John Wilmerding

Last updated
John Wilmerding
John Wilmerding.jpg
Born
John Currie Wilmerding Jr.

(1938-04-28) April 28, 1938 (age 85)
Education St. Paul's School
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation(s)Professor, author
Parent(s)John Currie Wilmerding Sr.
Lila Vanderbilt Webb
Relatives James Webb II (grandfather)
Electra Havemeyer (grandmother)

John Currie Wilmerding Jr. (born April 28, 1938), is an American professor of art, collector, and curator, and is best known as a prolific author of books on American art. [1]

Contents

Early life

Wilmerding was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 28, 1938, and is descended from prominent families in old New York City social circles. [2] [3] His parents were John Currie Wilmerding Sr. (1911–1965), a vice president in the personal trust division of Bankers Trust Company, [4] and Lila Vanderbilt (née Webb) Wilmerding (1913–1961). [5] He has two siblings, James Wilmerding and Lila Wilmerding. [4] After his mother's death, his father remarried to Katharine (née Salvage) Polk (1914–2003), [6] the daughter of Samuel Agar Salvage and widow of Frank Lyon Polk Jr. [7] [8]

His maternal grandparents were James Watson Webb (1884–1960) [9] and Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960), [10] [11] the co-founders of the Shelburne Museum, which showcases the family's "collection of collections" of early American homes and public buildings, including a general store, meeting house, log cabin, and a steamship. [12] [13] His great-grandfather, Henry Osborne Havemeyer and his wife, Louisine Waldron Havemeyer, were also art collectors who bequeathed a large group of their European and Oriental artworks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [2]

Wilmerding was educated at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire and at Harvard University, where he received his A. B. in 1960, his masters in 1961, and his Ph.D. in 1965. [14]

Career

After graduating from Harvard, he taught art history at Dartmouth College until 1977. From 1977 to 1983 he served as senior curator at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., and as its deputy director under J. Carter Brown from 1983 to 1988. [15] He served as Christopher Binyon Sarofim Professor of American Art at Princeton. [16]

In 2016, the Walton Family Foundation and Alice Walton granted $10 million to the National Gallery of Art to establish the John Wilmerding Fund for Education in honor of Wilmerding's contribution to the Gallery and art history. [17]

Art collection

Wilmerding began collecting art while still a student at Harvard, purchasing the 1857 painting Stage Rocks and Western Shore of Gloucester Outer Harbor by Fitz Hugh Lane during his senior year for $3,500. [2] His second purchase was the 1850 painting Mississippi Boatman by George Caleb Bingham "which shows a pipe-smoking boatman sitting on top of a crate," followed by "The Newbury Marshes" by Martin Johnson Heade, c.1890, which were all donated by Wilmerding to the National Gallery of Art. [2] By 2004, he built a collection of 51 paintings and drawings by acknowledged masters. [18]

At the May 2004 opening of the National Gallery of Art's exhibit "American Masters From Bingham to Eakins: The John Wilmerding Collection," Wilmerding announced that his entire collection would remain at the Gallery in perpetuity, [2] including works by such artists as Martin Johnson Heade, Fitz Henry Lane, John F. Peto, Joseph Decker, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Frederic Edwin Church, George Caleb Bingham, and John F. Kensett, and featuring certain of his favorite works by artists who visited and painted Maine's Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park, where he has summered for many years. [18] [19] His contribution broadened the Gallery's holdings by adding many examples of types of works that the Gallery had not yet managed to acquire. [1] [20]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Cassatt</span> American painter and printmaker

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitz Henry Lane</span> American painter

Fitz Henry Lane was an American painter and printmaker of a style that would later be called Luminism, for its use of pervasive light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Johnson Heade</span> American painter (1819–1904)

Martin Johnson Heade was an American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, and depictions of tropical birds, as well as lotus blossoms and other still lifes. His painting style and subject matter, while derived from the romanticism of the time, are regarded by art historians as a significant departure from those of his peers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luminism (American art style)</span>

Luminism is an American landscape painting style of the 1850s to 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscape, through the use of aerial perspective and the concealment of visible brushstrokes. Luminist landscapes emphasize tranquility, and often depict calm, reflective water and a soft, hazy sky. Artists who were most central to the development of the luminist style include Fitz Hugh Lane, Martin Johnson Heade, Sanford Gifford, and John F. Kensett. Painters with a less clear affiliation include Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Cropsey, Albert Bierstadt, Worthington Whittredge, Raymond Dabb Yelland, Alfred Thompson Bricher, James Augustus Suydam, and David Johnson. Some precursor artists are George Harvey and Robert Salmon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Osborne Havemeyer</span> American businessman (1847–1907)

Henry Osborne Havemeyer was an American industrialist, entrepreneur and sugar refiner who founded and became president of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelburne Museum</span> Museum of art and Americana in Shelburne, Vermont

Shelburne Museum is a museum of art, design, and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. It is located on 45 acres (18 ha) near Lake Champlain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electra Havemeyer Webb</span>

Electra Havemeyer Webb was a collector of American antiques and founder of the Shelburne Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Seward Webb</span> American businessman and inspector general

William Seward Webb was a businessman, and inspector general of the Vermont militia with the rank of colonel. He was a founder and former president of the Sons of the American Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisine Havemeyer</span> American art collector (1855–1929)

Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer was an art collector, feminist, and philanthropist. In addition to being a patron of impressionist art, she was one of the more prominent contributors to the suffrage movement in the United States. The impressionist painter Edgar Degas and feminist Alice Paul were among the renowned recipients of the benefactor's support.

