The Stebbins Collection

Regina Palm

Description

* this publication will mark the first time the Stebbins Collection, in its entirety, will be made available to the public
* a valuable contribution to the field of 19th- and early 20th-century American art with key works by a range of American painters from Martin Johnson Heade and Thomas Eakins to Fidelia Bridges and John La Farge
* the volume will be of particular interest to those interested in the history of collecting in the US and the development of American private museums
Director’s Foreword: Dr. Laurence J. Ruggiero
• Acknowledgments: Dr. Regina Palm
• Essay that highlights the contributions that Dr. Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Susan Stebbins have made to the field of art history and that also discusses their roles as collectors of American art. By Dr. Virginia Anderson
• Essay introducing the Morse Museum’s founder, Jeannette Genius McKean, as well as the Stebbins Collection to a national audience while simultaneously shining a light on the ways in which the works of art from these two privately established collections blend seamlessly and build upon one another. By Regina Palm
• Entries on the individual works of art, 70 works by 53 artists

Sujets

• Permanent Collections
• Exhibitions
• Catalogs
• Collections
• Suffix (name)
• Visual arts of the United States
• Art
• JR

Informations

• Publié par: D Giles Limited
• Date de parution: 30 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781913875053
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 32 Mo

Extrait

THE STEBBINS COLLECTION

THE
STEBBINS
COLLECTION
A Gift for the Morse Museum
Regina Palm
With an essay by Virginia M. G. Anderson
Foreword by Laurence J. Ruggiero
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in association with D Giles Limited
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
The Stebbins Collection: A Gift for the Morse Museum,
9 November 2021-30 October 2022, at The Charles
Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art
Text and photography 2021 The Charles Hosmer
Morse Museum of American Art.
This edition 2021 D Giles Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, with-
out the written permission of The Charles Hosmer
Morse Museum of American Art.
First published in 2021 by GILES
An imprint of D Giles Limited
66 High Street,
Lewes BN7 1XG, UK
https://gilesltd.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021905082
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-913875-04-6
eBook edition ISBN: 978-1-913875-05-3
Unless noted otherwise, all measurements are in inches
and centimeters; height precedes width precedes depth.
For D Giles Limited:
Copy-edited and proofread by Jodi Simpson
Designed by Alfonso Iacurci
Produced by GILES, an imprint of D Giles Limited
Printed and bound in Italy
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art
445 N. Park Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
www.morsemuseum.org
Front cover: George Cochran Lambdin (1830-96),
Calla Lilies , 1874 (cat. 45, detail)
Back cover: Henry Roderick Newman (1843-1917),
View of the Old Market, Florence, with the
Campanile Behind , 1878 (cat. 48)
Frontispiece: Thomas Moran (1837-1926),
Barnard Castle , 1862 (cat. 46, detail)
Contents
7
Foreword
LAURENCE J. RUGGIERO
10
Board of Trustees
11
Acknowledgments
REGINA PALM
13
Acknowledgments
THEODORE AND SUSAN STEBBINS
15
An Important Collection
Enriches the Morse
REGINA PALM
33
A Labor of Love:
Ted and Susan Stebbins and the
Curatorship, Research, and Teaching
of American Art
VIRGINIA M. G. ANDERSON
43
Plates
REGINA PALM
179
Index
184
Photography Credits

