Dear Judy,

I'm sending these notes for Mary Wassermann, my recorder for Session 8  from
the ARLIS/NA Conference in Philadelphia.

Hope all is received in good order.  Let me know if not...

Best regards,

Allen Townsend


Philadelphia Collects: The Evolution of Some of the Great Collections of the
City
Panel Session Eight       Sunday, March 8, 8:30 am-10:30 am

Moderator:	Allen Townsend, Librarian, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Sponsor:	ARLIS/Delaware Valley Chapter.
Recorder:	Mary Wassermann, Slide Librarian, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Curators from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rosenbach Museum and
Library discussed five prominent Philadelphia collectors.   The panelists
emphasized the unique perspective each collector brought to the development of
collections which now comprise some of the region's finest literary and
artistic treasures.  

Derek Dreher, Curator, The Rosenbach Museum and Library: "The Rosenbach
Brothers and their Collections."

Derek Dreher's talk focused on how the different interests of two brothers
resulted in the melding of bibliographic and art-related objects that
comprises the Rosenbach collection.   

Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952), was a preeminent rare book and manuscript
dealer.  His brother Philip (1864-1953), dealt in the fine and decorative
arts.  Together, they ran the Rosenbach Company in Philadelphia from
1904-1953.  In 1954, their mansion became the Rosenbach Museum and Library. 

Dr. Rosenbach earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania  in 1901.
His compilation of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, given to Harvard
University by Widener's widow,  attracted the attention and business of such
collectors as Henry E. Huntington, Henry Clay Folger and J. P. Morgan.
Rosenbach established a reputation for acquiring superior works, and his
presence on the international scene earned him the nickname "The Napoleon of
Auction Rooms."   After purchasing  the original manuscript for Alice in
Wonderland (later returned to the UK), Rosenbach was also known as "The Man
Who Bought Alice."  A love of Spanish literature led Rosenbach to acquire one
of the world's greatest collections of Cervantes material.   The most famous
of the Rosenbach holdings, the original manuscript for James Joyce's Ulysses,
was bought at auction by Rosenbach in 1924.

Phillip Rosenbach was also quite active as a dealer in fine arts and did a
solid business in furniture and antique furniture copies.  The Rosenbach
Museum is furnished and decorated with early English, French, and American
furniture examples which Phillip collected. The art collection also includes
porcelain, jewelry, paintings by Thomas Sully, and the world's largest
grouping of oil-painted miniatures. 

Since its opening in 1954, the Rosenbach has grown by one-third.   The
original work of Maurice Sendak is on deposit there, complimenting earlier
acquisitions such as John Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland drawings.  Other
outstanding holdings of the Rosenbach include two-thirds of Joseph Conran's
manuscripts   and The Bay Psalm Book of 1640, which was the first book
published in North America.

While commenting on how the Rosenbach continues to evolve,  Dreher brought up
the preservation and space challenges such a diverse group of materials
presents.   By garnering interest in the collection with educational outreach,
he hopes to generate support for preserving the collection.  An expansion is
planned to convert a neighboring structure  into exhibition space and reading
rooms by the year 2008.  

The Rosenbach Museum and Library is located at 2010 Delancey Place.   The
Library is open to scholars for research by appointment, Monday-Friday
9am-5pm.  The Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-4pm, with tours available.  

 Katherine Luber, Curator, John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of
Art.  "The Collections of Henry P. McIlhenny and John G. Johnson."

Ms. Luber's discussion centered on two major contributors to the Philadelphia
Museum of Art:  John G. Johnson (1841-1917), and Henry P. McIlhenny
(1910-1986).

John G. Johnson was the son of a blacksmith.   He cultivated a highly
successful law practice, representing wealthy clients such as Harry  E.
Widener and J.P. Morgan, and argued a record 168 cases before the Supreme
Court.    In addition to being prolific in writing legal briefs, Johnson also
wrote about art and began collecting books.  He amassed a large library which
included auction catalogues.  In the 1870's he began acquiring fine art.

