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Marquand Collection

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Art collection owned by Henry Gurdon Marquand
Portrait of Marquand, by John Singer Sargent, 1897.

The Art Collection of Henry Gurdon Marquand was a collection of antiques and paintings owned by Henry Gurdon Marquand, the second president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, until his death in 1902.

History

In the late 1840s, after the sale of his family's jewelry business and store (which was renamed to Ball, Tompkins & Black), Marquand traveled to Europe where he met Henry Kirke Brown and other expatriate American sculptors in Rome. While there, he "began to 'frequent studios' and "to understand the artists' 'hopes, aims, and aspirations.' There Marquand fell under the spell of what Henry James called 'the old and complex civilization.'" He returned in 1852 with his new wife and spent a year in Rome, where the first of their six children was born. In 1889, he became the second president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and made many significant gifts to the Metropolitan Museum, including works by Filippo Lippi, Lucas van Leyden, Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt, Diego Velázquez, Thomas Gainsborough, John Trumbull and John Singer Sargent.

Following his 1902 death, his collection exhibited at the American Art Galleries in New York before it was put up for auction. In conjunction with the January and February 1903 auction, The American Art Association put out the Illustrated Catalogue of the Art and Literary Property Collected by the late Henry G. Marquand, edited by Thomas E. Kirby. In the foreword by art critic Russell Sturgis, he wrote:

"He bought like an Italian price of the Renaissance. He collected for his own delight and for the enjoyment and instruction of his many friends. A noble Van Dyck portrait appealed to him, and so did a Persian vase. He was the most eager purchaser of a single newly found gem of antique art; he would chase the elusive thing with more energy than another, and therefore he secured the price. He felt also the impossibility of understanding a branch of art, or a special manufacture, or mode of design, without having many pieces to represent and explain it, and so he bought largely along some chosen lines."

The sale of his collection brought $197,070 for 93 paintings (including A Reading from Homer by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema which sold for $30,300), $22,637 for "255 vases, jars, dishes, bowls, beakers, incense burners, water-vases, wine cups, and writer's water jars", and $234,564 for rugs and tapestries, including a 15th or early 16th-century Persian rug that brought $38,000. Another $117,000 was received for enamels, pottery, bronzes, tiles and intaglios. A single retable (altar piece) brought $26,000.

Collection

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Paintings

Furniture and stained glass

Sculptures

  • Bronze statuette of a youth (late 5th century B.C.) Bronze statuette of a youth (late 5th century B.C.)
  • Bronze statue of a camillus (acolyte) (ca. A.D. 14–54) Bronze statue of a camillus (acolyte) (ca. A.D. 14–54)
  • Statuette of a woman Statuette of a woman
  • Statuette of Aphrodite with apple Statuette of Aphrodite with apple
  • Bronze statuette of Cybele on a cart drawn by lions (2nd half of 2nd century A.D.) Bronze statuette of Cybele on a cart drawn by lions (2nd half of 2nd century A.D.)
  • Virgin and Child in a niche by Luca della Robbia (c. 1460) Virgin and Child in a niche by Luca della Robbia (c. 1460)
  • Head-shaped flacon Glasshouse of Bernard Perrot, Verrerie Royale d'Orléans (c. 1700) Head-shaped flacon Glasshouse of Bernard Perrot, Verrerie Royale d'Orléans (c. 1700)

Decorative arts

  • Glass alabastron (perfume bottle) (late 6th–5th century B.C.) Glass alabastron (perfume bottle) (late 6th–5th century B.C.)
  • Ewer, Delft (c. 1710–60) Ewer, Delft (c. 1710–60)
  • Snuffbox (mid-18th century) Snuffbox (mid-18th century)
  • Nécessaire (c. 1760–80) Nécessaire (c. 1760–80)
  • Chocolate pot with cover, Delft (1761–69) Chocolate pot with cover, Delft (1761–69)
  • Goblet and saucer Imperial Porcelain Manufactory (1804) Goblet and saucer Imperial Porcelain Manufactory (1804)

Illustrated Catalogue (1903)

