31. Aerial view of lower Washington Heights, ca. 1925 – 28. Barnard’s Cloisters sits on the rocky and surprisingly barren knoll just to the left of center. To the south is the tall studio building on the northern end of the rectangular Nolan property, which was subsequently acquired by the Museum. Barnard’s house at 700 Fort Washington Avenue abuts the northwest corner of his Cloisters. The buildings across the street belong to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart; the colonnaded structure perched over the Hudson behind them at the left is Inspiration Point, an extant landmark. Along the river at the right are the gatehouse of the Billings estate, the observation terrace over the arcaded entranceway, and Libbey Castle. Fort Washington Avenue, then curving west, intersects Northern Avenue, now Cabrini Boulevard, where Margaret Corbin Place is today. The Billings gatehouse is at this intersection, and Libbey Castle is across the avenue. At the far right, on the west side of the avenue, now Margaret Corbin Drive, is the Billings mansion, Tryon Hall, and its grounds, and on the east (near) side are the Billings stables and garage. In the foreground at the base of the escarpment is Bennett Avenue. See also fig. 40.
Given by Rockefeller Jr.” Museum Director Robinson, who
Institute of Arts), but in 1917 he returned to the Metropolitan
was vacationing in the Adirondacks, wrote to Rockefeller to
to replace Valentiner (who when war broke out had had
express “the great gratification with which I learned of your
to return to Germany) as curator of decorative arts, which
increased generosity in the matter of the Barnard Cloisters. . . .
in those days included European, American, and modern
You may be sure that the Museum will do everything it can
objects. Breck was highly knowledgeable on a broad spec-
to make the place the popular attraction it deserves to be.”
trum of subjects, from Early Christian art to modern furni-
He reported that Breck had completed the inventory of
ture design. His first assignment was the installation of the
objects, 917 of them, “including everything but the trees and
Morgan collection. In 1920, during the absence of the direc-
the grass.”
tor, Edward Robinson, and again in 1931, following Robinson’s
Joseph Breck (fig. 32) was named the first curator of The
illness and death, Breck was named assistant director of the
Cloisters. Breck had attended Harvard as an undergraduate,
Museum. In 1932 he was appointed director of The Cloisters.
and while studying art history at the university’s Fogg Museum
It was immediately evident to both Breck and Robinson
in Cambridge had become close friends with Herbert E.
that charming though Barnard’s Cloisters might be, with its
Winlock, who would serve as director of the Metropolitan
candlelight and idiosyncratic installations, it was woefully
from 1932 to 1939. After graduation in 1907 Breck traveled
inadequate as a branch of the Metropolitan.25 However
in Europe for a year before returning to Harvard for grad-
affecting, both the design and the arrangements of the art
uate work. In 1909 he was appointed assistant curator of
were products of an energetic free spirit who was uncon-
decorative arts at the Metropolitan under German scholar
cerned with art historical integrity. Constructed of brick walls
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, who had been hired by J. Pierpont
with no insulation and a vast steel and glass skylight, it suf-
Morgan. Breck resigned in 1914 to become director of the
fered from rudimentary heating with exposed pipes, inces-
Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts (now the Minneapolis
sant water incursion, weeping mortar joints, cracking cement
19