Exhibits & Collections
Doris Duke was a renowned collector of decorative and fine arts from around the world. Her magnificent collections are available to the public at the Newport Restoration Foundation’s museums.
Rough Point is home to a collection of European pieces, focusing on Louis XVI furniture, portraits from such illustrious artists as Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Hoppner, as well as fabulous textiles. Each year, an annually changing special exhibit is presented in the two formal galleries at Rough Point.
Whitehorne House was opened in 1974 as a museum to share a remarkable collection of 18th century Newport furniture personally assembled by Doris Duke. It is filled with prime examples of early Newport and Rhode Island furniture by the Townsend and Goddard families, Benjamin Baker, and Holmes Weaver.
The NRF’s Architectural Collection of preservation properties is our third major collections strength.
Current Exhibits
Doris Duke's Extraordinary Vision: Saving Eighteenth Century Newport »
In creating the Newport Restoration Foundation, Doris Duke had a simple plan: to purchase dilapidated 18th century homes and completely restore them from top to bottom. The NRF would maintain the houses and rent them as private living spaces. This model of "living preservation" was groundbreaking in the field of historic preservation. Saving eighty-three properties was an undertaking on a scale and scope that has never been repeated. Doris Duke gave $21.9 million to the Newport Restoration Foundation, the largest philanthropic gift she made to a single organization during her lifetime.
View the tour schedule and purchase tickets online.
New Acquisitions at Whitehorne House »
When Whitehorne House opens for the 2010 season, it will have two new pieces of furniture on exhibit. Selected by Executive Director Pieter Roos and Director of Collections Bruce MacLeish at auction this winter, the pieces expand the large collection of 18th century Newport and Rhode Island furniture on display at Whitehorne House.
A wonderful historical document as well as a rare piece by a master cabinetmaker, the newly acquired inscribed slant-front desk by John Townsend creates an excellent contrast to another Townsend desk in the museum's collection. The new acquisition has the initials IT carved on the underside of the bottom board, in the manner of another inscribed Townsend piece. The original brasses are stamped with the name I Gold. The desk was made about 1765, and has clearly been used constantly since then, displaying signs of wear and repair in several areas. The museum will use the desk to illustrate a customer piece as made by the master, contrasting with a slightly altered and larger desk of Townsend's own, shown nearby.
The second piece is a Queen Anne turned mahogany writing table, a modest yet unique piece that has been owned by several collectors. The table sits on a tripod base with a turned column; a rectangular box containing a drawer supports the table top, which is hinged on one side. The table top can be used either flat or raised at an angle for writing or drawing. There are four original wrought iron supports stretching upward from the column. The table has long been thought by scholars to be a Rhode Island piece, circa 1740-60, and additional recent information reinforces that attribution.
Read the full news release.
Schedule and tickets for Whitehorne House.
Past Exhibits
Duke Treasure Houses »
"Duke Treasure Houses" was the 2004 Exhibition at Rough Point.
With a true connoisseur's eye, a world traveler's experience, and great financial resources, Doris Duke collected aesthetic styles that appealed to her, disregarding current fads and creating her own decorating styles in her houses. She had begun collecting Islamic art in the 1930s for her house in Hawai'i, called Shangri La. Some twenty years later she turned her attention to Rough Point. Completely emptied several years before, after her mother stopped coming to Newport each summer, the house was a blank canvas for Miss Duke to decorate with art and furnishings from Duke Farms, the family's New York house, as well as the great art dealers and auction houses. The Duke family homes held many important collections. Now, the treasures from these houses belong to the public, as her continuing gift.
Zoo in the House Exhibit »
Doris Duke was an animal lover and kept numerous pets at Rough Point (including two camels!). Her vast art collection featured a wonderful array of pieces depicting animals as friends, adversaries and allegories. Highlights of the exhibit include a Tang Dynasty earthenware camel and horse, a bronze lion by Barye, a painting by Julien Dupre and several Audubon prints.
Zoo in the House was on exhibit at Rough Point during the 2008 season.
The Eloquence of Place: Forty Years of the Newport Restoration Foundation »
This exhibition, which was displayed at the Newport Art Museum in 2008, traced NRF's development and featured photography, drawings, objects and maps sharing highlights from the collection of over 80 historic structures. Vision, dedication and drama mark the forty-year history of the Newport Restoration Foundation, founded by heiress Doris Duke in 1968 to protect Newport's Colonial architectural heritage. Today, the NRF maintains one of the largest collections of period architecture owned by a single organization anywhere in the country.
Shop Like an Heiress: Buying Fashion in the 20th Century »
This exhibit was on display at Rough Point from April to December 2009.
Shop Like an Heiress: Buying Fashion in the 20th Century was a celebration of fashion and shopping through the experience of Doris Duke. Miss Duke's closet represented a wide selection of international designers and shopping destinations. The exhibit explored how she shopped for her wardrobe from French couture houses to American department stores in search of stylish, chic clothes that established her as one of the best dressed in society.