Luber pointed out that Johnson had an encyclopedic goal for collecting, with a
preference for lesser known works.  Such a perspective, while leaving out
Rembrandt and Hals, brought in other treasures such as van Eyck's St. Francis
of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata (c.1438-40), and van der Weyden's The
Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning
(c.1460-64).   One of the most popular works in the Museum, The Moorish Chief
(1878), was acquired by Johnson in 1892 and painted by Eduard Charlemont
(1848-1906), an Austrian artist whose career is relatively obscure.

John G. Johnson left both his book and art collection in perpetuity to the
City of Philadelphia.
The Museum was mandated to oversee the collection and acquired the Library and
objects in 1933.  The book collection has been kept as a whole, and for a
period of time a study area with the books was part of the Johnson galleries.
The Johnson art collection is known for its richness in early Italian, Flemish
and Renaissance art.  Both the art and book collections continue to attract
strong interest from the scholarly community.

Henry P. McIlhenny (1910-1986), was an active presence at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art in the mid-20th century.  He was a curator from 1939 to 1964,
and became Chairman of the Museum Board in 1976.  A love of art and collecting
had been fostered through his parents,  who were likewise involved with the
Museum.  McIlhenny was also highly influenced by Paul J. Sachs during his
years at Harvard, where he developed a preference for collecting 19th Century
French paintings and drawings.   His Irish castle, Glenveagh, and Rittenhouse
Square townhouse displayed French masterpieces as well as 18th and 19th
century silver, furniture, and other decorative arts.   

A selective portion McIlhenny's collection came to the Philadelphia Museum of
Art after his death in 1986.   The proceeds from an auction sale of the
remaining objects went into a Museum acquisition fund.  His contributions form
an important part of the Museum's European Decorative Arts collection.  Prime
examples of French painting in the Museum also come from McIlhenny;  Ingres'
The Countess of Tournon (1812), and Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge:
The Dance (1890),  are two popular McIlhenny collection works in the  Museum.

Innis Shoemaker, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, The Philadelphia
Museum of Art: "The Collections Earl Horter, Philadelphia Artist."

Earl Horter (1880-1940), was a well known artist and collector in
Philadelphia.  His collection is now widely dispersed but has an interesting
history with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Innis Shoemaker, Curator of
Prints, Drawings and Photographs, is working on an exhibition devoted to
Horter, and discussed his  art and collecting.

Horter was a Philadelphian who achieved success in New York as a self-taught
commercial artist and etcher.  His significant collecting seems to have begun
with the 1913 New York Armory show, where he acquired Vuillard's lithograph
series,  Landscapes and Interiors.  Horter returned to Philadelphia in 1917,
and was very active with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts community.  He
collected American and modern works by Arthur B. Carles, Charles Sheeler, and
Joseph Stella, as well as African sculpture and Native American art.

It was Horter's acquisition of more controversial works which make him so
interesting to scholars today.  He purchased Brancusi's Mademoiselle Pogany
(1912) and  Duchamp's  Nude Descending a Staircase I (1911) from  John Quinn
in 1926.   Picasso's Portrait of Otto von Kahnweiler (1910), came into his
collection by the late 1920s.  The Brancusi and Duchamp are now at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Otto von Kahnweiler is owned by the Art Institute
of Chicago.   Horter also added 22 Picassos and 10 Braques to his holdings in
the 1920s. 

The 1930s were financially difficult for Horter.  In 1934 there were exhibits
of his collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Art Institute of
Chicago.  At that time Horter wished to sell his collection to the
Philadelphia Museum, but they could not afford the purchase.   Eventually, in
1937, Elizabeth Heim bought Horter's collection for $5000.  Horter
subsequently married this woman, but died in 1940.   Parts of the collection
were sold by Heim over the years, with the remainder of her estate sold
piecemeal after her death in 1985.

Shoemaker included examples of Horter's own work throughout her discussion.
He was a remarkably versatile artist, working in different styles and mediums.
As an art instructor, he was favored teaching by demonstration.   Since
Horter's collections have been so widely dispersed, reconstructing his life's
work has been, in Shoemaker's words, "very tricky." In the Philadelphia area,
Horter's art and collected works can be found at some local institutions,
including the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The forthcoming exhibition, titled A Passion for Picasso: An Artist's
Collection of Modern Art,
will be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from March 7-May 16, 1999.