DECORATIVE ART: Barbara and Henry Landon
Form and Function
Newly married in 1959, Barbara and Henry Landon chose to furnish their North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, home with reproductions of late 18th- to early 19th-century American furniture. Their discovery that a local dealer was bringing in a truckload of antiques from Philadelphia every two weeks was the beginning of the couple’s lifelong pursuit of real antiques, and by the early 1980s, they had amassed a museum-worthy collection. (In 2005 selections from their collection were exhibited in "A Jeffersonian Ideal," at the University of Virginia Art Museum.)

Two of their favorite pieces are a Philadelphia high chest with rococo-style carving from the Garvan Carver that lends an imposing presence to their drawing room and an elegant
Federal-style sideboard from Hartford, Connecticut, in their dining room that the Landons call "breathtaking." Important examples from the Colonial cabinetmaking centers of Salem, Newport and Boston appear throughout the Landon home, and the couple makes sure the pieces are used and enjoyed by the family.

To complement their impressive furniture collection, the Landons compiled a wish list of art by painters of the same period, in John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart and Benjamin West. Believing it was not possible to acquire such works, the couple began buying paintings by lesser-known artists. But they did attain their goal and today they own paintings by each of the four. Dominating one wall of their dining room is Copley’s nearly 8-foot high portrait, "Mrs. Richard Crowninshield Derby as St. Cecilia."

Over the years, the Landons have extended their timeline to include paintings by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Albert Bierstadt and Childe Hassam, and starting in the 1990s, they began collecting sculpture, particularly bronzes. One of their favorites is a 19th-century copy of a third-century bronze of a seated Hermes. The Landons continue to collect today. "We never give up," Henry says. —Doris Goldstein

19TH- TO 20TH-CENTURY ART: Jack Warner
Art Patriot
"I’ve discovered who I am through collecting," says Jack Warner, 90, former CEO and chairman of his family’s Gulf States Paper Corporation, now known as The Westervelt Company, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. "What you collect is what you are, and I’m a definite romantic, an optimist and idealist." He is also an ardent American history buff. Those qualities have led Warner, over the past 50 years, on an impassioned search for top-quality American art and antiques from the 18th through early 20th centuries. Five years ago, he established the Westervelt-Warner Museum to showcase his formidable collection of nearly 800 paintings, sculptures and decorative arts, regarded as one of the world’s finest private collections of American art. Frequently, visitors to the museum will find Warner himself conducting tours or rearranging artworks.
 
Among his favorite works are Thomas Cole’s "The Falls of Kaaterskill" (1826) and Asher B. Durand’s "Progress (The Advance of Civilization)" (1853). "These painting express the beauty of nature and the expansion of our nation westward," he says. "They have a spiritual quality that ennobles me every time I look at them." Other treasures are period portraits of the Founding Fathers and paintings by Frederic E. Church, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and works by Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam and Daniel Garber. "I love the wonderful glowing light and atmosphere of these paintings," he says.
 
Also on display at his museum are 19th-century sculptures by Hiram Powers, Randolph Rogers and others; neoclassical furniture by Duncan Phyfe, Charles Honoré Lannuier and Joseph Barry; Paul Revere silver; Native American totem poles and a clock from the house where the Boston Tea Party was planned. A frequent bidder at auction, Warner recently picked up "The Spirit of ’76," a 1912 oil on canvas by Archibald Willard for a record $1.5 million at Christie’s New York.

What is his biggest collecting thrill? "Coming home with the prize and saying, ‘I won!’" he says. "I have a reputation at the auction houses for keeping my paddle up until I get what I want." Susan Austin-Warner, executive director of the Westervelt-Warner Museum and Warner’s wife, adds: "When Jack has his eye on a painting, there’s no stopping him. He even dreams about it, and then usually winds up buying five or six other paintings at the same time." For Warner, who says he established his museum to share his love of American art and history with others, collecting is both a privilege and a joy. "My happiest hours have been spent collecting. When I go to the museum every day and look at the art, it sends goose-bumps up my spine." —Dana Micucci