Hyde House and Museum, Glens Falls, New York

Occasionally as we've toured around the country, something unexpected pops up.  When it happens, it's always so delightful.  This week we stumbled onto an attraction which I was already interested in, but only mildly. A historic house with art hits a lot of my sweet spots.  I didn't expect my jaw to be dropping in every room.

Mrs. Hyde's bedroom

Wealthy people who turn their personal residences into museums usually have more $$ than taste.  You wind up with a copy of a European style house (Italian villa in this case)

stuffed with second rate paintings and sculptures scattered around some decorative arts.  Much of the art seems to be bought on a whim, or to fit a requirement.   Philbrook in Tulsa fits this bill.  This was the house of the founder of the Phillips Oil Company, and the grounds are gorgeous, but the art, (in my opinion) not so much.

Therefore, I didn't have any high expectations for the Hyde House and Museum in Glens Falls, New York.  This town is small and without the tourist recognition quotient of Saratoga Springs or Bar Harbor.  So who were the "Hydes"?  First, no relation to the Roosevelts.  They were a New England family named Pruyn whose fortunes were the result of owning a paper processing plant which turned New England logs into paper for about 100 years.  The Pyrun founder had three daughters, the oldest, Charlotte, managed to marry a Harvard lawyer (Louis Hyde) and eventually bring him home to Glens Falls to take over running the paper mill for his father-in-law.  They were the town's largest employer, and the big movers and shakers of this tiny town.  Well, he must have run the paper mill well, because  Charlotte established a museum of her house and art in 1952, and guided it for 11 years.  When she died at the age of 90, her self-perpetuating museum was and still is funded by her personal fortune.  It is a gem.  They claim, and I believe it, that there aren't ten museums in the country in this class.

Charlotte and her husband were both very interested in art, particularly the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras.

A French tapestry from the 1600's

  They made buying trips to Europe, sailing over on the Cunard line. She filled the house, using the art advice of the man who eventually became the curator of the Detroit Institute of Art, with first rate paintings and decorative arts.  Their collection includes Rembrandt, El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Tintoretto, and many others.  The decorative arts are just as impressive with tapestries, medieval chests, and Rococo furniture.  The collection has grown since Charlotte's death to include more modern artists including Renoir,

One of two Renoir's

Eakins, Picasso, Hassam, along with some lovely modern sculptures.

In addition to the 'rooms' of the original house, there are two additional 'built on' art galleries which have rotating exhibitions.  This entire place just blew off the top of my head.  It felt like a 'warm up' to our Italian trip.  As always, I took pictures.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3K3nePsJpVF8TVMC8