Louisine Havemeyer
Encyclopedia
Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer (July 28, 1855 – January 6, 1929) 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.
in Paris
, Havemeyer encountered fellow art student (and boarder) — Emily Sartain. Sartain, a Philadelphia native, got along fairly well with Havemeyer, and introduced her to Mary Cassatt
— a fellow native of Philadelphia whom Sartain had studied with in Parma, Italy. As time passed, Cassatt became an advisor to Havemeyer, and facilitated the working relationship which Havemeyer would eventually have with Degas. Mary Cassatt also persuaded her to buy the work of Claude Monet
. A lifelong friendship developed between Havemeyer and Cassatt, the later made several pastels of Louisine and her children.
Together with her husband, Louisine would build perhaps the finest art collection in America. Her three story manse at Fifth Avenue and East 66th Street in New York was filled with the finest possible examples of works by Manet
, El Greco
, Rembrandt, and Corot
. The home was decorated 1889-1990 by Louis Comfort Tiffany
and Samuel Colman
, who made it an elegant showplace for their patron's varied and important collections. Henry Clay Frick
, J.P. Morgan, and Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner
were among the collectors with which Mr. and Mrs. Havemeyer would have known and competed.
of the American Sugar Refining Company
.*
Louisine and Henry Osborne had three children:
* (Prior to his marriage to Louisine, Henry was married to Louisine's aunt Mary Louise Elder (1847-1897), but that marriage ended in divorce.)
with the radical suffragette Alice Paul. (The organization was previously known as the "Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage".) With the financial backing of Mrs. Havemeyer and others like her, Ms. Paul launched an increasingly confrontational series of protests that agitated for the right to vote. Paul's most famous efforts were the National Suffrage Parade, which produced a riot on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson
's inauguration, and the wartime picketing of the White House. During the latter Paul used portions of the President's speeches heralding the defense of democracy in Europe which she masterfully contrasted with the denial of liberty to American women. When jailed for obstructing traffic she hunger struck, bringing tremendous pressure to bear on the Congress and Wilson Administration. The Nineteenth Amendment
, which extended voting rights to women, was debated and ratified shortly thereafter.
Louisine Havemeyer became a well-known suffragette. She participated in marches, much to the dismay of her children, down New York's famed Fifth Avenue and addressed a standing room only audience at Carnegie Hall
upon the completion of a nationwide speaking tour. A famous photograph of Mrs. Havemeyer shows her with an electric torch, similar in design to that of the Statue of Liberty
, among other prominent suffragettes. Her attempt to burn an effigy of President Wilson outside the White House in 1919 drew national attention. Louisine Havemeyer also exhibited a selection of her paintings, including a number of works by Mary Cassatt, to raise funds for the suffrage cause.
After a period of failing health, Mrs. Havemeyer died in 1929. The terms of her will left a few choice paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City. The final bequest, made possibly by the generosity of her children, included nearly two-thousand works that enrich nearly every segment of the museum's collections.
Many Tiffany pieces from her Fifth Avenue home, including a magnificent peacock mantelpiece decoration, and a chandelier are on permanent display at the University of Michigan Museum of Art
. A portion of the Music Room furniture suite is on view at the Shelburne Museum
.
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. In addition to being a patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
of impressionist art, she was one of the more prominent contributors to the suffrage movement in the United States. The impressionist painter Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
and feminist Alice Paul
Alice Paul
Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist and activist. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.-Activism: Alice Paul received her undergraduate education from...
were among the renowned recipients of the benefactor's support.
Background
Louisine W.E. Havemeyer was born in New York to a merchant George W. Elder (1831–1873) and his wife, Mathilda Adelaide Waldron (1834–1907). Shortly after her father's death, her mother elected to tour Europe instead of remarrying, and brought her along with her sister.Life in Paris
While studying at Marie Del Sarte's boarding schoolBoarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Havemeyer encountered fellow art student (and boarder) — Emily Sartain. Sartain, a Philadelphia native, got along fairly well with Havemeyer, and introduced her to Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
— a fellow native of Philadelphia whom Sartain had studied with in Parma, Italy. As time passed, Cassatt became an advisor to Havemeyer, and facilitated the working relationship which Havemeyer would eventually have with Degas. Mary Cassatt also persuaded her to buy the work of Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
. A lifelong friendship developed between Havemeyer and Cassatt, the later made several pastels of Louisine and her children.
