Grenville Lindall Winthrop (1864–1943) was an American lawyer and art collector from New York City. A direct descendant of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he restored historic buildings in Lenox, Massachusetts, and assembled a large art collection in his Upper East Side townhouse. He bequeathed his entire art collection to the Fogg Art Museum of his alma mater, Harvard University.
Grenville Lindall Winthrop | |
|---|---|
_-_H688_-_Harvard_Art_Museums.jpg) Painting of Grenville Lindall Winthrop (1922) | |
| Born | February 11, 1864 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 19, 1943 (aged 78) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, art collector |
| Spouse |
Mary Tallmadge Trevor
(m. 1892) |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Father | Robert Winthrop |
| Relatives | Moses Taylor (maternal grandfather) Beekman Winthrop (brother) |
| Signature | |
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Early life
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Grenville Lindall Winthrop was born on February 11, 1864, in New York City.[1] His father, Robert Winthrop,[2] was a banker. His mother, Kate Wilson Taylor,[2] was the daughter of banker Moses Taylor. He was a direct descendant of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[1][2] His brother, Beekman Winthrop, went on to serve as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907. He had another brother, Frederic Winthrop.[3]
He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree in geology and art history in 1886 and an LL.B. in 1889.[1] While he was studying at Harvard, he lived at Beck Hall,[4] and he was a member of the Porcellian Club.[1]
Career
editWinthrop co-founded a law firm in New York City with James B. Ludlow and Frederick Philips.[1][2] He retired in 1896.[1]
Philanthropy
editWinthrop restored a number of buildings in Lenox, Massachusetts, namely the Church on the Hill, a Congregational church; the Lenox Academy, later known as the Lenox Academy; and the Colonial Courthouse, which houses the Lenox Library as a result of his patronage.[2] Subsequently, Winthrop served as the President of the Lenox Library.[2]
Winthrop served as the President of the Women's Hospital in New York City from 1915 to 1941.[2]
Art collection
editWinthrop was an "internationally known art collector."[5] He was influenced from an early age by Charles Eliot Norton and his nephew, Francis Bullard, two prominent art collectors from Boston.[2] He was assisted in assembling his collection by Martin Birnbaum, an art dealer from New York City.[1][6] Winthrop never lent any of his artwork to museums.[7] When he showed visitors around his collection, he pretended to be the butler.[8]
Winthrop collected "early Wedgwood, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Mesoamerican masks, gold-ground Italian paintings, French drawings, clocks, Korean Buddhas."[1] Initially, Winthrop focused on collecting the bulk of a given artist's work.[8] He owned the largest individual collection of paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and William Blake.[1] Additionally, he owned paintings by Edward Burne-Jones, Honoré Daumier, Jacques-Louis David, Vincent van Gogh, Winslow Homer, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Gustave Moreau, Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Chassériau, John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Aubrey Beardsley.[1][2] The collection also included major collections of Chinese and Asian art including jades, bronzes, ceramics, sculpture, and wall paintings. Some of these sub-collections now rank with the finest of their kind in any art museum.
Winthrop's collection amounted to 4,000 objects by the time of his death.[1][7]
Winthrop served on the Visiting Committee of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University for twelve years.[2]
Personal life
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Winthrop married Mary Tallmadge Trevor in 1892.[1] They had two daughters, Emily and Katherine.[1] In New York City, they resided in a townhouse in Murray Hill, Manhattan, until they moved to 15 East 81st Street on the Upper East Side.[1] They summered at Groton Place, a 150-acre estate spreading across the Baldhead Mountain in Lenox, Massachusetts, whose main house was designed by Carrère and Hastings and whose grounds included 500 peacocks and pheasants.[5][9] His wife predeceased him in 1900.[1] His daughters were educated by private tutors; despite his attentive parenting, they both eloped with the help: one with a chauffeur, the other one with an electrician.[1][7]
Winthrop was described by art critic Richard Dorment as "a figure straight out of the pages of Henry James."[7]
Death and legacy
editWinthrop died on January 19, 1943, in New York City.[10] His funeral was held at the Grace Episcopal Church.[5] He was buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery.[5]
Winthrop bequeathed his art collection to the Fogg Art Museum at his alma mater, Harvard University.[1] His will had a clause whereby the museum could only lend his artwork to other museums if they donated US$100,000 to the Foundling Hospital in New York City.[7] In the early 2000s, as inflation meant that the sum was less colossal than in 1937, the university decided to donated the sum to the hospital and plan a worldwide exhibition.[7] By 2003-2004, his entire art collection was exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France, followed by the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[1] The exhibit was called "A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L Winthrop Collection, Harvard University."[7]
Winthrop's Lenox estate, Groton Place, was purchased by educator Max Bondy, who opened the Windsor Mountain School there shortly after Winthrop's death.[9] It is now owned by Boston University.[9]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Reed, Christopher (March 2003). "Unveiled: For the first time, a recluse's treasures go traveling". Harvard Magazine. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Forbes, Edward W.; Sachs, Paul J. (November 1943). "Grenville Lindall Winthrop". Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum. 10 (2): 26–28. JSTOR 4301116.
- ^ Freiberg, Malcolm (1979). "Frederic Winthrop". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 91 (3): 26–28. JSTOR 25080853.
- ^ "Winthrop, Grenville Lindall, 1864-1943. Photograph album of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, ca. 1886 : an inventory". Harvard University Library. Harvard University. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Written at New York. "Funeral of Mr. Winthrop Held in New York". The Berkshire Eagle. Pittsfield, Massachusetts. January 23, 1943. p. 7. Retrieved April 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Martin Birnbaum papers, 1862-1970". Archives of American Art. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g Dorment, Richard (June 25, 2003). "Aesthetic black furnace". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- ^ a b Cumming, Laura (July 13, 2003). "What the butler saw: Grenville L. Winthrop was an incomparable collector. So why did he pretend to be a manservant?". The Guardian. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- ^ a b c "GROTON PLACE – 45 WEST. ST., COMPLETED 1905". Lenox History. Lenox Historical Commission and Lenox Historical Society. September 27, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- ^ "Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Art Collector, Dies at 78". The Buffalo News. New York. AP. January 20, 1943. p. 38. Retrieved April 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
Further reading
edit- A private passion : 19th-century paintings and drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University; [contributors to the catalogue, Kathryn Calley Galitz, Colta Ives, Rebecca A. Rabinow, Susan Alyson Stein, Gary Tinterow [and others]. WorldCat. OCLC 196823878. Retrieved October 14, 2015.