Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide, Henry R. Kravis Curator of French Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In a relationship with the Metropolitan Museum of Art that spanned more than six decades, Charles and Jayne Wrightsman enriched the lives of countless visitors through their extraordinary gifts of European paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts.  During the 1960s and 1970s the couple embarked on a project to improve the appearance of the Museum’s French period rooms and purchased additional paneling to create several new rooms. Rightfully named for the patrons, these galleries display eighteenth-century furniture, gilt bronzes, porcelains, gold boxes and silver, largely stemming from the Wrightsmans’ impressive art collection.  The creation of a Wrightsman Acquisition Fund enabled the Met to make purchases of exceptional importance, often stretching beyond their own patterns of collecting, while The Costume Institute has benefitted from Jayne Wrightsman’s elegant taste in haute couture.  This talk will discuss the highlights of the Wrightsman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Cristobal Balenciaga for the House of Balenciaga ,Evening Dress , Fall/Winter 1965–66, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Study of a Young Woman by Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1665-1667, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York