The Brooklyn Museum is the second largest (after the Metropolitan) art museum in New York; its collection consists of more than a million and a half items.
Its history goes back to 1823, when Brooklyn Library was founded (later the great American poet Walt Whitman became one of its librarians). In the middle of the century the library merged with the Brooklyn Lyceum to form the Brooklyn Institute – exhibitions of paintings and sculptures were held there. In 1890 the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the forerunner of the museum, began its project. The grand plan envisioned the construction of a building for the world’s largest museum. At that time such a plan could hardly surprise anyone: the end of the XIX century was the time of economic boom, it seemed – everything was possible.
In 1897 the museum building, designed by architects Charles Mackim, William Mead and Stanford White, opened its doors. In reality it turned out to be four times smaller than it was originally planned: the project was cut back when Brooklyn lost its status as an independent city and became a borough of New York. Still, the boz-ar building is gorgeous. The talented American sculptor Daniel Chester French supervised the decoration of the facade and sculpted the monumental sculptures “Brooklyn” and “Manhattan”, standing at the entrance (at first they decorated the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge).
At the time when this ambitious project was conceived, the future museum had only seventeen paintings. In the first decades of the 20th century, the collection grew rapidly with the generous support of collectors and patrons across the country. This process had its costs: for example, in 1932 the well-known philanthropist Colonel Michael Fridsam bequeathed his vast collection (926 works) to the museum, but a quarter of them turned out to be forgeries.
Nevertheless, today the Brooklyn Museum boasts a first-class collection of Egyptian and Middle Eastern art, European and American art, African culture, and works of Pacific island cultures. Local gems include the Lady Bird (a magnificent terracotta from Egypt’s pre-dynastic period) and an Egyptian faience figurine of a behemoth from the Middle Kingdom, Portrait of the U.S. president John Adams by the artist (and telegraph inventor) Samuel Morse, canvases by Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas and Alfred Sisley.
The museum is located on one corner of Prospect Park, near the Brooklyn Public Library and the local Botanical Gardens. Near the building’s east entrance is the Sculpture Garden, a unique collection of architectural ornaments and statues of old New York. There’s also a small replica of the Statue of Liberty.