Nathan Cummings

Last updated • 6 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Nathan Cummings
Portrait of Nathan Cummings.jpg
Born
Nathan Komiensky

(1896-10-14)14 October 1896
Died19 February 1985(1985-02-19) (aged 88)
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder of Consolidated Foods
Spouses
Ruth Lillian Kellert
(m. 1919;died 1952)
Joanne Ruth Toor
(m. 1959;div. 1976)

Nathan Cummings (born Komiensky; 14 October 1896 – 19 February 1985) was a Jewish-Canadian-American businessman, investor and philanthropist. He was the founder of Consolidated Foods, which later became known by one of its product lines, Sara Lee Corporation.

Contents

Early life

Nathan Komiensky was born on 14 October 1896 in Saint John, New Brunswick to David Louis Komiensky (1872–1940) and Elizabeth Beatrice "Bessie" Howe (1868–1900). David Komiensky was born in Minsk, then part of the Russian Empire, and in 1892 left the country to escape the oppressive May Laws that had been enacted following the assassination of Czar Alexander II. Earlier, David's brother Isaac had immigrated to Saint John. Allegedly, Isaac had intended to go to New York but accidentally got off in New Brunswick. Upon leaving Russia, David joined Isaac in Canada. Shortly after arriving in Saint John, David met Bessie Howe, who had recently come to Canada from Lithuania, and soon married.

Following Nathan's birth, David and Bessie had a second son, Maxwell Komiensky (Maxwell Cummings), who was born on 19 April 1898. Bessie became ill after the birth and on 4 February 1900 died at age 32. David soon remarried to Esther Miriam Saxe (1882–1966). David and Esther had five more children: Minnie (1903–1999), Benjamin (1904–1999), Ralph (1906–1970), Pauline (1911–1917), and Harold (1918–1998).

In 1905 the Komienskys moved to Waltham, Massachusetts, setting up a small shoe shop. That same year the family changed its name from Komiensky to Cummings. In 1910 they relocated again to Manchester, New Hampshire. During this time, Nathan enrolled in a dry goods economist training school in New York City and lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 1911, David moved the family back to Canada and settled in Montreal, while Nathan remained in New York. Shortly thereafter Nathan rejoined his family in Montreal. From the age of fifteen he sold shoes until, at nineteen, he took on the job of traveling salesman for a shoe manufacturer.

Business career

Cummings had established a shoe shop and factory of his own by 1924, but the business foundered during the Depression, and he was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1932. He paid off his debts and started anew.

By the mid-1930s he had invested in McCormicks, a biscuit and candy company in Canada. The success of that business, which he sold to Weston in 1939, [1] prompted an invitation to manage the Baltimore-based coffee, tea and sugar chain, C.D. Kenny Company. Cummings acquired the company in 1941. Its continued prosperity allowed him to expand his holdings to found a business empire.

Over the next decade, Cummings invested within company after company. In 1945 he established his corporate headquarters in Chicago and formed the Consolidated Grocers Corporation as a holding company. Time proclaimed him the "Duke of Groceries." [2]

In 1954 the company name was changed to Consolidated Foods Corporation, which Cummings thought was 'less old-fashioned', and in 1985 the name Sara Lee Corporation was adopted. Sara Lee was the name of one of the company's best known brands, which Cummings had acquired in 1956.

Cummings retired from the company in 1968, but remained honorary chairman and active in company affairs until his death in 1985.

