National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
McKim. The work was finished and I was much relieved and also contented by the way it
had been received. 639
Despite Mowbray's initial elation over Vanderbilt's approval, they soon requested
changes, and he was called back in 1899 to tone the murals down:
. . . My brother (W.K.V) stops over to-day on his way up, so will send this by him. If you can
find time to run up here some day with McKim, on your return, I would like very much your
opinion on the proposed changes in the ceiling of living room and the painting of hall ceiling
frieze and walls. Mr. Garnsey is to commence work on the 5th inst. and Mowbray has agreed
to tone down his paintings to make them look old, more on the style of the two that are now
up in Mrs. V's bedroom and boudoir (as to tone, I mean) which were painted in Paris for
Duveen. Please bear in mind my paintings are going to be hung in that room in [sic] a large
Bougereau, a de Neufville [sic] a Villegas, a Shreyer, etc. Etc. The walls will be quite filled in
with them. Will you order for this room two low easy sofas much as you spoke of, in muslin,
to be covered when I come back? I think four would be too many. 640
It is also evident from this letter that Vanderbilt had not originally intended tapestries on
the walls, but rather paintings. It is not known at what point this was changed. The two large
tapestries represent the third and fourth in a series of tapestries depicting Episodes of the Trojan
War, signed by MR (Martin Rambeaux). 641 The others from the set are in the South Foyer.
There is also a pair of late sixteenth or early seventeenth century Italian armorial tapestries on
the east and west walls between the windows. A memo in the Stanford White papers from
Frederick Vanderbilt records a payment to Duveen dated December 17, 1900 for importing a
tapestry. 642 In addition to the two large Cippolino columns, there is a pair of black marble
twisted columns that were supplied by Stanford White. 643
It is possible that the Living Room originally had very different furnishings than are there
today. The three sofas in the Elliptical Hall and two upholstered side chairs in the Third Floor
Hall all have or had identical upholstery to the Living Room draperies and portieres. Two of
these sofas are identical and could be the ones that Frederick instructed Stanford White to order
in July of 1899. The side chairs were brought from 459 Fifth Avenue and are documented in
period photographs during William Henry's occupancy. 644 Another sofa, now in the Second
Floor North Foyer was also part of this group of furniture, and also could have been used in the
Living Room. If these were the original furnishings, it seems likely that the Vanderbilts
redecorated the space with the French seating furniture at the same time (1906) that Whitney
Warren made his changes to the architecture of the room.
There are many pieces of furniture in this large entertaining space, including three sofas,
four side chairs, eighteen armchairs, two large refectory tables, two octagonal tables, and a
639
Herbert F. Sherwood, ed. H. Siddons Mowbray, Mural Painter, 1858-1928 (Privately printed by
Florence Millard Mowbray, 1928, 66.) Mowbray remembered the date incorrectly, it had to be 1898, as
the house would not have been ready to receive the mural in 1897.
640
FWV to SW, July 1, 1899, SW Papers, box 19:2.
641
Van Alen, 1940. "Mrs. Bruguiere expressed the opinion that the four tapestries were the best things in
the house." (Bruguiere, 1948.)
642
SW Papers, Box 19:2. As of 1902 Vanderbilt still had not settled his account with Stanford White.
"Please pardon my not answering your letter before. I have those accounts somewhere & will look them
up & let you know." (FWV to SW, July 4, 1902, SW Papers Box 19:2.)
643
See bills SW Papers, Box 49:3, Box 19:2.
644
See below: Third Floor Hall for further information.
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