Chattanooga's Hunter Museum of American Art Favorites, pt 1

The 1904 Faxton-Thomas mansion, designed by President Garfield's son, has housed the Hunter Museum since it opened in 1952; the Museum is named after George Hunter, who inherited the Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling empire from his uncle, Benjamin Thomas

Couple on Two Benches, George Segal, 1985; overlooking the Tennessee River, this sculpture captures art collectors Dave and Sandy Bakalar in an intimate and pensive moment; with his work, Segal tries to convey a celebration of American life

The Croquet Game, William Merritt Chase, 1889; Chase is considered one of the leading figures in American art in the late 19th century; while croquet had been reserved for outdoors among the upper-class, here Chase depicts the new game of parlor croquet

Reading, Childe Hassam, 1888; Hassam's garden paintings, while seeming to depict scenes of everyday suburban life for Victorian era Americans, also conveyed the feminine ideals of passivity, ornamentality and moral purity

These pieces are all from Rookwood Pottery dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s; the Museum recognized Rookwood, founded by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, for its early efforts to pioneer the professional artistic accomplishments of women

Form and Light, Motif in West New Jersey, Oscar Bluemner, 1914; this German-immigrant met Alfred Stieglitz (Georgia O'Keefee's husband) in 1908 who introduced him to the artistic innovations of the European and American avant-garde

Shopper in Red Hat, Guy Pene du Bois, 1939; famous people from Chattanooga: Samuel L. Jackson, Pat Robertson, Roscoe Tanner, Ted Turner, Bessie Smith, Jon Meacham, Adolph S. Ochs, Jim Nabors, Terrell Owens, Bob Corker, Estes Kefauver, and Reggie White

Main Street Mansion, Grant Wood, ca. 1936-37; this is an illustration for Main Street, a satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis (the Jungle is a great read!); Main Street examines the lives of the narrow-minded inhabitants of a fictional Minnesota town

Gray and Gold - The Golden Bay, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1900; Chattanooga is home to UNUM, a Fortune 500 insurance company; UNUM was Compaq's disability insurer when I was injured and the experience dealing with them for decades has been horrendous

Dutch Still Life with Art Books and Field Guide to Western Birds, Paul J. Wonner, 1982; Volkswagon opened an assembly plant in Chattanooga in 2011 adding thousands of jobs and recently announced an expansion to produce their electric vehicles here too

Torrid Lascivious Gasp, Stephen Rolfe Powell, 2001; what a title!; Powell's colorfully patterned vessels draw upon ancient Venetian glass blowing techniques, but the scale and the innovations required to achieve it are uniquely American

Whopper Vase, Dante Marioni, 1996; Chattanooga is best known from the 1941 song 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' by Glenn Miller and his orchestra; Terminal Station was one of the city's first historic preservation projects and now anchors an entertainment district

Actress in Red Before Mirror, Everett Shinn, ca. 1910; this pastel portrays an intimate behind-the-scenes view whereas most of his works show performers on stage; Shinn was also an actor, playwright, art film director and illustrator of circus posters

The Symbol of Spring, Edmund C. Tarbell, ca. 1900; in this pastel drawing, the young woman who personifies Spring embodies certain abstract ideals, a theme very popular in the late 19th century

Venetian Scene, A. Bolpini, ca. 1860-80; during the 19th century, Venice was one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, attracting up to 30,000 tourists a day; many of the American visitors wanted to buy works like this as a souvenir

Stone Vessel, Curtiss R. Brock, 1990; this piece is impressive because it looks like pottery but is actually blown glass; Chattanooga had a 2020 population of 181,099 making it Tennessee's fourth largest city