| Stillman, James, 1850-1918 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| type | Collector | |||||||||||||||||||||
| dates | 1850-1918 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| city | New York City | |||||||||||||||||||||
| state | NY | |||||||||||||||||||||
| other cities | Brownsville, TX; Hartford, CT; Ossining, NY; Cornwall, CT; Newport, RI; Paris, France; | |||||||||||||||||||||
| sex | M | |||||||||||||||||||||
| history |
James Jewett Stillman was an art collector and financier (president, National City Bank, 1891-1908). In addition to acquiring a vast collection of tapestries (Flemish Renaissance, 16th and 17thcentury, Italian Renaissance, Brussels Renaissance), Stillman owned work by and attributed to Martin D. Homer, Léon Augustin L'Hermitte, Otto Von Bismarck, Félix Zeim, M. Marris, Adolf Schreyer, Jozef Israels, Eugène Isabey, Jules Dupre, Emile Van Marcke, Honoré Daumier, Theodore Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean Charles Cazin, Narcisse Virgilio Díaz de la Peña, Eugène Fromentin, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Julian Rix, Antoine Mauve, Rembrandt van Rijn, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Giovanni Battista Moroni, Giovani Battista Tiepolo, Lorenzo di Credi, Boccaccio Boccaccino, Francia (Francesco Raibolini), Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), and Gianpietrino (Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli) among others. Stillman left his fine and decorative arts to be divided equally among his five children: Sarah “Elsie” Elizabeth Stillman Rockefeller (1872-1935, m. William G Rockefeller), James Alexander Stillman (1873-1944), Isabel Goodrich Stillman Rockefeller (1876-1935, m. Percy A. Rockefeller), Charles Chauncey Stillman (1877-1926), and Ernest Goodrich Stillman (1876-1935). After the death of Charles Chauncey Stillman, the heirs sold much of Stillman’s collection at an American Art Galleries auction on February 3, 1927. Many of the paintings in the auction had previously been on loan with the Metropolitan Art Museum (1921-1926). The executers of Chauncey Devereaux Stillman’s estate sold a portrait of Cosimo de’Medici by Jacopo Pontormo, initially in James Stillman’s collection, at Christie's auction house on May 31, 1989 for $35 million dollars. The painting had been on long term loan with the Frick Collection from 1970 until it was removed in 1989 for the sale. James Stillman served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross, and advisory council. He was a member of the Union League, Metropolitan, Century, Manhattan, New York Yacht, Seawanhaka Yacht, Eastern Yacht, Jekyl Island, and Storm King Clubs. In addition he was a member of the New York Historical Society and the Metropolitan Club in Washington. Stillman was a trustee of the Bowery Savings Bank, the Fifth Avenue Safe Deposit Company, the Lincoln Safe Deposit Company, the New York Trust Company, and was a director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, the Queens Insurance Company, the Terminal Warehouse Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and the Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad. He was a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce and the Cotton Exchange. Stillman married to Sarah Elizabeth Rumrill (1853-1935) in 1871. |
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| decades | 1870-1880 1880-1890 1890-1900 1900-1910 1910-1920 |
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| updated | 10/31/2024 13:33:21 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| research links |
Search FRESCO (Frick Research Catalog Online) Search Worldcat Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Search Wikidata Entry | |||||||||||||||||||||
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