Albert Bender

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Albert Maurice Bender (born June 18, 1866 in Dublin , † March 5, 1941 in San Francisco ) was an Irish - American insurance broker , art collector , patron and philanthropist . In his day he was considered one of the most successful insurance companies on the west coast and appeared primarily as a promoter of the art world of San Francisco and the artist colonies of the Bay Area .

Live and act

Albert Bender was the only son of Philip Bender and Augusta Bender, née Bremer. At the age of 16 he emigrated to San Francisco and started working as a delivery boy for an insurance company. He quickly developed a feel for the insurance industry and successfully began to broker and speculate himself. Bender was considered to be as humane as it was generous; he liked to invest his capital in the "fine arts" and began to promote artists, which quickly earned him the nickname "Saint Albert of San Francisco". He is said to have even been reachable by post with this nickname. Bender became the first address and “institution” for cultural events on the west coast. Albert Bender's extensive circle of friends included numerous well-known personalities from Anglo-American art history such as Ansel Adams , Mary Hunter Austin , Ina Coolbrith , Imogen Cunningham and Jack Butler Yeats . Bender had a special friendship with the natural philosopher and poet Robinson Jeffers , who was critical of humanism and who he also supported financially at times.

Albert Bender was a trustee of Mills College in Oakland, California, and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1934 . He also supported the California School of Fine Arts ( San Francisco Art Institute ). Bender was an enthusiastic collector of rare art and artist books ; he was a chairman of the Book Club of California .

In honor of his mother Augusta, Bender donated around 260 exhibits from his collection of Chinese , Japanese and Buddhist-Tibetan art to the National Museum of Ireland between 1931 and 1936 . These include, among other rare artifacts of the Qing Dynasty , a dated to the 18th century Lama robe from Beijing ( Peking ) and ukiyo-e - Woodcuts from Japan.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ IGI Individual Record - Albert Maurice Bender. (No longer available online.) FamilySearch.org, formerly the original ; accessed on December 6, 2019 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.familysearch.org
  2. ^ Walt Whitman Manuscripts from the Albert M. Bender Collection. The Walt Whitman Archive, accessed September 11, 2008 .
  3. ^ A Dubliner's Collection of Asian Art - The Albert Bender Exhibition. (No longer available online.) Dublin Tourism, formerly the original ; accessed on December 6, 2019 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.visitdublin.com
personal data
SURNAME Bender, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bender, Albert Maurice (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-American insurance broker, art collector, patron and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1941
Place of death San Francisco