AFA Summer 2020

Robert Winthrop Chanler (1872–1930) was a prolific and highly visible artist active between the late nineteenth century until his death in 1930. Straddling the divide between the fine and decorative arts, Chanler (Fig. 1) produced work primarily for the private realm in various formats and subject matter, resulting in lavish immersive spaces, dynamic screens, monumental canvases, and portraits of the who’s who of early twentieth-century America. A paradoxical figure in the history of art, Chanler’s frenetic yet lyrical compositions are demanding and destabilizing. The Electrifying Art and Spaces of Robert Winthrop Chanler , on view at Planting Fields Foundation, Oyster Bay, New York, is the first exhibition since 1926 to bring together an arrangement of the artist’s work, all loaned from private collections from across America. A native New York son, Chanler was born and raised in the Hudson Valley. 1 He and his nine siblings were the famed Astor Orphans, whose parents died within two years of each other, leaving the children a massive inheritance. Chanler was most active at his East 19th Street home and studio dubbed the House of Fantasy and spent the later years of his life in Woodstock, New York. Highly sought after by New York’s elite set, who regarded his work as a status symbol, Chanler’s two immersive mural commissions at Planting Fields in Oyster Bay (Figs. 2, 3) are illustrative of the Gilded Age patronage that served as the catalyst for much of his work. The Long Island country home of W. R. and Antiques & Fine Art 93 2020 by Gina J. Wouters , Fig. 2: Buffalo mural (detail), Planting Fields, New York, 2019. Photograph by David Almeida. Fig. 1: Photograph of Robert Winthrop Chanler, ca. 1910. Rokeby Collection, New York. , Fig. 3: Lace Room, Planting Fields, New York, 2019. Photograph by David Almeida. Fig. 4: View of Coe Hall, Planting Fields, New York, 2019. Photograph by David Almeida.