The Driehaus Museum is proud to announce the expansion of its collection with several major gifts and loans, including a significant donation of George Bellows lithographs; selections from the M. Christine Schwartz Collection; and noteworthy loans from The Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation, the private collection of the Museum’s founder Mr. Driehaus, including a Frederic Edwin Church masterpiece that was part of Samuel and Mathilda Nickerson’s original 1883 collection. This group of over 40 new works enhances the Museum’s reputation as a leader in the presentation and preservation of late 19th and early 20th century art, architecture, and design.
Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum Lisa M. Key says, “It is an honor to welcome these remarkable contributions and to share them with the broader community. The gifts and loans from Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols, M. Christine Schwartz, and The Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation Collection join inspirational 19th and early 20th century works already in our care, and extend our ability to tell new stories through exceptional art.”
Among the acquisitions is a collection of 32 lithographs by early 20th century American artist George Bellows (1882-1925), gifted by Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols. With works spanning from 1897 to 1924, the donation captures Bellows’ expressive yet journalistic style depicting athletes, family life, city streets, and the art studio, including his well-known work, The Studio (1916).
Works from the M. Christine Schwartz Collection include significant figurative paintings by turn-of-the-century women artists Pauline Dohn, E. Martin Hennings, and Lucie Hartrath: Dohn’s Pear Time (1895) and A Village Belle (1899); Hennings’s Black Furs (1916); and Hartrath’s The Creek (1917). The Schwartz Collection also gifts an early 20th century William Clusmann painting illustrating the bustling city life of Chicago’s “Loop” at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street. Only blocks south of the Driehaus Museum, Clusmann’s work celebrated the new Magnificent Mile as an emblem of modern sophistication.
The Museum is thrilled to display Fredric Edwin Church’s oil on canvas Mountain Landscape (1849) in the same room where it hung some 120 years ago as part of Samuel and Mathilda Nickerson’s art collection, then called “the handsomest, best appointed, and best lighted in the West.” Archival and provenance research identified the Church and when this exciting connection was made, the Art Exhibition Lending Foundation purchased the work with the sole intent of lending it on a long-term basis to the Driehaus Museum. Having been part of both the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brauer Museum at Valparaiso University collections, the painting remains in a public collection in the Midwest and is now back hanging in its original home.
President & CEO of Driehaus Trust Company, LLC, Cynthia Van Osdol says, “The Art Exhibition Lending Foundation’s primary mission is to give public institutions the use of its art and automotive collection. Supporting arts and culture was of high importance to Richard, and his collection exists as a testament to his vision to inspire and bring joy to public and private audiences through transformative experiences with great works of art, architecture and automotive design. We serve his legacy by ensuring the Museum remains a dynamic institution guided by excellence, intellectual curiosity and expanding its reach to all of our citizens and visitors. Augmentation of its galleries with loans from the private collection expand these ongoing conversations and reset the visitor visual experience on the first floor and in the Murphy.”
Other recent loans from the Art Exhibition Lending Foundation include Mary Cassatt’s (1844-1926) Sara in a Bonnet with a Plum Hanging Down at Left (No. 2) from 1906-7 and the 1894 On the Water (Feeding the Ducks); Childe Hassam’s (1829-1935) Morning Carriages, Paris from 1888; Maurice Prendergast’s (1858-1924) Park Along the Shore circa 1907-1910, and Alfred Stevens’ Les Quatre Saisons, circa 1869-1871.
More information: driehausmuseum.org
