Bernice Marilla McIlhenny Wintersteen (June 16, 1903 – April 24, 1986) was an American arts patron and arts administrator. She was president of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
from 1964 to 1968.
Early life and education
Bernice "Bonnie" McIlhenny was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, the daughter of John Dexter McIlhenny and Frances Galbraith Plumer McIlhenny. Her father was an executive in the utilities industry. Her younger brother Henry Plumer McIhenny was a noted art collector, curator, and philanthropist.Richard, Paul "$100 Million Art Bequest" ''The Washington Post'' (May 21, 1986). She studied art with Arthur Beecher Carles, and graduated from
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
in 1925. In 1981 she was awarded the Smith College Medal, as an outstanding alumna.
Career
Wintersteen was a member of the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1937 to 1964, chair of the Board of Governors from 1959 to 1964, and president of the museum from 1964 to 1968. In 1969, the Bernice McIlhenny Wintersteen Student Center opened at the museum. She sold much of her art collections in the 1970s, but donated some paintings to the museum, and to the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. including paintings, pastels, and statues from
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
,
Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...
,
Toulouse-Lautrec
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the la ...
,
O'Keeffe
O'Keeffe ( ga, Ó Caoimh), also O'Keefe, Keef, Keefe, Keeffe, Keifer or Keever is the name of an Irish Gaelic clan based most prominently in what is today County Cork, particularly around Fermoy and Duhallow. The name comes from ''caomh'', mea ...
Rothko
Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Latv ...
, and
Bronzino
Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( it, Il Bronzino ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddis ...
.
Wintersteen was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 1964. She received the Gimbel Philadelphia Award in 1967. She chaired the Philadelphia Art Festival in 1967, and was president of the Friends of the Wissahickon from 1953 to 1956. She served on the advisory council of the Princeton University Museum of Art, chaired the visitors' committee of the Smith College Art Museum. She was also "the first woman elected an honorary fellow of the Philadelphia College of Physicians." She was a trustee of
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...
, and served on the
Bicentennial __NOTOC__
A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to:
Europe
*French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...
Committee of the city of Philadelphia. Illustrator
Jessie Willcox Smith
Jessie Willcox Smith (September 6, 1863 – May 3, 1935) was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of American illustration. She was considered "one of the greatest pure illustrators". A contributor to books and magazines during the lat ...
painted a portrait of Bonnie McIlhenny as a girl;
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
photographed her in her seventies.
Personal life
Bernice McIlhenny married lawyer John S. Wintersteen in 1929. They had four sons. Her husband died in 1952, and she died in 1986, at the age of 82, in Philadelphia. Her papers are in the archives of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
References
External links
*
George Platt Lynes
George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion photography, fashion and advertising, commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from ...