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Portraits
Six of the seven portrait paintings on the east wall of the
Eloise W. Martin Reading Room represent members of Charles Deering's
family, the benefactor for whom the Deering Library is named.
One portrait is of the French composer Erik Satie.
From left to right (south to north):
- ROGER DEERING (1884-1936) by Kenyon Cox, 1889
Roger Deering was the son of Charles Deering and grandson of William Deering.
A noted philanthropist, Roger Deering left over
$7 million in an unrestricted gift to Northwestern University
upon his death in 1936.
Kenyon Cox (1856-1919)
was a painter, illustrator and writer from Warren, Ohio. He studied
in Paris at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1877 until
1882 and exhibited at the Salon between 1879 and 1882. He illustrated
books and magazines, wrote occasional
art criticism, and taught at the Art Students League in New York
from 1884 until 1909. In 1892, Cox painted four mural decorations
for the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building at the World's
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. A skilled
academic draughtsman and a strong colorist, Cox was skeptical
of Impressionism and an outspoken opponent of modernism.
- WILLIAM
DEERING (1826-1913) by Anders Zorn, 1899
William Deering was the
father of Charles Deering. He founded the Deering
Harvester company which in 1902 merged to become the International
Harvester Company. The company's chief farm implement was a harvesting
machine with an
automatic binder. William Deering pioneered its development in the 1870s and
1880s. He was a generous benefactor to several institutions, notably Northwestern
University, the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Wesley Hospital
in
Chicago. The portrait was donated to Northwestern University by Charles Deering.
Swedish
artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920). Zorn was a close
friend of Charles Deering, to whom Zorn gave the use of his studio in Paris
in 1893.
Zorn was an internationally recognized painter, etcher and sculptor who maintained
studios in Paris and London. His skill with portraiture in particular secured
a wide
range of patrons throughout the world. His first visit to the United States
was in
1893, as commissioner for the Swedish art section at the Chicago World's Fair.
- ROGER DEERING (1884-1936) by Wayman Adams
As noted in the
description of the first painting above, Roger Deering was
the son of
Charles and Marion Whipple Deering. The Wayman Adams portrait, a gift of Mrs.
Charles Deering, has been on permanent display in the Deering Library since
1938.
Wayman Adams(1883-1959) was born in Muncie, Indiana and studied portraiture
in Italy and
Spain. He is known chiefly for his portraits, which show considerable influences
of
John Singer Sargent, another Charles Deering associate.
- MARION WHIPPLE DEERING
(1857-1943) by Wayman Adams
Marion Whipple Deering was the wife of Charles
Deering, for whom the Deering Library is named. The couple
married in 1883
and had three children: Roger, Marion, and Barbara. This portrait
of Mrs. Deering was donated to the University by her family in
1939.
- CHARLES DEERING (1852-1927) by Paul Trebilcock,
after Zorn
This portrait of Charles Deering, Northwestern University
trustee and benefactor for
whom the Deering Library was named, is a copy by Paul Trebilcock (1902-81)
of an
earlier portrait by the Swedish artist Anders Zorn, a close friend of Charles
Deering.
- JAMES DEERING (1859-1925) by Paul Trebilcock, after Zorn,
1932
James Deering joined his older brother Charles in the family
business and assisted in directing the International Harvester
Company after their father William's retirement in 1901.
A discerning art collector, James is best known as the builder
of Vizcaya, his winter estate near Miami, Florida, which since
its completion in 1916 has enjoyed
wide acclaim for its evocation of Italian architectural styles
from the fifteenth to the
nineteenth centuries. Vizcaya has housed the Dade County Art
Museum since 1953.
This portrait by Trebilcock is a copy of an
earlier portrait by the Swedish artist Anders Zorn, a close friend
of Charles
Deering. Trebilcock studied at the Art Institute of Chicago as
well as in Europe. The portrait was bequeathed to Northwestern
University in 1933 by Mrs. Chauncey McCormick [Marion Deering],
Charles Deering's daughter and James Deering's niece.
- ERIK
SATIE, El Bohemio; Poet of Montmartre (1866-1925) by Ramon Casas,
1891
Erik Satie (1866-1925), the French avant-garde composer who
influenced Debussy,
Ravel and others, met Casas in Paris through another well-known Spanish painter,
Maurice Utrillo. In Casas's portrait, Satie stands before the famous
Moulin de la
Galette in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris, where Casas and Utrillo
lived.
Casas, a noted Catalan painter who lived in Paris in the 1890s and was admired
by
Picasso, specialized in portraits of intellectuals and artists, charcoal drawings,
and
commercial posters. Casas visited the United States twice, in 1908 and in 1924,
as a
guest of Charles Deering, for whom the Deering Library is named.
This portrait
was acquired by Charles Deering when he studied painting in Paris in
the early 1890s. It was bequeathed to Northwestern University Library by his
daughter, Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, in 1956.
Window Medallions
The Art Collection's 19 window medallions were created
by G. Owen Bonawit (1891-1971), a master of secular stained glass
from New York City. They represent scenes and figures from literature,
mythology, religion, and history. For a guide and descriptions,
please consult the "Painted Window
Medallions"
page on this site.
Busts & Statues
Among the busts and statues around the perimeter of the Art
Collection, from left to right (south to north) are:
- Apollo Belvedere
Reproduction of the head of the
famous 4th century B.C. Hellenistic statue uncovered in Pergamum
and
attributed to the sculptor Leochares.
- William Shakespeare
Reproduction of an original bronze sculpture
by
Eugene Blot (1830-1899).
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Bust
by the German sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857).
- Thomas
Carlyle
Bust of the Scottish essayist by the English
sculptor William
Ordway Partridge (1861-1930).
- Unidentified
- Orrington Lunt
Bust of the Northwestern
University benefactor by the Danish Sculptor Johannes Gelert
(1852-1923).
- L'Emir
Bronze statue by Georges-Charles
Coudray (active 1883-1903).
- Dying Gaul
Reproduction
of a Roman copy of a lost Greek original attributed to
the
sculptor Epigonos.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Reproduction
of a bust by William Ordway Partridge (1852-1923), original
in the Lyceum Theatre,
London.
- Jonathan Swift
Bust by the English
sculptor Joseph Wilton (1722-1803).
- George Gordon, Lord Byron
Reproduction
of a bust by the English sculptor Edward Hodges Bailey (1788-1867).
- John Locke
Bust by the
English sculptor Henry Weekes (1807-1877).
- Apollo Belvedere
- Artemis of Versailles
Reproduction
of a Hellenistic sculpture of Diana the Huntress, original
in the Louvre.
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