Richard Morris Hunt
| Richard Morris Hunt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 31, 1827 Brattleboro, Vermont |
| Died | July 31, 1895 (aged 67) Newport, Rhode Island |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | École des Beaux-Arts |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse(s) | Catherine Clinton Howland |
| Buildings |
New York Tribune Building William K. Vanderbilt House Marble House |
Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture. Design critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times that Hunt was "American architecture's first, and in many ways its greatest, statesman." He sculpted the face of New York City, including designs for the facade and Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and many Fifth Avenue mansions now lost to the wrecking ball. Hunt also founded both the American Institute of Architects and the Municipal Art Society.
Born at Brattleboro, Vermont, Hunt was a son of Jane Maria Leavitt, born to an influential family of Suffield, Connecticut, and Hon. Jonathan Hunt, a U.S. congressman whose own father was the lieutenant governor of Vermont, and scion of the wealthy and prominent Hunt family of Vermont. Richard Morris Hunt was the brother of the Boston painter William Morris Hunt, and the photographer and lawyer Leavitt Hunt. (Hunt was named for Lewis Richard Morris, a family relation, who was a U.S. Congressman from Vermont and the nephew of Gouverneur Morris, an author of large parts of the U.S. Constitution.)
Following the early death of his father, Hunt's mother took the family to Europe, where they remained for more than a decade, first in Switzerland and later in Paris. Hunt began his education at the Boston Latin School. Following Hunt's 1843 graduation from Boston Latin, young Hunt left with his family for Europe, where he studied art, and where he was encouraged to pursue architecture by his older brother William, a painter, and by his mother, who had been denied the chance to paint herself.
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