Stanford White: Gilded Age "Renaissance Man"

On this day in 1853, architect Stanford White, famous for his New York landmarks such as the Washington Memorial Arch, was born.

A versatile artist, White excelled in interior design and furnishings as well as exterior building decoration. He is known for designing frames for paintings of famous artists, such as Abbott Handerson Thayer and Albert Herter.

Visit our traveling exhibition, The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas, to see several White-designed frames. Pay special attention to Thayer's Angel and Virgin Enthroned, Dewing's A Reading, and Herter's Woman with Red Hair to see White's skilled handiwork.

Pictured: Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1849–1921, Angel, 1887, oil, 36 1/4 x 28 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.