Marriage/Family

Cummings' first wife was Ruth Lillian Kellert, whom he married in 1919. She died in 1952. In 1959, he wed Joanne Toor; the marriage ended in divorce in 1976. Upon his death in 1985, Cummings was survived by three children from his first marriage, Beatrice Cummings Mayer of Chicago [1921-2018], Herbert Cummings of Paradise Valley, Ariz., and Alan H. Cummings of Palm Beach; ; a sister, Mrs. Monroe Abbey, of Montreal; four brothers, Maxwell, Benjamin, Ralph, and Harold, one sister, Minnie, all of Montreal, and nine grandchildren. [3] Cummings was related to MGM's legendary studio boss Louis B. Mayer through marriage. Louis B. Mayer's older sister Ida was married to Louis Komiensky, brother to Nate's father, David Komiensky. [4]

In 1992, a history of the Cummings family entitled David and Bessie Komiensky, Jewish Lithuanian Immigrants: A Brief Family History, was commissioned by friends as a surprise gift for Herbert Kellert Cummings, and published by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. [5]

Art collector

As Cummings became increasingly affluent, he began to collect art. His first significant acquisition was made in Paris in 1945, immediately after World War II, when he purchased Camille Pissarro's Bountiful Harvest 1893, which he noticed in the window of an art dealer. He knew nothing of Pissarro, but he was confident in what he liked.

There was little in Nathan Cummings' background to suggest an affinity with art. Later in his life he liked to tell of his first tentative encounter with art: "An advertising man convinced me that I should have a painting made of the view from my window." Cummings liked it so much that he asked the artist to paint the scene a second time - the view at night. His satisfaction with these works sparked an interest in collecting art that was to develop with the passion of the newly converted.

Cummings' collections were diverse, including French Impressionist paintings, modern sculpture, ancient Peruvian ceramics, and works of living artists such as Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Giacomo Manzù and Alberto Giacometti, who became members of his social circle. He enjoyed friendships with other celebrities, including Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Bob Hope, a good friend who emerged from a giant cake at Cummings's eightieth birthday.

As a collector, Cummings did not confine himself to the acquisition of blue-chip impressionist and 20th-century master paintings. He enjoyed contemporary art and delighted in new discoveries. He often acquired whole series of works by artists he liked, later distributing the works to friends or scattering them around the workplace. At one time he owned a fishing fleet and ensured that each of the fifteen boats was equipped with its own work of art. He bought and sold without expecting to keep the works forever, allowing old favorites to be replaced by new enthusiasms. Cummings expected that everyone would share his passion for art: as well as giving away works of art as presents, he displayed parts of his collection in the offices of his companies for the enjoyment of the staff.

Philanthropy

Starting in the 1950s Cummings became a major donor to hospitals, universities, arts organizations, and Jewish causes. His endowment created the Nathan Cummings Arts Center at Stanford University and the Joanne and Nathan Cummings Art Center at Connecticut College in New London. (Joanne Toor Cummings was the second wife of Cummings; she died in 1995.) [6] He made major contributions to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and to the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1949 he established the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which received most of his estate (then estimated at $200 million) upon his death. The foundation funds initiatives to build a socially and economically just society.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camille Pissarro</span> French painter (1830–1903)

Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas. His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Cézanne</span> French painter (1839–1906)

Paul Cézanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation and influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century. Cézanne is said to have formed the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and early 20th century Cubism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Degas</span> French Impressionist artist (1834–1917)

Edgar Degas was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-Impressionism</span> Predominantly French art movement, 1886–1905

Post-Impressionism was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionists' concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and colour. Its broad emphasis on abstract qualities or symbolic content means Post-Impressionism encompasses Les Nabis, Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cloisonnism, the Pont-Aven School, and Synthetism, along with some later Impressionists' work. The movement's principal artists were Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelius Krieghoff</span> Dutch painter

Cornelius David Krieghoff was a Dutch-born Canadian-American painter of the 19th century. He is best known for his paintings of Canadian genre scenes involving landscapes and outdoor life, which were as sought after in his own time as they are today. He painted many winter scenes, some in several variants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-Impressionism</span> Art movement

Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it first made its appearance at an exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris. Around this time, the peak of France's modern era emerged and many painters were in search of new methods. Followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists' characterization of their own contemporary art. The Pointillist and Divisionist techniques are often mentioned in this context, because they were the dominant techniques in the beginning of the Neo-Impressionist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armand Guillaumin</span> French painter

Armand Guillaumin was a French impressionist painter and lithographer.

