Allentown Art Museum

The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is a major regional art institution located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1934 by a group organized by Pennsylvania impressionist painter Walter Emerson Baum, the museum now maintains a collection of over 20,000 works of art. It also houses a library and archives containing over 16,000 titles and 40 current periodicals. The museum serves as a significant cultural anchor for the Lehigh Valley region, with holdings spanning European Renaissance and Baroque paintings, American art, textiles, prints, drawings, and contemporary works.

The institution opened as the Allentown Art Gallery on March 17, 1934, in Allentown's Hunsicker School, displaying 70 canvases by local Pennsylvania impressionist artists. During the Great Depression, founder Walter Emerson Baum expanded the collection through the Public Works of Art Project and through acquisitions and gifts. In June 1936, the City of Allentown granted the museum a permanent home in a Federal-style house in the Rose Garden at Cedar Park. The museum's first curator, local artist John E. Berninger, lived with his wife on the museum's second floor.

A transformative moment came in 1959 with a gift of 53 Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures from Samuel H. Kress, a native of nearby Cherryville, Pennsylvania. This donation prompted community supporters to purchase and refurbish a former building, the First Presbyterian Church built in 1902, to house the expanded collection. In 1960, the museum published its first major catalog, The Samuel H. Kress Memorial Collection, written by its first director Richard Hirsch. In 1975, an Edgar Tafel-designed expansion enhanced the museum's programs and collecting plans, and the museum acquired European paintings and a large collection of textile arts. In 1978, the museum added Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Ann Penn Allen.

The 21st century brought further physical transformation. In 2010, the museum completed a $15.4 million expansion designed by the Philadelphia-based architecture firm Venturi Scott Brown. The project added 7,900 square feet of new classroom and gallery space, including a corner cafe, an expanded gift shop, and a new all-glass facade on the museum's Fifth Street side. This first expansion since 1975 had been initially proposed in 1999 but represented a significant reduction from an originally planned $32 million, 45,000-square-foot addition. Approximately 40% of the new space was allocated to gallery space.

The museum's collections encompass multiple periods and media. The Italian Renaissance collection, donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1961, forms a core strength, featuring works by Paolo Uccello, Biagio d'Antonio, Giovanni Agostino da Lodi, Giuliano Bugiardini, Lorenzo Lotto, Dosso Dossi, and Romanino. European painting extends through the Baroque period, while American art includes 18th through 20th-century works. The textile collection is particularly notable, comprising domestic textiles from European, African, and Asian Mediterranean cultures, alongside Indian and Tibetan sculptures and fabrics. The museum also collects prints, drawings, and contemporary art. In 2016, the museum acquired Lehighton, a mural by Franz Kline created for the American Legion in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, which was unveiled after restoration in January 2017.

Among the museum's signature works are several paintings of established attribution and historical significance. The European collection includes Giovanni del Biondo's Central Panel of an Altarpiece Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (1379), Lorenzo Lotto's Saint Jerome Penitent (1515), Paulus Moreelse's Portrait of Henrica Ploost van Amstel (1625), Frans Snyders's Game Stall at Market (1625-37), and Rembrandt's Portrait of a Young Woman (1632). On February 10, 2020, the museum's Portrait of a Young Lady by Rembrandt was determined to be authentic following reassessment. American holdings include Gilbert Stuart's Ann Penn Allen (1795), Gustav Johann Grunewald's Niagara Falls (1834), and Tiffany Studios' Floriform Vase (1905). The print collection features Ugo da Carpi's Diogenes after Parmigiano (after 1525), Federico Barocci's Il Perdono (Vision of Saint Francis of Assisi) (1581), and Keith Haring's Untitled (1982). Notable textiles include Margaret Oothout's Table Cover (1764) and a Bed Curtain (Palampore) from India's Coromandel Coast (1775). The museum also incorporates a library room from the second Francis W. Little House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; a second room from the same house was built at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The museum occupies a building with layered architectural history. The core structure was originally the First Presbyterian Church, built in 1902, which was purchased and refurbished to house the Kress collection. The 1975 Edgar Tafel-designed expansion augmented this space and accommodated the Frank Lloyd Wright library room. The 2010 Venturi Scott Brown renovation added the all-glass Fifth Street facade, classroom spaces, a cafe, and an expanded gift shop, integrating contemporary architectural vocabulary with the historic fabric.

The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and operates as an independent regional institution. Its official website is http://www.allentownartmuseum.org/. According to the Italian Wikipedia source, the museum is open daily from 11:00 to 16:00. The museum's social media presence includes a YouTube channel.