French Impressionism And So Much More

This Eclectic Vermont Museum Is A Must See

Driving north on Route 7 towards Burlington, Vermont, you may catch a glimpse of an oddity when passing through the town of Shelburne. The marooned side-wheel steamship aground deserves the double-take but that’s a story for another post.

Finding The Art in Folk

The steamship resides at the landlocked Shelburne Museum , an eclectic collection of objects that include world class art. Works from re-known 19th century European masters are displayed in a Greek Revival building. The Museum has many distinctive buildings housing an expansive range of American, Folk and Indigenous objects. Much of the original 18th to 19th century buildings were relocated from various places around New England then restored on the museum grounds. This eclectic collection is the vision of its founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb.

A Family Passion for Collecting

Electra Havemeyer Webb accumulated these pieces throughout her lifetime, beginning with a cigar store Native American wooden statue at the age of 18. Mrs. Webb was an heiress of the Domino Sugar fortune., a child of the Gilded Age and from the same Havemeyer family who generously bequeathed their vast collection of world class art to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was New York bred with ties to Vermont through her marriage to J. Watson Webb, a great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Shelburne Museum Founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb

Significant Masterworks

Mrs. Webb inherited many gems from her parents art collection. Significant masterworks exhibited in Shelburne include Cassat, Corot, Courbet, Degas, Manet and Monet. The works were acquired by Mrs. Webb’s mother Louisine Haveymeyer circa the late 1870s, the collection was guided by Louisine’s close friend, the American Impressionist painter Mary Cassat. French Impressionism was considered “modern art” by 19th century standards, at the time many of these paintings were America’s first exposure to a new movement in art.

The experience of visiting the Shelburne Museum to view these masterpieces is unlike any other art museum. The Greek Revival building contains a re-creation of Mrs. Webb’s 1930s penthouse apartment at 740 Park Ave. in New York City. There is an intimacy seeing art displayed as Mrs. Webb enjoyed it amongst her own furnishings. A luxury art lovers share when visiting the Shelburne Museum.

Claude Monet Le Pont, Amsterdam 1870- 1871 Oil on Canvas

Edgar Degas The Dance School - 1875-1876 , Shelburne Museum, Vermont

There is more to the story of Electra Havemeyer Webb that the Shelburne Museum portrays through her vast collection of objects, including that steamship. Mrs. Webb had impeccable taste, an eclectic vision of what defined objects of art, and the desire to catalog the style and way of life known as Americana. Vermont is rewarded to have her legacy in permanent residence at the Shelburne Museum. This slice of history includes an impressive 37 buildings that house 80,000+ objects, you will be hard pressed to see everything on one visit. Electra Havemeyer Webb has generously shared the gifts of her vast wealth with all of us.

Visit the Shelburne Museum