Maxim Karolik (November 21, 1893 – December 20, 1963), born in what is now Ukraine, he became a featured tenor for the Imperial Russian Grand Opera (later known as the Petrograd Grand Opera). He toured in Europe as a young man. He left Russia during the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

and moved to the United States to continue study of music. There he met and married Martha Catharine Codman, from one of Boston, Massachusetts's wealthiest families. He became a noted collector of early American art, and the couple were influential in promoting eighteenth and nineteenth American art and antiques. In 1939 and 1947 they made valuable donations of their collections to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where a new wing was built and named for them.

Early life

Maxim Karolik was born on November 21, 1893 in Akkerman, Ukraine. He became a professional opera singer, and made his debut as a tenor at the old Imperial Russian Grand Opera, later known as the Petrograd Opera. He toured in Europe, including to Italy, England, and other countries, and made his debut in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1924. Because of the Bolshevik Revolution, he left Russia during the unrest. He moved to the United States to continue his study of music. In 1927 in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

Karolik met Martha Catharine Codman, a wealthy socialite who was 30 years older than he. With homes in the capital and

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

, she was said to be worth $25 million to $40 million. She was a daughter of J. Amory Codman and his wife Martha Pickman Rogers Codman of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Karolik and Codman married on February 2, 1928 in the French Riviera.

Marriage and collecting career

Over the following decades, Karolik and his wife Martha became noted collectors of eighteenth and nineteenth century American antiques, furnishings, and

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

. The furniture was mostly made in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, in the period 1720-1820. They were guided in their purchases by specialists at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Karoliks donated some 300 pieces of their collection to the museum in 1939, during the late years of the Great Depression. It was then valued at $400,000, and had a pre-Depression value of $1,000,000. Mrs.Karolik had inherited many of the pieces of silver, engravings, and other artifacts from her colonial ancestors. The collection was so large that the museum built a new wing to house it, naming it the Karolik wing. Karolik and his wife are considered largely responsible for spurring mid-20th century interest in

19th-century American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arch ...

of the period 1815-1865, what was once called the "barren period". In January 1947 the couple donated some 225 paintings from this period, which they had collected over a period of two decades, to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Their collection featured such notable artists as

Washington Allston Washington Allston (November 5, 1779 – July 9, 1843) was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for ...

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not ...

, Chester Harding, Martin Johnson Heade,

George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was a prominent American landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the Hudson River School at the s ...

Eastman Johnson Jonathan Eastman Johnson (July 29, 1824 – April 5, 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance. He was best known for his genre paintings, paintings of ...

Fitz Henry Lane Fitz Henry Lane (born Nathaniel Rogers Lane, also known as Fitz Hugh Lane) (December 19, 1804 – August 14, 1865) was an American painter and printmaker of a style that would later be called Luminism, for its use of pervasive light. Biography ...

Rembrandt Peale Rembrandt Peale (February 22, 1778 – October 3, 1860) was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Peale's style w ...

, and

Thomas Sully Thomas Sully (June 19, 1783November 5, 1872) was a portrait painter in the United States. Born in Great Britain, he lived most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He painted in the style of Thomas Lawrence. His subjects included nation ...

. Also among their purchases was the notable American textile, the Pictorial Quilt 1898 created by

Harriet Powers Harriet Powers (October 29, 1837 – January 1, 1910) was an American folk artist and quilter. Born into slavery in rural northeast Georgia, she married young and had a large family. After the American Civil War and emancipation, she and her hu ...

(MFA accession no. 64.619), a Georgia woman who was born into slavery. It is one of two surviving quilts by Powers, considered a top Southern artist of the nineteenth century. The Karoliks donated the quilt to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The other quilt is held and displayed by the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Personal life

While regularly spending time in Washington and Boston, the Karoliks lived full-time in

. They also traveled extensively. Martha Codman Karolik died in 1948. Afterward Karolik gave a third large donation of collected art works to the Museum of Fine Arts. He also returned to music. Karolik recorded ''Russian Art Songs'' (1958), thirty songs collected in a three-album set from Unicorn Records in Boston. A 48-page book was included with the album set. It had an introductory essay by

Nicholas Slonimsky Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (russian: Никола́й Леони́дович Сло́нимский), was a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer. B ...

titled "Russian Music in Art Songs." In 1963 Karolik traveled from Newport to New York for a meeting to arrange lectures and other events related to his art philanthropy. He died on December 20, 1963 at

Trafalgar Hospital Trafalgar Hospital was a 145-bed private hospital, private Nonprofit organization, nonprofit institution at 161 East 90th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. The building previously housed three other hospitals, including the Pan American Hospit ...

in Manhattan.

Early life

Marriage and collecting career

Personal life

References

Further reading