Maxwell Cummings, was a Canadian real estate builder and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montreal Museum of Fine Arts</span> Art museum in Montreal, Quebec

The Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musée Marmottan Monet</span> Art museum in Paris, France

Musée Marmottan Monet is an art museum in Paris, France, dedicated to artist Claude Monet. The collection features over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, including his 1872 Impression, Sunrise. The museum's fame is the result of a donation in 1966 by Michel Monet, Claude's second son and only heir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Julien</span> Canadian artist and cartoonist (1852–1908)

Henri Julien, baptised Octave-Henri Julien, was a Québécois artist and cartoonist noted for his work for the Canadian Illustrated News and for his political cartoons in the Montreal Daily Star. His pseudonyms include Octavo and Crincrin. He was the first full-time newspaper editorial cartoonist in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Cummings Foundation</span>

The Nathan Cummings Foundation was endowed by Nathan Cummings (1896–1985), founder of Consolidated Foods, later renamed Sara Lee. Cummings was also a prominent art collector and supporter of Jewish causes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Durand-Ruel</span> French art dealer (1831–1922)

Paul Durand-Ruel was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, he is known for his innovations in modernizing art markets, and is generally considered to be the most important art dealer of the 19th century. An ambitious entrepreneur, Durand-Ruel cultivated international interest in French artists by establishing art galleries and exhibitions in London, New York, Berlin, Brussels, among other places. Additionally, he played a role in the decentralization of art markets in France, which prior to the mid-19th century was monopolized by the Salon system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art</span> Museum in Norman, Oklahoma

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.

<i>Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather</i> Painting by Camille Pissarro

Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather is an 1896 painting by Camille Pissarro in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)</span>

Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) is the subject of many drawings, sketches and paintings by Vincent van Gogh in 1886 and 1887 after he moved to Montmartre in Paris from the Netherlands. While in Paris, Van Gogh transformed the subjects, color and techniques that he used in creating still life paintings.

Joachim Pissarro is an art historian, theoretician, curator, educator, and director of the Hunter College Galleries and Bershad Professor of Art History at Hunter College of the City University of New York. His latest book, authored with art critic David Carrier, is called Wild Art. Pissarro was curator at the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture from 2003 to 2007.

Valentin Gallery is an art gallery in Quebec. Created in 1934, it was first called "L'Art français" and had its start on Laurier Street in Montreal. Owners Lucienne (1900-1992) and Louis (1890-1956) Lange initially showed works by French artists. By the 1940s they were offering art by Marc-Aurèle Fortin and Philip Surrey. In 1975, Jean-Pierre Valentin purchased the gallery. The gallery moved to its present Sherbrooke Street location later and changed the name to Valentin Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Beau</span> French-Canadian Impressionist painter

Henri Beau was a French-Canadian Impressionist painter. He is noted for Chemin en été, La dispersion des Acadiens, L'arrivée de Champlain à Québec, and Les Noces de Cana. Beau is a largely forgotten artist due to his long absence from Canada. His widow Marie Beau worked towards establishing his reputation as an artist in Canada after his death. He was only recognized as a notable artist decades later, with major retrospectives of his paintings celebrating his career by the Galerie Bernard Desroches in Montréal in 1974, and at the Musée du Québec in Québec City in 1987.

Albert Pontremoli, also known as M. Albert Pontremoli,, was a French art collector, lawyer and magistrate of Italian origin.

References

  1. J. Ernest Kerr, Imprint of the Maritimes, 1959, Boston: Christopher Publishing, p. 71
  2. Time, "The Duke of Groceries", February 7, 1944
  3. Berger, Joseph (21 February 1985). "Nathan Cummings, 88, Dies; Founded Consolidated Foods". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  4. Mayer, Alicia (22 July 2012). "Family History". Blog at WordPress.com. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  5. "ExLibris Rosetta". ExLibris Ltd. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  6. McQuiston, John T. (20 September 1995). "Joanne Cummings, Art Patron, Collector and Philanthropist, 66". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December 2013.