Post by Grubb.
Electra Havemeyer Webb inherited a sugar fortune. Then she married a polo player whose mother was a Vanderbilt. With her wealth, Electra preserved thirty- eight 19th century buildings and then had them installed as a village on her 1,000 acre estate just off of Route 7 in Shelburne, Vermont. Electra had a thing about the 19th century. She was an ambulance driver during World War I; the 20th century didn’t look too promising.
The house she lived in on the estate is now the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building. It’s part of the Shelburne Museum noted for its collection of Monets which were bequeathed to her from her parents. As I was entering the building I overheard a woman saying to her husband, “I don’t know what the gaudy inflatable art bulging from the side of the house has to to do with the Monets.”
So, okay, Electra’s old house looked like it had been rented out for a kid’s birthday party. Inside, however, it held onto its mid-century decorum.
And the Monets looked good on the wall…
But the painting that held my attention was at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor. Eager to get to the Monets, people walked by the portrait of this late-nineteenth century woman as if it didn’t exist. My otherworldly feelings were ruffled. I mean, look at the diaphanous blue tulle against the red background, the dark hair framing this woman’s pale features, the slightly bored expression on her face as if she were barely tolerating posing for the artist. Who was the artist? There was no attribution in the house. Was it John Singer Sargent?
