Henry G Marquand Signed Letter to Mrs Oliver Lay Metropolitan Museum ALS NY
$ 21.1
Description
Henry G Marquand Signed Letter to Mrs Oliver Lay Metropolitan Museum ALS NY. About Henry Gurdon Marquand. Mrs. Lay was Hester Marian Wait Lay (1845–1900). This letter belongs to a group of correspondence connected to the family of New York artistOliver Ingraham Lay and his wife Marian. Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) — Henry G. Marquand, President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art — to Mrs. Oliver I. Lay Offered here is an original, handwritten autograph letter signed by Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819–1902) — the New York financier, philanthropist, and second president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The note is dated “N.Y. June 5,” addressed to “Mrs. Oliver I. Lay,” and signed “Henry G. Marquand.” A genuine letter from one of the great figures of American art patronage, not a reproduction. The Content A brief, friendly personal note: Marquand writes that he is “now packing up for Europe & cannot come — in the autumn I will try & do so,” closing “yours truly, Henry G. Marquand.” A glimpse of the busy transatlantic life of a Gilded Age collector who traveled regularly to Europe in pursuit of Old Master paintings for his own collection and for the Metropolitan Museum. A Notable Recipient The letter is addressed to Mrs. Oliver I. Lay — wife of the New York portrait painter Oliver Ingraham Lay (1845–1890), a member of the National Academy of Design (1876) and the Century Association (1887), whose portrait subjects included President Ulysses S. Grant, the actor Edwin Booth as Hamlet, and the painter Winslow Homer. Mrs. Lay was Hester Marian Wait Lay (1845–1900). That a sitting president of the Metropolitan Museum corresponded socially with the Lay household reflects the family’s place in the New York art world of the period. About Henry Gurdon Marquand Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819–1902) was among the greatest American art collectors and philanthropists of the 19th century. Born in New York to a family of prominent silversmiths, he made a fortune in banking and railroads before retiring around 1880 to devote himself to art and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of the fifty founding citizens who met in 1869 to establish the Museum, he served as a trustee from 1871, as treasurer, and then as its second president from 1889 until his death in 1902. He donated some fifty Old Master paintings — including works by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Hals, and Vermeer — that helped transform the young Met into a museum of international rank. His Richard Morris Hunt–designed mansion at Madison Avenue and East 68th Street was among the most celebrated houses of Gilded Age New York, and he sat for a famous portrait by John Singer Sargent (now in the Met). Archive Note This letter belongs to a group of correspondence connected to the family of New York artist Oliver Ingraham Lay and his wife Marian. The Lay circle — documented throughout these letters and preserved in part in the Archives of American Art and the New-York Historical Society — included writers, editors, and art-world figures of late-19th-century New York; this note adds the Metropolitan Museum’s president to that distinguished company. Condition Single-leaf autograph note in ink, with an old collection number (“12”) penciled at the upper left. Age toning and a mailing fold; text and signature clear and legible. Please see photos, which form part of the description. Authenticity Guaranteed authentic original, hand-written and hand-signed period letter (ALS) Recipient / Date Mrs. Oliver I. Lay — New York, “June 5” (year not stated; before mid-1890) Shipping FREE shipping — carefully packaged flat against bending and moisture
