The United States possesses extraordinary holdings of seventeenth-century Flemish paintings. In this pioneering and richly illustrated volume, twelve scholars and museum curators reveal the origins of these collections by examining the American approach to and interest in the collecting of Flemish art over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Chronicling in lively detail the roles played by individuals in forming private and public collections, the essays in this volume illuminate how and why collectors and museums in the United States embraced the Flemish masters with such enthusiasm. They trace how the taste for specific genres and the appreciation for certain artists, in particular Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, changed over the years, and they explore the historical and cultural motivations behind these trends. In doing so, they consider the effect of the great bequests of Flemish paintings to American museums and examine the private collections of the main tastemakers for Flemish painting, including the Baltimore merchant Robert Gilmor; John Graver Johnson, the leading corporate lawyer of the Gilded Age; and the California oil magnate J. Paul Getty. Gorgeously illustrated with almost one hundred representative pieces, this important contribution to the scholarship on American collecting of Flemish art will interest art lovers and stimulate further research in the fields of art history and museum history.
In addition to the editor, the contributors include Ronni Baer, Adam Eaker, Lance Humphries, George S. Keyes, Margaret R. Laster, Alexandra Libby, Louisa Wood Ruby, Dennis P. Weller, Arthur K. Wheelock, Marjorie Wieseman, and Anne T. Woollett.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Esmée Quodbach
Introduction: Pleasure and Prestige: The Complex History of Collecting Flemish Art in America Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.
Part 1. The Early Years: The Formation of America’s Taste for Flemish Painting
1. Before Modern Connoisseurship: Robert Gilmor, Jr.’s, Quest for Flemish Paintings in the Early Republic
Lance Humphries
2. Collecting the Art of Flanders in Antebellum New York
Margaret R. Laster
3. The American Van Dyck
Adam Eaker
4. A Family Affair: Bruegel and Sons in America
Louisa Wood Ruby
Part 2. The Gilded Age and Beyond
5. In Search of Major Masters: Boston’s History of Collecting Flemish Baroque Painting
Ronni Baer
6. “Never a Dull Picture”: John Graver Johnson Collects Flemish Art
Esmée Quodbach
7. Creating an Acquired Taste for Flemish Paintings: The Advice of W. R. Valentiner and Others
Dennis P. Weller
8. Collecting Seventeenth-Century Flemish Paintings in the Midwest
George S. Keyes
Part 3. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: The Dissemination of Flemish Art Across America
9. From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art
Alexandra Libby
10. Collecting Rubens in America
Marjorie E. Wieseman
11. “It Is a Great Painting for a Museum”: Collecting Flemish Paintings in Southern California