CANVASES, CARATS AND CURIOSITIES

In an era largely unrestrained by regulation, these self-made titans constructed empires that reshaped the architecture of American society. Their influence extended beyond industry, establishing the very language of luxury—standards of taste and refinement that would define the American elite for generations.

In this second installment of our Gilded Age series, we look behind the velvet curtain to uncover how these real families built their empires—and how their legacies continue to illuminate the drama on screen.

The Vanderbilt Dynasty

While The Gilded Age’s Russell family is a composite of several historical figures, their closest real-life counterparts are unmistakably the Vanderbilts. Bertha Russell mirrors Alva Vanderbilt, the formidable wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, while her daughter Gladys reflects Alva’s own daughter, Consuelo.

Both women—fictional and historical—built palatial mansions on Fifth Avenue and used architecture as a declaration of status. Gladys’s arranged marriage to the Duke of Buckingham echoes Consuelo Vanderbilt’s coerced union with the Duke of Marlborough, a match that sacrificed affection for ambition.

Behind their stories stands Cornelius Vanderbilt, the self-made magnate/patriarch whose fortune laid the foundation for one of America’s most powerful dynasties. Vanderbilt, born in 1794, began humbly as a Staten Island ferry operator. By his teens, he was running his own service, undercutting competitors with lower fares. His keen sense of efficiency and risk transformed small ventures into a massively lucrative transportation empire.

By the 1840s, Vanderbilt controlled more than a hundred steamships along the Hudson River. His transition from steamships to railroads made him one of the most powerful industrialists of the century. Upon his death, his wealth exceeded $100 million—equivalent to more than $2.5 billion today. His $1 million, $260 million in today’s equivalent, gift to establish Vanderbilt University symbolized his belief that progress, industry and education could elevate American life. Yet within New York society, the Vanderbilts’ “new money” status placed them in a precarious position: financially dominant but socially suspect.

Alva Vanderbilt and the Theater of Fashion

As the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s eldest son, Alva Vanderbilt not only spent the family’s fortune but also shaped its public image. Married to William Kissam Vanderbilt, she embodied a new form of power—social engineering through spectacle. Her now-legendary 1883 masquerade ball, held in the family’s Fifth Avenue mansion, marked the Vanderbilts’ formal entry into high society.

Alva appeared as a Venetian princess in blue satin embroidered with gold and trimmed in red brocade, crowned with jewels and accessorized with taxidermic doves. Other guests—such as Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt, dressed as “Electric Light” with a glowing bulb atop her diamond headpiece—transformed fashion into theater.

The home itself became an extension of the costume drama. Columns entwined with greenery and Japanese lanterns framed rooms filled with rare blooms and illuminated by newly invented electric fixtures. Every surface proclaimed the family’s mastery of modernity. These performances of taste blurred the line between art and artifice, transforming the Vanderbilt mansion into both stage and symbol of arrival.

Mansions of Modern Aristocracy

Determined to secure their place among the nation’s elite, Cornelius’s family built monumental homes that rivaled European palaces. In Newport, Rhode Island, The Breakers—completed in 1893 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II—embodied the height of Gilded Age architecture. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the 70-room Italian Renaissance–style mansion radiated grandeur through its mosaic floors, vaulted loggias and sculpted ornamentation.

In New York, the family’s residences, including the Hyde Park Mansion and the Fifth Avenue Petite Château, served as urban stages for displaying taste and influence. The Vanderbilt homes, much like the objects in M.S. Rau’s collection, reveal the aesthetic language of ambition. Consider the American Oak Dining Suite by R.J. Horner—a tour de force of late nineteenth-century design. Crafted from luminous golden oak and intricately carved in high relief, it very well could have filled such estates.

The Astor Legacy

Caroline Astor: The Sovereign of Society

If Alva Vanderbilt stormed the gates of high society, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor built them. Born into an established New York lineage, Mrs. Astor embodied the authority of “old money.” Alongside social arbiter Ward McAllister, she formalized the invisible codes of the elite, culminating in the famed list of The Four Hundred—the supposed limit of individuals “fit” to enter her ballroom.

To be invited to Mrs. Astor’s events at her Fifth Avenue residence was to receive the era’s ultimate validation. Her calling cards, handwritten invitations and rigorous standards of etiquette reinforced the exclusivity of her circle. During her soirées, Mrs. Astor often entertained from a red velvet couch—reminiscent of a throne—surveying her guests with the composure and detachment of a reigning monarch.

Ward McAllister produced the book Society as I Have Found it that outlined his ideas on how to be fashionable. He claimed that a host should appear “nonchalant”— that one must act as if hosting is an everyday occurrence. He stressed the importance of entertaining as it relates to success in their world. Most importantly, he pleaded that one must always accept an invitation to an event and attend, no matter the circumstance.

These two figureheads of the upper class had the power to outline what behaviors and customs were socially permitted. But they also had the final say on who would be accepted and who would be excluded.

Rivalry with the Vanderbilts

The tension between the Astors and the Vanderbilts—mirrored in The Gilded Age between Mrs. Astor and Bertha Russell—defined New York’s social drama. The Vanderbilts’ immense fortune could not initially buy acceptance into the Astor circle. That changed when Alva Vanderbilt withheld an invitation to her lavish ball, prompting Mrs. Astor herself to pay a formal call. The gesture secured the Vanderbilts’ legitimacy and marked the fusion of America’s industrial wealth with its aristocratic heritage.

This rivalry also elevated the standards of entertainment. Every event became a statement of hierarchy, and every object a reflection of prestige. Pieces like the Tiffany & Co. Silver Centerpiece by John C. Moore, created circa 1870, exemplify the artistry displayed at such gatherings. Its ornate repoussé work and fluid design capture the refinement expected in homes like the Astors’ or Vanderbilts’. 

Art Collecting as Cultural Capital

While The Gilded Age’s Russell family draws primarily from the Vanderbilts, its narrative also evokes other figures who shaped America’s economy and aesthetics—J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Clay Frick.

For these industrial titans, art collecting became the ultimate expression of refinement. J.P. Morgan’s vast holdings rivaled royal collections, earning him the title “the American Medici.” William Henry Vanderbilt assembled a major collection in only four years, meticulously catalogued and documented—a rare practice that reflected his commitment to cultural permanence.

Henry Clay Frick approached collecting with the same precision he brought to business. His acquisitions, from Barbizon landscapes to Old Master portraits, reflected both scholarship and calculation. When he built his Fifth Avenue mansion, its grandest rooms were devoted to displaying art, a vision that would later become The Frick Collection.

Their legacies endure not only through their names but through the institutions their passions helped establish. J.P. Morgan’s collection laid the foundation for The Morgan Library & Museum in New York. Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropy built Carnegie Hall and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. John D. Rockefeller’s family later founded The Museum of Modern Art, shaping the trajectory of twentieth-century taste.

Legacy:

Today, the legacy of these families endures not only in museums but in the masterpieces that continue to circulate among collectors who share their passion for excellence. At M.S. Rau, the same ideals that defined the Gilded Age—artistry, provenance and enduring beauty—remain central to our acquisition strategy.

The fine art, furniture and objets d’art within our collection echo the same pursuit of refinement that once filled the Vanderbilt mansions and Astor ballrooms, and we hope you enjoy exploring the many dazzling objects we have in our collection.

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