazo par son frère Ricardo, Paris 25 mars 1870" Watercolor on paper, 6 15/16 x 9 15/16 in From The Stewart Album, 2nd Half of the 19th Century, Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase thanks to a gift from The Eugene McDermott Foundation and Ms. Jo Ann Geurin Thetford