The Newport Symposium: The French Influence in Newport

Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, modeled the architecture of Alva Vanderbilt’s Marble House after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Horace Trumbauer’s inspiration for The Elms came from the 18th-century Château d’Asnières, while Stanford White’s design for Rosecliff incorporated elements of another Versailles palace, the Grand Trianon. Furniture maker and interior designer Jules Allard et Fils furnished Newport’s summer “cottages” with treasures inspired by and imported from France, and French chefs created magnificent culinary confections. Learn about all of this and more during the Symposium’s morning lectures and guided afternoon tours.