<i>The Concert Singer</i> Painting by Thomas Eakins

The Concert Singer is a painting by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), depicting the singer Weda Cook (1867–1937). The work, commenced in 1890 and completed in 1892, was Eakins's first full-length portrait of a woman. It is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building</span>

The Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building is an exhibit building located at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, in the U.S. state of Vermont. It was built as a memorial to the museum's founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb, and her husband, James Watson Webb II. It is home to the museum's European Paintings Collection. The collection is shown in six period rooms relocated from Electra and J. Watson Webb's 1930s New York City apartment at 740 Park Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webb Gallery</span>

The Webb Gallery is an exhibit building located at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Webb Gallery is the Museum's primary showcase for American art and serves as a gallery for special exhibitions.

<i>Portrait of Maud Cook</i> Painting by Thomas Eakins

Portrait of Maud Cook is an 1895 painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins, Goodrich catalogue #279. It is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.

James Watson Webb II was an American polo champion and insurance executive. He was a grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt and James Watson Webb.

<i>Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley</i> Painting by Paul Cézanne

Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley is an oil painting on canvas completed by the French artist Paul Cézanne between 1882 and 1885. It depicts Montagne Sainte-Victoire and the valley of the Arc River, with Cézanne's hometown of Aix-en-Provence in the background. Once owned by the art collectors and patrons Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, the painting was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after the latter's death in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb</span>

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb was an American heiress.

James Watson Webb III was an American film editor and heir to both the Havemeyer and Vanderbilt families.

<i>The Boating Party</i> Painting by Mary Cassatt

The Boating Party is an 1893 oil painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. It has been in the collection of the National Gallery of Art since 1963.

The Havemeyer family is a prominent New York family of German origin that owned significant sugar refining interests in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art in the White House</span>

The White House's art collection, sometimes also called the White House Collection or Pride of the American Nation, has grown over time from donations from descendants of the Founding Fathers to commissions by established artists. It comprises paintings, sculptures, and other art forms. At times, the collection grows from a president's specific request, such as when Ronald Reagan began collecting the work of naval artist Tom Freeman in 1986, a tradition that continued through the Obama years.

References

Notes
    References
    1. 1 2 "American Masters from Bingham to Eakins: The John Wilmerding Collection". National Gallery of Art. United States Government. Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
    2. 1 2 3 4 5 Vogel, Carol (7 May 2004). "Inside Art | National Gallery Enriched by Gift". The New York Times . Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    3. "History and genealogy of the wealthy families of America". Archived from the original on 2015-05-11. Retrieved 2015-04-26.
    4. 1 2 "John C. Wilmerding, 54, Dead; Bankers Trust Vice President". The New York Times . 11 August 1965. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
    5. "Deaths. Wilmerding". The New York Times . 13 February 1961. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
    6. "Paid Notice: Deaths WILMERDING, KATHARINE S." The New York Times . January 26, 2003. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    7. "MISS SALVAGE WED TO FRANK POLK JR.: St. John's of Lattingtown Scene of Brilliant Rites — Bishop Du Moulin Officiates". The New York Times . June 27, 1934. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
    8. "John C. Wilmerding Marries Mrs. Polk". The New York Times . April 29, 1962. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
    9. "J. Watson Webb, Sportsman, Dies. Ex-Polo Star Named in '34 to All-Time U. S. Team. Insurance Executive Here". The New York Times . March 5, 1960. Retrieved 2011-04-07. Chairman of Webb Lynch, Inc., general insurance brokers at 99 John.....
    10. "Mrs. J. Watson Webb, 72, Dead; Co-Founder of Vermont Museum; Started Shelburne Institution With Husband in 1947. Aided Red Cross in 2 Wars". The New York Times . November 20, 1960. Retrieved 2010-10-09. Mrs. Electra Havemeyer Webb of 740 Park Avenue, New York, and Shelburne, widow of J. Watson Webb, an insurance executive and international polo player, died today in Mary Fletcher Hospital.
    11. Wilmerding, John (Currie) Archived 2010-11-27 at the Wayback Machine Entry, Dictionary of Art Historians. Retrieved 27 Mar 2010.
    12. "Museum's Fortunes Rise at Auction". New York Times . November 13, 1996. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
    13. Foderaro, Lisa W. (28 September 2007). "Gifts From the Gilded Age of Vermont". The New York Times . Retrieved 16 January 2018.
    14. "John Wilmerding | Dean of the Faculty". dof.princeton.edu. Princeton University . Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    15. McGill, Douglas C. (22 February 1988). "Princeton and the Met Joining on American Art". The New York Times . Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    16. "John Wilmerding's Profile". Dictionary of Art Historians.org. Archived from the original on 27 November 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
    17. "$10 Million Grant Received by National Gallery of Art from the Walton Family Foundation to Establish John Wilmerding Fund for Education in American Art". www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art. April 22, 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    18. 1 2 Genocchio, Benjamin (11 July 2004). "Small, But Beautiful". The New York Times . Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    19. "John Wilmerding, Giving His Awe for American Art". Washington Post . May 9, 2004. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
    20. Kramer, Hilton (13 September 2004). "Some Born to Collect, And John Wilmerding Apparently Was One". Observer . Retrieved 6 March 2018.