52nd Annual Delaware Show

Thomas’s devotion and largesse to Winterthur in recent years have been exceptional. With no remuneration, he schemed the beautiful Jefferson Conference Room in the Winterthur Cottage, once the bedroom of Ruth Wales du Pont. In 2005 he reimagined several of Winterthur’s iconic rooms for the annual Yuletide display, juxtaposing the collections with modern art and arranging spaces as if the family remained in residence in the twenty-first century. So adept were his decorative juxtapositions of old and new that the Andrew Wyeth and Mark Rothko paintings introduced into the Du Pont Dining Room seemed to have been there forever. Thomas Jayne’s approach, by his own admission, often combines the best of ancient and modern. It is an approach championed by Henry Francis du Pont. If he could be with us today, I suspect Mr. du Pont would be in the front row for Thomas’s lecture . . . and nodding approvingly. Tom Savage is Director of Museum Affairs at Winterthur. Photo by Langdon Clay — 18 —