Hispanic Society in Washington Heights, NYC, is a research library and museum with the most important Spanish art collection outside of Spain.
The most important museum in Spain, the Prado in Madrid says the Hispanic Society collection is even more complete than theirs.
The Hispanic Society Collection
Hispanic Society was founded in 1904 by Archer M. Huntington of California’s Central Pacific Railroad family. He started collecting on family trips to Europe.
The museum holds paintings by the important Spanish artists including Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, El Greco and Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida and others.
Huntington liked Sorolla. The Museum’s Sorolla Vision of Spain gallery is ringed by the massive The Provinces of Spain (1911-1919). Sorolla’s light is Spanish Mediterranean, but will likely be familiar to anyone who grew up on a sunny beach.
The library also houses about a half a million books, documents, photographs, prints and maps. The collection includes a first edition Don Quijote (1605) and Juan Vespucci’s 1526 map of the world.
Few New Yorkers know about it, but many European visitors make the trek uptown to visit. When the Hispanic Society collection travels to the Prado in Madrid, lines run around the block.
Visit Hispanic Society
The museum closed for renovations in 2017 and is touring its collections in the meantime.
In September 17, 2019, the Sorolla Vision of Spain gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment only. You can request an appointment by email at visitsorolla@hispanicsociety.org
For more information, visit hispanicsociety.org