References

Notes
  1. The painting was commissioned by Marquand in 1882 after he had acquired a small Alma-Tadema painting, Amo Te, Ama Me (1881). The commission was for a larger work which was originally intended to depict Plato teaching philosophy to a small group of followers arranged around the marble courtyard of a temple precinct overlooking the sea, with Plato seated on a marble chair between the columns of the temple. After working on the painting of Plato for a considerable time, Alma-Tadema was still dissatisfied with the result and he repainted the work afresh in early 1885, ultimately producing a similar painting which became A Reading from Homer. Pentimenti show that the composition continued to evolve: for example, Alma-Tadema changed the speaker's arm, which had been thrown out in a dramatic declamatory gesture.
  2. The painted enamel plaques in gilt screen by Léonard Limosin were purchased by Marquand in April 1883 during the Beurdeley sale. During the 1903 Marquand sale, it was purchased by Henry Walters for $26,000. Upon Walters' death, he bequeathed the piece to the Walters Art Museum in 1931.
  3. The original Steinway grand piano cost $1,200 when sold it to Marquand. Then it was shipped to London and decorated by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema with painted panel by Sir Edward Poynter, all at a cost of $40,000. In 1888, it was referred to as the "highest-priced piano in America." During the 1903 auction of the collection, it was sold for $8,000 and, later, acquired by vaudeville theatre owner and manager Martin Beck. Later, the Beck's moved the piano from their East Side residence to the Martin Beck Theatre (today the Al Hirschfeld Theatre) on West 45th Street. In 1980, after fifty years in the upstairs lounge, the piano was sold at auction for $390,000 which, at the time, was "the highest price ever paid for a musical instrument or for any piece of 19th century furniture."
  4. Marquand acquired the painting from the collection of The Rt. Hon. Edward Pleydell-Bouverie. In the 1903 sale, the painting was incorrectly listed as by George Romney and was acquired by Sir Cooper. In 2008, it was sold by Christie's for £49,250.
Sources
  1. ^ Saltzman, Cynthia (2008). Old Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures, 1880-World War I. Penguin. pp. 22–23. ISBN 978-0-670-01831-4. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  2. "HENRY G. MARQUAND DEAD; His Career as a Business Man and a Patron of Art--Funeral to Take Place To-morrow. President of the Metropolitan Museum Passes Away at His Home". The New York Times. 27 February 1902. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  3. "MR. MARQUAND'S GREAT GIFT.; HIS VALUABLE PAINTINGS TO GO TO THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM". The New York Times. 16 January 1889. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  4. "THE MARQUAND PICTURES". The New York Times. 28 January 1889. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  5. New York Times (16 January 1889). "MR. MARQUAND'S GREAT GIFT". ProQuest 94683872.
  6. "THE MARQUAND DONATION". The New York Times. 20 January 1889. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  7. Knaufft, Ernest (1903). "Characteristics of the Marquand Collection". The Churchman. Churchman Company. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  8. "THE MARQUAND COLLECTION.; The Rugs, Tapestries, Furniture, Antique Glass, Tiles, and Terra Cottas". The New York Times. 22 January 1903. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  9. ^ "THE MARQUAND SALE". The New York Times. 2 February 1903. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  10. ^ Marquand, Henry Gurdon; Kirby, Thomas E. (1903). Illustrated Catalogue of the Art and Literary Property Collected by the late Henry G. Marquand. Press of J. J. Little & Co. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  11. British Painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: From the Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Century, 1986, p.3-8
  12. "MARQUAND PICTURE SALE; Total on the First Day for Ninety-three Paintings, $197,070. " A Reading from Homer," by Alma-Tadema, Brought $30,300, and a Portrait of Mrs. Gwyn $22,200". The New York Times. 24 January 1903. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  13. "PORCELAINS AT AUCTION; Marquand Treasures Bring $22,637.50 on Second Day's Sale". The New York Times. 25 January 1903. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  14. "Twenty-one Plaques Depicting Prophets, Apostles and Sibyls". art.thewalters.org. The Walters Art Museum. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  15. "WHAT COST THE MOST.; A FEW ARTICLES FOR WHICH THE HIGHEST PRICES HAVE BEEN PAID". The New York Times. 21 May 1888. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  16. ^ Reif, Rita (27 March 1980). "Piano Sold At $390,000, A Record". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  17. "Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (Plympton Devon 1723-1792 London)". www.christies.com. Christie's. Retrieved 22 July 2022. Portrait of Mrs Wells, three-quarter-length, seated, in a striped dress and straw hat

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