Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

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Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Vogue (1917)

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (born January 9, 1875 in New York City , † April 18, 1942 , ibid) was an American sculptor and art patron . She donated the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

Life

Family home The Breakers (back)

Gertrude Vanderbilt was the eldest surviving daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899) and Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1852–1934) and thus the granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877). She spent the summers of her youth in Newport, Rhode Island at her family home, The Breakers . She was educated there by private tutors and at the exclusive Brearley School in New York.

At the age of 21 she married the wealthy businessman and sportsman Harry Payne Whitney (1872–1930). William Collins Whitney's son was a banker and investor, and his mother was the daughter of a co-owner of Standard Oil . Harry Whitney inherited a fortune based on oil and tobacco growing and shares in financial investments. The two had three children together: Flora, Cornelius and Barbara.

Influence on art life

The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney at age 13 (painting by John Everett Millais , 1888)

On a trip to Europe in early 1900, Gertrude Whitney discovered the art world of Montmartre and Montparnasse in Paris. What she saw there encouraged her to indulge in her own creativity and become a sculptor.

She studied sculpture first at the Art Students League in New York, then with Auguste Rodin in Paris. After all, she had a studio in Greenwich Village , New York and in Passy , a posh suburb of Paris. Her work has received critical acclaim in Europe and the United States.

Her wealth allowed her to appear as a patron of the arts , for example she supported the sculptor Jo Davidson , who was a friend of her , but she also dedicated herself specifically to promoting women in art. She was the main financier of the International Composer's Guild , which was established for the performance of modern music.

In 1914, she set up the Whitney Studio Club at 147 West Fourth Street, Manhattan, to give young artists an opportunity to exhibit. From this grew her enduring legacy, the Whitney Museum of American Art . She founded it in 1931 after the Metropolitan Museum of Art rejected her offer to take over her modern art collection. The Whitney Museum dedicated a memorial exhibition to her in 1943, showing 62 of her sculptures.

Later years

Gertrude Whitney painted by Robert Henri , 1916

During the First World War , Gertrude Whitney devoted a lot of money and time to various aid organizations. Among other things, she founded and maintained a hospital for wounded soldiers in Neuilly-sur-Seine . After the end of the war she created a number of memorials. In 1934 she was at the center of a high-profile court battle with her sister-in-law Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt over custody of her ten-year-old niece Gloria Vanderbilt . Gertrude Whitney was elected Associate Member ( ANA ) of the National Academy of Design in 1940 . She died in 1942 at the age of 67 and was buried next to her husband in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

In 1999, her granddaughter Flora Miller Biddle published a souvenir book called The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made . In the TV movie Little Gloria ... Happy At Last she was played by actress Angela Lansbury , who received an Emmy for it .

Her name was in her different phases of life
  • 1875–1896 : Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt
  • 1896–1930 : Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney
  • 1930–1942 : Mrs. Gertrude Whitney

Public sculptures by Gertrude Whitney

Statue in memory of Columbus in Huelva

Gertrude Whitney designed the statue in Huelva , which commemorates Christopher Columbus , and was given to the Spanish people by the United States. In the USA, from her:

  • Fountain of El Dorado - originally in San Francisco, California, now in Lima, Peru;
  • Aztec Fountain - Washington, DC;
  • Women's Titanic Memorial - Washington, DC, in commemoration of the sinking of the Titanic ;
  • William F. Cody Memorial - Cody, Wyoming, at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park ;
  • Victory Arch - Madison Square, New York;
  • Three Graces on the lower campus of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

A marble copy of the head of the Titanic monument was purchased by the French government for the Musée du Luxembourg .

Web links

Commons : Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About the 1934 Gloria Vanderbilt trial - a trial of the century. (English, accessed October 16, 2012).
  2. ↑ nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "W" / Whitney, Gertrude Vanderbilt ANA 1940 ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 20, 2015)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalacademy.org
personal data
SURNAME Whitney, Gertrude Vanderbilt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vanderbilt, Gertrude (maiden name); Whitney, Gertrude; Vanderbilt Whitney, Gertrude; Whitney, Gertrude Payne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sculptress and patron of the arts
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1942
Place of death New York City