WINTERTHUR, DE.- Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library's new exhibition, Challenging Masterpieces: Art and Identity in American Furniture, uses more than 70 objects from its own collection to show how the term masterpiece was constructed, who it left out, and how it's being redefined today. Developed by Joshua W. Lane, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture, the exhibition opened Sept. 26, 2026, and runs through May 2, 2027.
Organized around a single question, What makes a masterpiece? the exhibition traces how that label emerged among early 20th-century collectors, hardened into orthodoxy, and is now being reconsidered. The show unfolds across two galleries and two themes: the first traces how the idea of the aesthetic “masterpiece” took hold in American antiques collecting in the early 20th century; the second carries that inquiry forward, showing how the definition has expanded from the 1970s to the present.
“We chose the exhibition title to spur reflection on masterpiece as an aesthetic category long governed by supposedly fixed standards,” said Lane. “As a historically and culturally constructed term, it’s open to interpretation, interrogation, and expansion. We’re not looking to overthrow the idea of a masterpiece. Rather, we want visitors to ask who gets to decide and to consider a more inclusive understanding of American antique furniture.”
Celebrating the breadth and depth of the furniture collection amassed by founder Henry Francis du Pont, Challenging Masterpieces will highlight design, materials, and workmanship while exploring the historical context of his collecting activities. In step with other collectors and curators of the time, du Pont favored high-style masterpieces made in cities such as Boston, Newport, and Philadelphia.
Arranged chronologically, the exhibition will explore the emergence of the market for American antique furniture in the 1870s and examine the idea of the aesthetic masterpiece, tracing the maturation of this market from the 1920s, when du Pont began to collect, to his death in 1969. It will then showcase how the collection expanded from the 1970s through the present and how the concept of “masterpiece” continues to evolve.
Gallery One: The exhibition opens with the “Van Pelt” high chest (Philadelphia, 1765–80, carving attributed to John Pollard and Hercules Courtenay), which du Pont won at auction in 1929, bidding under the pseudonym “H.F. Winthrop.” Acquired for $44,000, the equivalent of roughly $830,000 in today’s dollars, it was then the highest price paid for a piece of American antique furniture.
The high chest anchors a gallery that goes on to explore the traditional meaning of “masterpiece” through about a dozen miniature furniture forms, including a walnut dressing table once owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson and a mahogany miniature sideboard signed by New York cabinetmaker James Curtis on Christmas Eve 1823.
Long-recognized masterpieces on view include a wainscot great chair (Huntington, N.Y., 1720–40) that descended in the Conklin family and, according to family tradition, was used by George Washington during a 1790 visit to Long Island; a Newport tea table made by John Goddard in 1763; a Boston high chest by John Pimm (1740–50); and a Boston dressing bureau made by the celebrated cabinetmaker Thomas Seymour for the firm Isaac Vose & Son (1820–25).
Displayed alongside these examples of urban, high-style craftsmanship prized by early 20th-century collectors are period auction records, dealer correspondence, and the pages of The Magazine ANTIQUES that first popularized such objects as icons of American taste.
Gallery Two: Expanding the canon. The second gallery, The Challenge, broadens the scope of “masterpiece” to include work from underrepresented regions such as the American South and Midwest and objects that blur the line between professional shop production and folk art, including a rare 17th-century chest from Milford, Connecticut, built with tropical hardwood that was likely sourced through West Indian trade routes.
More recent acquisitions since 1970 join the conversation here, including a mid-18th-century Campeche chair from Campeche, Mexico; an early 19th-century armoire from Martinique; and a 19th-century quillwork side chair made by a Mi’kmaq artist in the Canadian Eastern Maritimes. Each is an example of global circulation of goods, materials, and design across the Americas.
The gallery also makes room for pieces whose makers were never recorded, such as a marble-topped Philadelphia pier table (1815–30) and a New York side chair (1845–55), putting anonymous craftsmanship on equal footing with prominent names.
Traditional prestige objects appear here too, encouraging visitors to think about how our ideas of quality, American craftsmanship, and value have changed over time.
Exhibition features: Challenging Masterpieces pairs more than 70 examples of furniture drawn from Winterthur’s renowned collection with dynamic displays drawn from Winterthur Library's manuscript and rare book holdings, including original auction records, dealer correspondence, and period photographs, alongside iPad features that reveal hidden marks, secret drawers, and construction details, and 3D didactic models that spotlight craft skill and design ingenuity.
It will offer a rare chance to see iconic pieces in a new light as they are temporarily relocated from the museum house to the galleries, some for the first time. The exhibition will appeal to collectors, students, scholars, as well as makers who can examine construction details and investigate historical designs and practices.
General visitors will have a chance to gain a deeper understanding of diverse styles and aesthetics of antiques, at a time when “brown furniture” is experiencing a mainstream revival that’s trending away from cookie-cutter, mass-produced furniture and more toward a high-low interior design mix and appreciation for antiques, vintage and preowned.
