Charles Bierer Wrightsman (June 13, 1895 – May 27, 1986) was an American oil executive and arts patron. His second wife,

Jayne Jayne is used both as a surname and as a given name. Surname *Billy Jayne, American television and film actor *Caroline Furness Jayne (1873–1909), American ethnologist *Erika Jayne, American dance/club music performer *Francis Jayne (1845–192 ...

was also an arts patron.

Personal life

Charles Bierer Wrightsman was born on June 13, 1895, in

Pawnee, Oklahoma Pawnee (Pawnee: Paári, iow, Páñi Chína) is a city and county seat of Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The town is northeast of Stillwater at the junction of U.S. Route 64 and State Highway 18. It was named for the Pawnee tribe, wh ...

. He was the son of Charles John Wrightsman (1868–1959), an Oklahoma oilman and lawyer, and Edna (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Wrightsman) Wrightsman (1872–1950). He attended

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, then transferred to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, joining the class of 1918. He became president of Standard Oil of Kansas. He married twice, first to Irene Dill Stafford (1896–1960), with whom he had two daughters, Irene Wrightsman and Charlene Stafford Wrightsman (1927–1963) the latter of whom, like her father, would also marry twice, first to actor

Helmut Dantine Helmut Dantine (7 October 1918 – 2 May 1982) was an Austrian-American actor who often played Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. His best-known performances are perhaps the German pilot in ''Mrs. Miniver'' and the desperate refugee in ''C ...

and second to newspaper columnist

Igor Cassini Count Igor Cassini Loiewski (September 15, 1915 – January 5, 2002) was a Russian-American syndicated gossip columnist for the Hearst newspaper chain. He was the second journalist to write the ''Cholly Knickerbocker'' column. Career He was b ...

. His second wife was the above-noted Jayne Kirkman Larkin (1919–2019). Wrightsman had homes in London and Palm Beach at which he frequently hosted

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

. Wrightsman died at his home on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on May 27, 1986.

Art collection

On retirement, he used his money to buy artworks for his private collection and for the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, most notably donating

Gerard David Gerard David (c. 1460 – 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been the Meester ...

's ''

Virgin and Child with Four Angels ''Virgin and Child with Four Angels'' (or ''Virgin and Child with Angels'') is a small oil-on-panel painting by the Early Netherlandish artist Gerard David. Likely completed between 1510 and 1515, it shows the Virgin Mary holding the child Jes ...

'' and Vermeer's '' Portrait of a Young Woman'', along with works by

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an impo ...

Georges de La Tour Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chia ...

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

and

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

. He also funded the Museum's eight Wrightsman Rooms, furnished and decorated in the 18th century French style, and three further galleries for

objets-d'art In art history, the French term Objet d’art describes an ornamental work of art, and the term Objets d’art describes a range of works of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creati ...

and furniture from that period. In 1961 he successfully bid $392,000 for Goya's ''

Portrait of the Duke of Wellington The ''Portrait of the Duke of Wellington'' is a painting by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya of the British general Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, during the latter's service in the Peninsular War. One of three portraits Goya painte ...

''. However, the

UK government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

blocked the purchase and the painting was instead sold to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in London to enable it to stay in the United Kingdom.

Polo

In the 1930s, Wrightsman was known as a tournament polo player and the owner of championship polo ponies.

References

External links

A Guide to the Wrightsman Galleries
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wrightsman 1895 births 1986 deaths American philanthropists American art collectors American businesspeople in the oil industry People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Columbia College (New York) alumni Stanford University alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni