Arnot Art Museum

The Arnot Art Museum is a municipal art museum located at 235 Lake Street in Elmira, New York. Opened in 1913, it houses a permanent collection spanning 17th- through 19th-century European paintings, 19th- and 20th-century American art, and 21st-century contemporary representational art. The museum occupies a Greek Revival building that is a contributing property in the Elmira Civic Historic District, and it stands as a rare surviving example of a 19th-century private picture gallery that retains its original art collection.

The museum was founded through the bequest of banker Matthias Hallenback Arnot (1833-1910), who left his art collection and the building that housed it to the City of Elmira. The original Greek Revival mansion had been built in 1833 by his father, John Arnot, Sr. In the 1890s, Matthias Arnot added a picture gallery to the structure, featuring extensive gas lighting and a large skylight. The museum opened to the public in 1913, following Arnot's death. A significant expansion came in 1982 with the addition of a new wing. Scholarly attention to the institution's origins includes Rachael Sadinsky's 1989 publication, A Collector's Vision: The 1910 Bequest of Matthias H. Arnot, and Rachel Dworkin's 2013 study, "Elmira's First Museum."

The permanent collection is organized across three principal areas: European painting from the 17th through 19th centuries, American art from the 19th and 20th centuries, and contemporary representational art of the 21st century. The European holdings emphasize academic and Barbizon School traditions, while the American collection encompasses Hudson River School landscapes, portraiture, and sculpture. The museum also maintains a notable group of Surrealist works.

The European collection includes works by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jules Breton, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Gustave Courbet, Charles-François Daubigny, Anthonie de Lorme, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Claude Lorrain, and Jean-François Millet. Gérôme is specifically represented by La Rose and Le Marabout. The American painting collection alongside features James Carroll Beckwith, George W. Waters, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, Kenyon Cox, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Arthur B. Davies, Charles Warren Eaton, T. Alexander Harrison, William Stanley Haseltine, Robert Henri, George Inness, William Page, Ammi Phillips, Robert Street, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and Susan Waters, as well as minor Hudson River School artists. Sculptors in the collection include Anna Hyatt Huntington, Chauncey Ives, Frederick MacMonnies, Larkin G. Mead, Joseph Mozier, and John H. Rogers. The Surrealist holdings include works by Jean Pierre Serrier.

The museum building originated as a Greek Revival mansion constructed in 1833 by John Arnot, Sr. Its distinctive feature is the picture gallery addition built by Matthias H. Arnot in the 1890s, designed with extensive gas lighting and a large skylight to illuminate the art. This space represents a rare surviving example of a 19th-century private picture gallery that has retained its original art collection. The structure is listed as a contributing property in the Elmira Civic Historic District. A new wing was added in 1982 to accommodate expanded programming and display needs.

The Arnot Art Museum is located at 235 Lake Street in Elmira, New York. It operates as a municipal institution under city ownership. Current visiting information, including hours and access details, is available through the museum's website at http://www.arnotartmuseum.org/.