WAG has heard from the Greenwich Decorative Arts Society, which announces the first event of its 2019-2020 season.
The group will present “Classical Americana: The Life and Legacy of Richard Hampton Jenrette,” with Peter M. Kenny, co-president of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. The event will be held from 1:15 to 3 p.m. Oct. 7 at The Bruce Museum in Greenwich.
Here’s how the society is advancing the afternoon, as shared by Kenny:
“The lecture will tell the story of Dick Jenrette, his love of beauty, passion for historic preservation and my relationship with him first as curator of American Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and later as co-president of his foundation, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Insights will be offered into the numerous houses he restored over the course of his lifetime, his approach to their interior decoration and his role as a collector of classical American furniture from the workshops of New York’s premier cabinetmakers of the early 19th century.”
The society also shares that Kenny, co-president and executive director of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, is considered one of the nation’s foremost authorities on American furniture. He was the Ruth Bigelow Wriston curator of American Decorative Arts and administrator of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is also a noted lecturer and the author of various award-winning books on American furniture, including, most recently, “Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York” and “Honoré Lannuier, Cabinet Maker from Paris: The Life and Work of a French Ébéniste in Federal New York.” He is a longtime resident of the Hudson Valley and is on the Board of Directors of the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which publishes annually American Furniture and Ceramics in America, the journals of record in their fields; Boscobel Restorations, Inc.; the Decorative Arts Trust; and the Classical Institute of the South.
The Greenwich Decorative Arts Society welcomes nonmembers to the lecture. Admission is $25. Space is limited. Reservations are required by Sept. 30 and may be made by emailing greenwichdecorativearts@gmail.com.
The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive.
For more, visit greenwichdecorativearts.org.
– Mary Shustack
