James Deering
James Deering (* 1859 in South Paris , † 1925 on board the City of Paris ) was an American industrialist and art collector .
James Deering was the son of William Deering, the owner of the agricultural machinery company Deering Harvester , (from 1902 International Harvester ) and his second wife, Clara Hammond Deering. His older brother was the art patron Charles Deering . The family lived in Chicago from 1873 , and by 1900 the Deerings were one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Charles Deering worked in the family business from the 1880s, James Deering studied one year each at Northwestern University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 1880 also became a manager in the family business. In 1902 the bank acquired JP Morgan Deering Harvester and merged the company with McCormick Reaper Company, which became International Harvester , the largest American agricultural machinery company. James Deering was initially Vice President of the group and managed three factories in Illinois , but had to retire from day-to-day operations in 1909 under pressure from JP Morgan.
James Deering, who remained unmarried, now primarily devoted himself to his interests as an art collector, world traveler and cultural ambassador. He owned homes on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago , Evanston, Illinois , in New York City , and in Paris . Because of his anemia, Deering also decided to build a house in the southern United States. He bought land in Coconut Grove , south of Miami , in 1910, near his brother's property, the Charles Deering Estate . James Deering and his companion Paul Chalfin subsequently created Villa Vizcaya here .
Villa Vizcaya was built between 1914 and 1922 and was inhabited in winter from 1916. Deering met friends like John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn here , but also movie stars like Lillian Gish and Marion Davies . Deering, described as a restrained man with impeccable manners, opened his gardens to the public on Sunday in 1923. James Deering died in September 1925 on board the British liner City of Paris on its way back to the United States. In his will he bequeathed paintings by Édouard Manet and Giambattista Tiepolo to the Art Institute of Chicago . Villa Vizcaya fell to Deering's nieces Marion Deering McCormick and Barbara Deering Danielson. Since the maintenance of the country estate was expensive, they had to sell parts of the property piece by piece. Eventually, in 1952, Dade County acquired the mansion and the rest of the gardens.
literature
- Witold Rybczynski, Laurie Olin, Steven Brooke: Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2007, ISBN 978-0-8122-3951-5 .
- Kathryn C. Harwood: Lives of Vizcaya. Banyan Books, Miami 1985, ISBN 0-916224-99-6 .
- Mac Griswold, Elanor Weller: The Golden Age of American Gardens, proud owners-private estates 1890-1940 . Harry N. Abrams. NY 1991, ISBN 0-8109-2737-3 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Griswold, Mac and Weller, Eleanor. "The Golden Age of American Gardens, proud owners-private estates 1890-1940". Harry N. Abrams. NY 1991. ISBN 0-8109-2737-3 . p. 174
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Deering, James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American industrialist and art collector |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1859 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | South Paris, Maine |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1925 |
| Place of death | on board the City of Paris |