7
Foreword
It is with great pleasure and pride that The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum
of American Art presents this exhibition of the Stebbins Collection. It cele-
brates the collection and the great generosity of Theodore E. and Susan Cragg
Stebbins in making their splendid gift to the Morse in honor of Susan s parents,
Evelyn Fulford Cragg and Henry Cragg. Henry was one of the original Charles
Hosmer Morse Foundation trustees, serving from 1976 to his death in 1988.
During the 1990s I had the great good fortune to work alongside Hugh
F. McKean (1908-95), the first director of the Morse Museum, art collector,
educator, college president, and husband of the Museum s founder, Jeannette
Genius McKean (1909-89). For a little more than three years and often over
a meal, we had many conversations about art and museums, and also about
life, the community of Winter Park, and the region. Most of all, Hugh used our
time together to explain the vision he and Jeannette had developed for the
Museum they made.
No one was more aware of the significance of Hugh and Jeannette s collec-
tion of the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933)-the world s most
comprehensive-than Hugh. It made the Morse not only a uniquely important
community cultural resource, but also a national treasure. Yet, Hugh system-
atically repeated-doubtless to be sure I would never forget it-that the Morse
was not just a Tiffany museum. Over time, I came to realize that to Hugh this
meant many things, from an overarching philosophy to the simple literal fact
that the collection was not limited to the work of Louis Tiffany but included
important work by a wide variety of American ceramicists, furniture makers,
metal workers, and artists working in other mediums.
Most especially, however, the collection included American painting. Hugh
and Jeannette s interest and commitment to painting arose not only from their
interest in American art as collectors, but also from their commitment to art
as serious painters whose own work played a major role throughout their lives.
The first paintings in the Morse Collection came from their own families. These
works of art were followed by purchases and gifts that date back to the origins
of the Museum in 1942.
Although they did not follow any rules other than collecting American art
that they found interesting, the painting collection the McKeans assembled falls
largely into the period from the Civil War to World War I and so coincides with
Tiffany s career. Each area of the collection-Tiffany, decorative arts, painting,
and works in other mediums-complements the others visually, historically,
and pedagogically.
Cat. 15 (detail)
8
The generous gift of the Stebbins Collection is the largest and most dramatic
addition to the McKeans painting collection in its history. Their gift substan-
tially increases the size of the Morse Painting Collection, but, most importantly,
it brings depth and quality to the original collection. Hugh and Jeannette would
have been thrilled and proud, I am sure, to see this fine collection of American
art become a part of their Morse Museum.
The Stebbins Collection is the result of years of collecting by the well-
known and widely published art historian and former curator of American
Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Theodore E. Stebbins and his wife,
Susan. Together Ted and Susan created a collection of exceptional American
art, including both well-known artists and some lesser known. All the works,
however, testify to the eye -the awesome visual sensitivity and historical
perspicacity-of their collectors.
The addition of the Stebbins Collection to the American painting collec-
tion of the Morse reinforces Hugh s point that the Morse is not just a Tiffany
museum -and does so with clarity, resonance, profundity, and visual delight.
The Morse, its board, its staff, and its community are deeply grateful to Ted
and Susan for their generous gift, which means and will always mean so much
to them, to the Morse, and to the life of this community.
I am grateful to the Stebbinses for their untiring help with this project; to
the Morse Board of Trustees for their unstinting support; to the Morse staff,
who in one way or another all contributed to its development and able execu-
tion; and to our curator of American painting, Dr. Regina Palm, who curated
the exhibition and who has written an outstanding catalogue.
Laurence J. Ruggiero
Director, The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art
Foreword
Cat. 22 (detail)

10
Board of Trustees
Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation Board of Trustees
Harold A. Ward, III
Susan F. McKean
Charles C. Ogden
Sandra M. Ogden
Randolph J. Rush
Ann Morgan Saurman
Lewis I. Sharp
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr.
Richard M. Strauss
Leila E. Trismen
Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Board of Trustees
Harold A. Ward, III
Richard O. Baldwin, Jr.
Mary W. Christian
Randolph J. Rush
Richard M. Strauss
R. Michael Strickland
Douglas A. Woodman
Morse Museum Director
Laurence J. Ruggiero
11
Acknowledgments
We would like to first extend our deepest gratitude to Dr. Theodore E. and
Susan Cragg Stebbins for their incredible gift of the Stebbins Collection to The
Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. Their generous donation
bolsters greatly the Morse s permanent collection, allowing us better to serve
the Museum s visitors and expand upon the vision set forth by the Morse s
founder, Jeannette Genius McKean, and her husband, Hugh F. McKean. I also
owe a debt of gratitude to Ted specifically for his continual support during the
writing of this catalogue. As one of the leading historians of American art, he
kindly guided me and shared with me a lifetime of learning. I am honored to
have his entries on American master Martin Johnson Heade share space in this
catalogue with my own entries on others.
Many people, near and far, have helped this project along the way, completed
during unprecedented times. Thank you to Dr. Virginia M. G. Anderson, curator
of American art and head of the American Painting Sculpture and Decorative
Arts department at the Baltimore Museum of Art, for contributing an essay
on the Stebbinses-her friends of many years. I am grateful immensely to Sally
Matz, granddaughter of artist Arthur I. Keller, for sharing her memories and
publications on her grandfather. Thank you to Dr. Jonathan Olly, curator at The
Long Island Museum, for his incredible generosity in providing primary sources
and archival materials on painter William Davis. Thanks also to Dr. William
L. Coleman, director of exhibitions and collections at The Olana Partnership, for
his insight on Frederic Edwin Church, and Patty Edmonson, curator of costume
and textile