Rene Brimo - The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting

The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting

THE EVOLUTION OF TASTE IN AMERICAN COLLECTING

Ren Brimo

Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Kenneth Haltman

The Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, Pennsylvania

Originally published as Lvolution du got aux tats-Unis, daprs lhistoire des collections by Ren Brimo (Paris, 1938).

FRONTISPIECE: Ren Brimo, ca. 1930. Collection Isabelle Guillerot and Nicolas-Ren Brimo.

This publication has been made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art International Publication Program of the College Art Association.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brimo, Ren, 19111948, author. | Haltman, Kenneth, 1957, translator, editor, writer of introduction. | Translation of: volution du got aux tats-Unis daprs lhistoire des collections.

Title: The evolution of taste in American collecting / Ren Brimo ; translated, edited, and with an introduction by Kenneth Haltman.

Other titles: volution du got aux tats-Unis daprs lhistoire des collections. English.

Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2016] | Originally published as Lvolution du got aux tats-Unis daprs lhistoire des collections by Ren Brimo (Paris, 1938). | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: A critical translation of Ren Brimos 1938 French study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century patronage and art collecting in the United StatesProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016030860 | ISBN 9780271073248 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: ArtUnited StatesHistory. | ArtCollectors and collecting_United States. | Art museumsUnited States. | Aesthetics.

Classification: LCC N6505 .B713 2016 | DDC 709.73-dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030860

Copyright 2016 The Pennsylvania State University

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Printed in the United States of America

Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,

University Park, PA 16802-1003

The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z 39.481992.

Contents

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FIGURES

PLATES (FOLLOWING PAGE 164)

In preparing this manuscript, over the course of three decades, I have received help from many individuals, but without the generosity of three in particular, nothing of real value would have been possible. Marie-Amlie Carlier at Brimo de Laroussilhe, much like Ren Brimo an art historian as well as dealer, made all relevant materials in the archives available to me on numerous occasions, along with a comfortable space in which to work, material support, and much good historical insight and advice; Nicolas-Ren Brimo, Rens nephew, shared with me what he knew regarding both his uncle and the early years of the gallery; and Isabelle Brimo-Guillerot, Nicolas-Rens sister, gave me free use of the family photographs and correspondence. I am deeply indebted to all three.

In recent years, my research has been supported by a Senior Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), sponsored by the Terra Foundation, in 2008, and another at the Center for the History of Collecting at the Frick Art Reference Library in 2009, under whose auspices I was able to visit the Harvard Art Museums Archives. My thanks to the Society for the Preservation of Early American Modernists for a grant that helped underwrite the cost of the many reproductions and to the College Art Association and, again, the Terra Foundation for an International Publication Grant. On five occasions (at the SAAM in 2008, the Frick in 2009, the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Freie Universitt-Berlin, and the cole Normale Suprieure, both in 2013, and the annual meeting of the College Art Association in New York in 2015), I have had the opportunity to talk about this translation and research, and benefited greatly from comments and questions.

My thanks to the staffs of the many libraries in which I have been welcomed to work on this project over the years, including the Fine Arts, Sterling Memorial, and Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Libraries at Yale; the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art Library, and the Smithsonian Libraries at the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Museum of American History, and National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.; the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago; the Frick Art Research Library, the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library, the Museum of Modern Art Library, the New York Public Library, the New-York Historical Society Library, and the Nicholas Murray Butler Library at Columbia University in New York.

All of the librarians, curators, and scholars I met with, many of them friends, have played an important role in my research. They include Ellen Alers, Abderrahmane Amri, Susan K. Anderson, Julie Aronson, Susan Augustine, Jim Bakker, Amy Ballmer, Muriel Barbier, Carrie Rebora Barratt, Alexis Black, Ewa Bobrowska, Diana Bockrath, Graham Boettcher, Serafina Boggs, Henri J. Borneuf, Ruth Bowler, Diana Bramham, Paul Breidenbach, Christine E. Brennan, Elizabeth Broman, Franois Brunet, Peter Buettner, Agathe Cabau, Mary Caldera, Jane Callahan, Janice H. Chadbourne, Anne Claro, Veronica Conkling, Cindy Cormier, Alexander Mann Crawford III, Gina dAngelo, Adrianna Del Collo, Melody Barnett Deusner, Samantha Deutch, Isabella Donadio, Jennifer Donnelly, Charles Eldredge, Susan C. Faxon, Stuart Feld, Jordan Finkenbinder, Ann Smith Finn, Guillaume Fonkenell, Bill Gerdts, Jennifer Greenhill, Lisa Harms, Erica Hirshler, Annie Hoffman, Mary Margaret Holt, Claude Imbert, Michelle Anna Interrante, Sherri Irvin, Wendy Katz, Frank Kelleter, Lindsay Kenderes, Erin Kinhart, Josh Landis, Evelyn Lannon, Johnny Lapham, Claire Ledoux, Theresa Leininger-Miller, Sgolne Le Men, Ron Maldonado, Crawford Alexander Mann III, Suz Massen, Andrew McClellan, Robin McElheny, Bill McKeown, Amanda McKnight, Maureen Melton, Thomas Micchelli, Angela Miller, Martin Montminy, Yves-Alain Moquay, James Moske, Ken Myers, Alex Nemerov, Niamb OSullivan, Alessandro Pezzati, Evelyne Possm, Jules Prown, Esme Quodbach, Emily Rafferty, Jean-Louis Raspal, Charlee Redman, Inge Reist, Lucio Riccetti, Pascale Rivial, Jennifer Roberts, Eric Robinson, Elizabeth Rudy, Bart Ryckbosch, Sarah Schroth, Megan Schwenke, Laurie Scrivener, Florian Sedlmeier, Guylne Serin, Jill Shaw, Janice Simon, Marc Simpson, Norma Sindelar, Jeri D. Smalley, Ann Y. Smith, Wale Solano, Hubert Tilliet, Clare Vasquez, Dominique Versavel, Charlotte Vignon, the late Susan von Salis, Elizabeth Vose, Marianne Wardle, Bruce Weber, Sally Webster, Kirsten Wellman, Jeffrey M. Wilhite, Bryan Wolf, and Robert Zinck.