Together with her husband, Louisine would build perhaps the finest art collection in America. Her three story manse at Fifth Avenue and East 66th Street in New York was filled with the finest possible examples of works by Manet
Manet
-MANET as an abbreviation:*MANET is a mobile ad hoc network, a self-configuring mobile wireless network.*MANET database or Molecular Ancestry Network, bioinformatics database-People with the surname Manet:*Édouard Manet, a 19th-century French painter....
, El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Rembrandt, and Corot
Corot
Corot may refer to:* Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French landscape painter * COROT, a space mission with the dual aims of finding extrasolar planets and performing asteroseismology* COROT-7, a dwarf star in the Monoceros constellation...
. The home was decorated 1889-1990 by Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
and Samuel Colman
Samuel Colman
Samuel Colman was an American painter, interior designer, and writer, probably best remembered for his paintings of the Hudson River....
, who made it an elegant showplace for their patron's varied and important collections. Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel steel manufacturing concern...
, J.P. Morgan, and Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella Stewart Gardner – founder of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – was an American art collector, philanthropist, and one of the foremost female patrons of the arts....
were among the collectors with which Mr. and Mrs. Havemeyer would have known and competed.
Family life
On August 22, 1883, a decade after her father's death, Louisine married Henry O. HavemeyerHenry O. Havemeyer
Henry Osborne Havemeyer was an American entrepreneur who founded the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891. He was chosen vice president and afterward its president.- Background :...
of the American Sugar Refining Company
American Sugar Refining Company
The American Sugar Refining Company was the largest American business unit in the sugar refining industry in the early 1900s.-Establishment:...
.*
Louisine and Henry Osborne had three children:
- Adaline Havemeyer, a.k.a Mrs. Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen — (1884–1963)
- Horace Havemeyer — (1886–1956)
- Electra HavemeyerElectra Havemeyer WebbElectra Havemeyer Webb was a collector of American antiques and founder of the Shelburne Museum.-Biography:Electra Havemeyer was born on August 16, 1888 to Henry O. Havemeyer and Louisine Elder, their youngest child...
, a.k.a. Mrs. James Watson Webb — (1888–1960)
Legacy
In addition to her standing as an early and important collector of Impressionist art, Louisine Havemeyer was an advocate of women's rights.Suffrage activist
After her husband's death in 1907, Mrs. Havemeyer focused her attention on the suffrage movement. In 1913, she founded the National Woman's PartyNational Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded by Alice Paul in 1915 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
with the radical suffragette Alice Paul. (The organization was previously known as the "Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage".) With the financial backing of Mrs. Havemeyer and others like her, Ms. Paul launched an increasingly confrontational series of protests that agitated for the right to vote. Paul's most famous efforts were the National Suffrage Parade, which produced a riot on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
's inauguration, and the wartime picketing of the White House. During the latter Paul used portions of the President's speeches heralding the defense of democracy in Europe which she masterfully contrasted with the denial of liberty to American women. When jailed for obstructing traffic she hunger struck, bringing tremendous pressure to bear on the Congress and Wilson Administration. The Nineteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
, which extended voting rights to women, was debated and ratified shortly thereafter.
Louisine Havemeyer became a well-known suffragette. She participated in marches, much to the dismay of her children, down New York's famed Fifth Avenue and addressed a standing room only audience at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
upon the completion of a nationwide speaking tour. A famous photograph of Mrs. Havemeyer shows her with an electric torch, similar in design to that of the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
, among other prominent suffragettes. Her attempt to burn an effigy of President Wilson outside the White House in 1919 drew national attention. Louisine Havemeyer also exhibited a selection of her paintings, including a number of works by Mary Cassatt, to raise funds for the suffrage cause.
After a period of failing health, Mrs. Havemeyer died in 1929. The terms of her will left a few choice paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York City. The final bequest, made possibly by the generosity of her children, included nearly two-thousand works that enrich nearly every segment of the museum's collections.
Many Tiffany pieces from her Fifth Avenue home, including a magnificent peacock mantelpiece decoration, and a chandelier are on permanent display at the University of Michigan Museum of Art
University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art, or UMMA in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the USA. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall originally housed U-M's Alumni office along with the...
. A portion of the Music Room furniture suite is on view at the Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum is a museum of art 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...
.
Resources
- Louisine Havemeyer.1993. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York: Ursus Press. ISBN 9781883145002
- Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. 1993. Splendid Legacy: the Haveymeyer collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780810964266
External links
- Havemeyer Collection: Magic at the Met Museum review of an art exhibit in the March 23, 1993 issue of the New York Times
- Louisine Elder Havemeyer profile from Saint Michaels College
- The Havemeyer Family Papers relating to Art Collecting
- Online edition of Frits Lugt's Les marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes