Christopher Pruyn Monkhouse (1947 – 2021) was an architectural historian, a scholar of the decorative arts, and a curator who worked in institutions across America.
[6] One of the many exhibitions he curated, Gorham: Masterpieces in Metal was reviewed in the New York Times in 1983 and was described as 'an impressive survey of Providence's illustrious 152-year- old metal-fabricating industry'.
[1] Lynsi Spaulding, in a review for the journal Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, said the exhibition offered 'a fresh perspective of the River and the steamboat as the primary conduits for both the necessities of commerce and the propagation of artistic style' and concluded that the curators were owed 'a debt of gratitude for tackling such a complicated era and presenting the diverse themes with a sense of maturity and sensitive comprehension.
One of his tasks was to oversee the reinstallation of one of America's top decorative arts collections in a new wing at the institute designed by Renzo Piano;[10] an architect whose work was well known to Monkhouse since the first exhibition he curated when the Heinz Architectural Galleries opened in 1993 was a show inspired by the work of Renzo Piano incorporating computer technology; an innovative idea at the time.
Over the years Monkhouse visited Ireland many times and continued a lifelong friendship with Desmond Fitzgerald with whom he often discussed the possibility of an exhibition of Irish art.
The exhibition opened to the public on St Patrick's Day 2015, and was dedicated to the memory of the Knight of Glin, who was represented at the launch by his widow Olda and their daughters.
[13] Generous with his time to friends and colleagues, Monkhouse was also a generous donator of gifts to various institutions over the years, for example, the Rhodes Island School of Design museum (RISD) has innumerable items donated by Monkhouse as diverse as a 1960 Lark Ladle by John Prip to an American button containing a portrait of a young man dating back to the 1800s.
"[25] For all his travels, Monkhouse always retained ties to his birth state and had, for a long time, kept a summer home in Machiasport, an 18th-century Colonial house.