The Army and Navy Club Reading Room, Circa 1920
Accession number:
1920.01
Maker:
W. & J. Sloane NY
with Hornblower and Marshall Architects
Historical period:
ca. 1920
Type:
Drawing
Dimensions:
H x W: 30 in. / 27 in.
Acquisition date:
ca. 1920
Credit line:
The Army and Navy Club Library Trust Fund
Location:
Dining Room, First Floor
Provenance:
From 1920: The Army and Navy Club
Label:
This watercolor is a conceptual rendering of the architectural and interior design plan for the Army and Navy Club Reading Room, ca. 1920 (the original dining room was on the 6th floor from 1912 until the 1987 completion of the Club renovation). This painting reflects the collaborative work between W. & J. Sloane and the architectural firm Hornblower and Marshall Architects. The portrait hanging over the mantel in this painting is an unmistakable version of the 1796 Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. This “Army and Navy Club Lansdowne” is either long disappeared or was but a product of the Sloane painter’s imagination.
The presence of the Lansdowne portrait in this illustration sparked enthusiasm within the Club, which led to the acquisition of a high-resolution digital reproduction canvas print of the original portrait. The reproduction hangs now in The Army and Navy Club’s dining room, as depicted in this watercolor, recreating the originally intended design plan. It sits in a San Savino style frame, which has a central cartouche at the top containing the 1920 Army and Navy insignia, and a sword and anchor, repurposed from a mirror frame found in the Club’s collection.