| Smith, Charles Stewart, 1832-1909 | ||||||||||
| type | Collector | |||||||||
| dates | 1832-1909 | |||||||||
| city | New York City | |||||||||
| state | NY | |||||||||
| other cities | Stamford, CT; Exeter, NH; Glasgow, Ireland; Manchester, United Kingdom; Paris, France; | |||||||||
| sex | M | |||||||||
| history |
Charles Stewart Smith (1832-1909) was an art collector and in the dry goods business. In 1892, while traveling in Japan on his honeymoon with his third wife, née Anna Walton Brown (1858–1934, married in September 1892), he purchased several thousand Japanese prints, ceramics, and paintings from the British journalist and collector Captain Frank Brinkley (1841-1912). Smith gave 1,763 Japanese prints to the New York Public Library and the rest to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Smith's art collection also included work by, among others, Meissonier, Diaz, Dupre, Daubigny, De la Croix, Decamps, Detaille, Troyon, Gerome, Domingo, Cabanel, Gleyre, Knause, Rousseau, Bargue, Jules Breton, Defragge, Boldini, Zamacois, Millet, Fortuny, Corot, Edouard Frere, Leloir, Ziem, De Neuville, Schreyer, A. Steinheil, Van Marcke, Cazin, and Munkaesy (New York Times, Dec. 1, 1909). Smith was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the president, and director of the Associates Land Company, vice president and director of the City and Suburban Homes Company, treasurer and director of the Woodlawn Cemetery, trustee of Barnard College and director of the Fifth Avenue Bank, German Alliance Insurance Company, Greenwich Savings Bank, and Fourth National Bank. He was a member of the Union League, Lawyers, Players, Century, and Merchants Club (Brooklyn Eagle, Nov. 30, 1909). Smith was the Vice President of the Society of Art Collectors (558 Fifth Avenue), the held an exhibition comparing works by European and American artists in 1904, at the American Fine Arts Society (215 W 57th Street). He lent work to the 1904 exhibition by Louis Eugen Boudin, Thomas Couture, and Jean Louis Géricault. Works once owned by Stewart were lent to the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, 1909: listed in the catalogue as "Singing Boys - Frans Hals" and "Saint John the Baptist – Rembrandt." Smith had two previous wives and three children. His first wife was Eliza Bradish Smith (d. 1863, married 1859), they had two children, Kate Warne Smith (1858–1879) and Stewart Woodruff Smith (1861–1907). His second wife was Henrietta Haight Caswell Smith (1844-1888, married in April 1869), and they one child, Howard Caswell Smith (1871–1965). |
|||||||||
| decades | 1850-1860 1860-1870 1870-1880 1880-1890 1890-1900 1900-1910 1910-1920 |
|||||||||
| updated | 10/31/2024 13:33:16 | |||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||
|
||||||||||