History of Art & Music
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In 1903 the 100,000th Steinway grand piano was given as a gift to the White House; it was decorated by the artists Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Maria Oakey Dewing under the supervision of the head of Steinway's Art Piano Department, Joseph Burr Tiffany.
Thomas Dewing - "American Receiving the Nine Muses" on Steinway & Sons Piano,
1903 at American Art Museum Washington DC
Maryland State Seal on piano commissioned by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 for the East Room of the White House. It was made by Steinway & Sons of NYC, and decorated with patriotic motifs and the seals of the first 13 states. The painting "America Receiving the Nine Muses" by Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) is inside the lid.
In the spring of 1904, the Detroit industrialist and art collector Charles Lang Freer made a five-day trip to New York, where he took in the annual exhibition of the Ten American Painters at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. He was particularly impressed by a decorated piano lid, the only submission by Thomas Dewing, and writing to fellow-collector John Gellatly a few days later, Freer declared, "I think the piano cover...is the finest thing Dewing has ever done, embracing the finest qualities of all his earlier things."
The painting is not actually one of Dewing's best, but it certainly echoes his earlier "decorations," the word he used to distinguish his large scale figures in the landscape from the smaller studio pictures of figures in interiors. The obscurely depicted allegory of "Columbia Receiving the Nine Muses" depicted here certainly refers back to the lush Cornish landscapes that Dewing had painting through the 1890s, examples of which were owned by both Freer and Gellatly.
Dewing had executed the painting as part of a larger commission from Steinway & Sons in 1902, when he undertook the task of gilding and decorating the case of a commemorative piano-- serial number 100,000-- that the piano manufacturing firm presented to the Theodore Roosevelt White House in January 1903. Dewing completed the case in time for its White House debut, but continued to work on the lid through the following year. After exhibiting the decoration with the Ten, Dewing sent it to Washington where it was hinged onto the piano.
In 1903 the 100,000th Steinway grand piano was given as a gift to the White House; it was decorated by the artists Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Maria Oakey Dewing under the supervision of the head of Steinway's Art Piano Department, Joseph Burr Tiffany.
Thomas Dewing - "American Receiving the Nine Muses" on Steinway & Sons Piano,
1903 at American Art Museum Washington DC
Maryland State Seal on piano commissioned by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 for the East Room of the White House. It was made by Steinway & Sons of NYC, and decorated with patriotic motifs and the seals of the first 13 states. The painting "America Receiving the Nine Muses" by Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) is inside the lid.
In the spring of 1904, the Detroit industrialist and art collector Charles Lang Freer made a five-day trip to New York, where he took in the annual exhibition of the Ten American Painters at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. He was particularly impressed by a decorated piano lid, the only submission by Thomas Dewing, and writing to fellow-collector John Gellatly a few days later, Freer declared, "I think the piano cover...is the finest thing Dewing has ever done, embracing the finest qualities of all his earlier things."
The painting is not actually one of Dewing's best, but it certainly echoes his earlier "decorations," the word he used to distinguish his large scale figures in the landscape from the smaller studio pictures of figures in interiors. The obscurely depicted allegory of "Columbia Receiving the Nine Muses" depicted here certainly refers back to the lush Cornish landscapes that Dewing had painting through the 1890s, examples of which were owned by both Freer and Gellatly.
Dewing had executed the painting as part of a larger commission from Steinway & Sons in 1902, when he undertook the task of gilding and decorating the case of a commemorative piano-- serial number 100,000-- that the piano manufacturing firm presented to the Theodore Roosevelt White House in January 1903. Dewing completed the case in time for its White House debut, but continued to work on the lid through the following year. After exhibiting the decoration with the Ten, Dewing sent it to Washington where it was hinged onto the piano.