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
Passport to the World: Doris Duke the International Traveler »
Doris Duke's love of travel began at an early age with a trip to Europe with her parents when she was still an infant. Her childhood trips to Europe and worldwide honeymoon with James Cromwell in 1935 gave her an enthusiasm for enjoying and experiencing the cultures of the world, which continued throughout her entire life. Miss Duke traveled for leisure, business, and humanitarian work overseas during World War II. She cultivated her curiosity and passion for learning through visiting various countries, while adding to her superior collection of fine and decorative arts for her multiple homes.
This exhibit Passport to the World: Doris Duke the International Traveler, will focus not only on the places where Doris Duke traveled to throughout her lifetime, but also on the many acquisitions and additions to her collection she amassed while doing so. It will highlight the diverse art collection, as well as fashions she purchased on her many international adventures. Also featured will be many personal travel photographs to highlight not only the numerous locations she visited, but also to provide a glimpse to the people, places, and things Miss Duke chose to remember from her various adventures around the globe.
New Items Added to the Whitehorne House Collection »
The Newport Restoration Foundation has added four items to the collection at Whitehorne House.The items were selected and purchased at auction in January by Pieter N. Roos, Executive Director, and A. Bruce MacLeish, Director of Collections, to expand Whitehorne House's existing collection of early American furniture.
A good example of a Newport Windsor chair of about 1780 was acquired during a sale at Christie's. The chair is a great addition to a small group of distinctive Windsors in the collection that exemplify vernacular chair styles during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in Newport.
At auction at Sotheby's successful bidding brought three new items of furniture into the collections. First is a fly - or tilt-top - tea table, circa 1760. The maker of the table is identified as John Goddard through comprehensive study of the carvings and turnings by a group of scholars who have concentrated their studies on Rhode Island furniture. Also acquired, and attributed to Goddard, is a roundabout or corner chair, likely made about 1770. The chair has one ball-and-claw leg, with carving that is very characteristic of Goddard's work. The chair also has provenance that indicates it descended in a Rhode Island family.
Finally, an elegant and understated Newport serpentine-front chest of drawers will be added to the collection, as a good example of Newport cabinetmaking that followed the famous "block-and-shell" style, which is well-represented in the museum. The chest, made about 1785, illustrates the change of furniture style that followed the Revolutionary War.
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.
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.
The Sporty Style of Doris Duke »
From the beach to the bowling alley, from surfing to skiing, Doris Duke was a woman who loved to play. A new exhibit at her Newport mansion Rough Point reveals the sporting side of the noted heiress and historic preservationist's personality. Visitors can admire Doris Duke's stylish sportswear alongside items of her personal sports equipment in the 2011 exhibit Dressed to Play: The Sporty Style of Doris Duke. The exhibit illustrates her athletic lifestyle, which included surfing in Hawaii and daily swims in Newport. Fun, playful fashions from the 1940s-1970s will make visitors nostalgic for the classic styles of their mothers and grandmothers era. A collection of her personal sports equipment, including a surfboard, tennis racquet, golf clubs, scuba gear, riding habit and bowling ball, is displayed along with never before seen images of Doris Duke in action.
New Acquisitions at Whitehorne House »
Whitehorne House, located in the Lower Thames Street neighborhood of Newport, Rhode Island, is an often overlooked local gem for antiques enthusiasts. Featuring a rare collection of 18th century Newport and Rhode Island furniture, Whitehorne House showcases the work of some of the country's most highly regarded furniture craftsmen or 'cabinetmakers.' When the museum opens for the 2010 season on May 1, it will boast two additions to its collection. One of the new acquisitions is a slant-front desk made by John Townsend, who is considered one of the masters of the distinctive 'ball and claw' foot often found on Newport furniture.
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.
