Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

The Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection is an art collection held by the Art Institute of Chicago.[1] It is based on a collection assembled by Helen Louise Birch and her husband, Frederic Clay Bartlett.[2]

Birch and Bartlett

Helen Louise Birch married Frederic Clay Bartlett in on January 22, 1919, in Boston Massachusetts at a private ceremony attended only by Senator and Mrs. Albert Beveridge and Mrs. Marshall Field, Sr., both relatives of Birch.[3] The Bartletts were a dynamic couple, both from like upbringings, they had similar interests and played off each other's strengths. They were a fixture of Chicago’s civic-minded elite during the early 1900s. Prior to their marriage, Frederic's art collection focused on a variety of sources, including antique, Renaissance, and 19th-century fine and decorative arts. Bartlett was himself a talented artist and muralist.[4][5]

Collecting

In the early 1920s, their collecting activities became more focused. Leading a cosmopolitan lifestyle, the couple traveled regularly to Europe, where they acquired a collection of modern art. Concentrating on the contemporary French avant-garde, they purchased works by André Derain, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, André Lhôte, and Amedeo Modigliani.

In the spring of 1923, they acquired Henri Matisse’s, Woman Before an Aquarium. The following year, less than one year after Frederic succeeded his father, Adolphus Clay Bartlett, as a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, they acquired Georges Seurat’s, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This purchase was made specifically with the museum in mind, at a time when the Seurat was not yet represented in any American or French public collection. Over the next several years, with the intention of placing La Grande Jatte in an appropriate artistic context, the Bartletts purchased major paintings by key Post-Impressionist artists Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as important works by other modern masters, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau.[6]

Memorial collection

After only six-and-one-half years of marriage, Helen Birch Bartlett died of cancer on October 24, 1925. To honor his wife, Frederic presented their unique art collection to the Art Institute of Chicago in May 1926. The Helen Birch Memorial Collection has been permanently displayed in the museum continuously since the donation. During the 1920s and 30s, Bartlett would swap-out paintings in order to add pieces that would be a better representation or example of the work displayed. The twenty-five paintings in the collection are still in the public gallery as well as other works from the same historical time-frame.[1]

Works of art in the collection include:

ImageTitleYearArtistMedium
The Basket of Applesc. 1893Paul CézanneOil on canvas
Flowers (Cyclamen)1920Charles DemuthWatercolor on off-white wove paper
Fountainearly 1920sAndré DerainOil on portrate
Grapesearly 1920sAndré DerainOil on canvas
Landscapec. 1920/25André DerainOil on panel
Still Lifec. 1920/24André Dunoyer de SegonzacOil on panel
Day of the God (Mahana no Atua)1894Paul GauguinOil on canvas
Polynesian Woman with Children1901Paul GauguinOil on canvas
Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La berceuse)1889Vincent van GoghOil on canvas
Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmartre1887Vincent van GoghOil on canvas, mounted on pressboard
The Bedroom1887Vincent van GoghOil on canvas, mounted on pressboard
Head of a Soldier1917Ferdinand HodlerOil on canvas
James Vibert, Sculptor1907Ferdinand HodlerOil on canvas
Le Grand Muveran1912Ferdinand HodlerOil on canvas
The Ladies of Avignon1923André LhoteOil on canvas
The Brook1923John MarinWatercolor on wove paper
Woman Before an Aquarium1926Henri MatisseOil on canvas
Woman on Rose Divan1921Henri MatisseOil on canvas
Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz1916Amedeo ModiglianiOil on canvas
The Old Guitaristlate 1903 - early 1904Pablo PicassoOil on panel
The Waterfall1910Henri RousseauOil on canvas
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte1884/86Georges SeuratOil on canvas
At the Moulin Rouge1892/95Henri de Toulouse-LautrecOil on canvas
Ballet Dancers1885/86Henri de Toulouse-LautrecOil on plaster, transferred to canvas
Street in Paris1914Maurice UtrilloOil on canvas
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References
  1. Art Institute of Chicago
  2. "The Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection". Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  3. Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett: The Collectors by Courtney Graham Donnell, FortuneArchive.com
  4. Mary Lackritz Gray (1 April 2001). A Guide to Chicago's Murals. University of Chicago Press. pp. 98–9. ISBN 978-0-226-30596-7.
  5. Poore, Patricia (1995). "Mrs Bartlett's Oasis". Old House Interiors: 74–81. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  6. Historic Collections: The Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
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