by Nancy Gibson
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC is one of the world’s great art museums. But, it has never been know for having a large collection of early American decorative arts, specifically furniture. In fact its collection of decorative arts is tiny at around 515 objects. But all that is about to change with some generous help.
The announcement this past Saturday of the “promise of one of the largest and most refined collections of early American furniture in private hands,” according to the Gallery press office, will change all that.
The well-known collector Linda Kaufman, her husband George died in 2001, has agreed to donate their much-coveted collection of early American furniture, Dutch paintings, American paintings, and works on paper, three years after Linda Kaufman’s death. This donation means that Washington, DC will have a dream collection of early American furniture that will be accessible to the public, unlike the two other refined collections in the city that are not accessible-The White House and State Department Collections (State Department can be seen by appointment only).
Earl A. Powell III, gallery director states, “While building their exceptional collection of art and antiques, Linda and George Kaufman have been leaders, as well as generous lenders and donors, in the art world, and especially at the National Gallery of Art. With this donation the Gallery would house the finest assemblages of early American furniture, and there is no such comparable and easily accessible public collection in the nation’s capital.” He goes on to remark, “ This gift also includes the most significant donation of Dutch paintings to the Gallery since its founding benefactors.”
Linda Kaufman notes, “We always wanted to give the collection to the American people. The National Gallery of Art will be the ideal home. George would have been extremely pleased.”
The Kaufman’s collection includes more than 200 objects, many made by master cabinetmakers and made in the major centers of American furniture making: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Salem, Providence, and Newport. Furniture makers included in the collection are the most recognizable names in the field: Thomas Affleck, John Goddard, Benjamin Randolph, John and Thomas Seymour, and John Townsend. The collection spans from 1690 to 1830, representing all major art historical periods through the late classical.
Highlights of the collection include an example of what many scholars consider to be one of the greatest examples of American case furniture, a Philadelphia desk and bookcase (c.1765). A Boston dressing table with japanned designs (1700-1730), a chest-on-chest with sculptural carved shells and a history of ownership by Providence merchant John Brown, a very ornately inlaid Federal sideboard (1793-1795) made by Williams and Deming for Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. A temporary exhibition to show highlights of the collection will open in two years.
Linda [1938- ] and George [1932-2001] Kaufman, of Norfolk, Virginia began collecting American furniture shortly before their marriage in 1958. He graduated with a MBA from the University of Virginia and worked as a banker, investor and real estate developer before founding Guest Quarters, Inc in 1972. In 1977 they established the Kaufman Americana Foundation to award grants “for the encouragement, promotion, and enhancement of the study of American decorative arts or designs and related items, literature, and illustrations.” They funded two galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as generously donating to the Yale Art Gallery, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Wilmington, Delaware.
