"The Changing Face of William Shakespeare" at the Morgan Library and Museum

Opening today at the Morgan Library and Museum is an exhibit featuring portraits of William Shakespeare. "The Changing Face of William Shakespeare" features the oil on panel portrait by an unknown artist and was inherited by Archbishop Charles Cobbe (1686-1785). The Cobbe portrait pictured above has been determined to be the original of a long series of portraits traditionally identified as Shakespeare. The exhibit runs through May 1. The Morgan Library and Museum is located at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street.

Newly Restored Morgan Library Opens To The Public

Facade of the Morgan Library constructed of Tenessee pink marble, featuring a simple recessed portico flanked by a pair of stone lionesses. 

Details of the fence of the Morgan Library at 36th Street

video from Streetscapes (The New York Times)

The restoration of the Morgan Library has been completed, and the library opened to the public yesterday. The Morgan Library was designed by Charles Follen MacKim (1847-1909) who created a classical styled structure inspired by villas of the Italian Renaissance. The library was built to house the collection of rare books and manuscripts of the American financier Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913). The Morgan Library and Museum is located at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street. The magnificent photos of the newly restored interior can be seen by clicking here.

Restoring the Morgan Library Interior (from themorgan.org)

In 2010 the Morgan restored the interior of the 1906 library to its original grandeur. A new lighting system was installed to illuminate the extraordinary murals and decor of the four historic rooms. Intricate marble surfaces and applied ornamentation were cleaned, period furniture was reupholstered, and original fixtures—including three chandeliers removed decades ago—were restored and reinstalled. A late-nineteenth-century Persian rug (similar to the one originally there) was laid in the grand East Room. The ornate ceiling of the librarian's office, or North Room, was cleaned, and visitors are able to enter the refurbished space—now a gallery—for the first time. New, beautifully crafted display cases throughout the 1906 library feature selections from the Morgan's collection of great works of art and literature from the ancient world to modern times.

"DEGAS: DRAWINGS AND SKETCHBOOKS" and "ROY LICHTENSTEIN: THE BLACK-AND-WHITE DRAWINGS, 1961-1968" Open at The Morgan Library and Museum

The Morgan Library and Museum main entrance on Madison Avenue

Cover of Fall and Winter Schedule featuring Roy Lichtenstein's "I Know How You Must Feel, Brad" (1963) graphite pencil, pochoir and lithographic rubbing crayon

Two exhibitions opened today at the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, "DEGAS: Drawings and Sketckbooks," and "ROY LICHTENSTEIN: The Black-and-White Drawings, 1961-1968." The former features more than twenty drawings by Edgar Degas (1834–1917) from the Morgan's collections that capture the artist's dynamic and varied use of drawing and includes some of the most quintessential subjects - from his earliest portraits of himself, family members, and friends to his later intensive studies of dancers and performers. The Lichtenstein exhibit presents an important series of large-scale, black-and-white works as a group for the first time and examines Lichtenstein's less known exploration of the medium of drawing. Created during the early and mid-1960s, the fifty-five drawings on view offer a revealing window into the development of Lichtenstein's art, as he began for the first time to appropriate commercial illustrations and comic strips as subject matter and experimented stylistically with simulating commercial techniques of reproduction—the famous Benday dots. The work represents an essential and original contribution to Pop Art as well as to the history of drawing. These exhibitions run until January 2011.

The Morgan Library and Museum is located at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street.