AMERICAN DECORATIVE ARTS

Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts features one of the best collections of American furnishings, silver, ceramics and decorative paintings in the world. In fact, the trove is so extensive that it has received a home of its own – the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens. Located on a fourteen-acre estate of the late Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg (daughter of former Texas Governor “Big Jim” Hogg) in the heart of Houston’s historic River Oaks neighborhood, the collection includes objects and paintings that represent over two hundred and fifty years of the country’s design and craft legacy. Collectively considered “American decorative arts”, objects such as gold leaf enhanced chests, silk and linen stitchwork samplers, and family portraiture by 19th century American painters all date from 1620 to 1870 and highlight an extensive selection of finely crafted cultural artifacts. The residence is a Greek Revival mansion designed by the Houston architect John Staub and the formal gardens were created by Ima Hogg who often drew on the “Country Place” style in American landscape design. Under the care of the River Oaks Garden Club, whose members initiated organic gardening throughout the grounds, the Bayou Bend gardens represent an elegant, and thriving, extension of the American decorative arts movement.