Robert Hudson Tannahill (April 1, 1893 – September 25, 1969) was a Detroit art collector and benefactor.

Early life

Tannahill was a nephew of department store magnate

Joseph Lowthian Hudson Joseph Lowthian Hudson (October 17, 1846 – July 5, 1912), a.k.a. J. L. Hudson, was the merchant who founded the Hudson's department store in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson also supplied the seed capital for the establishment, in 1909, of Roy D. Cha ...

and a cousin of Eleanor Clay Ford, wife of Henry Ford's only son Edsel. He was the only son of Robert Blyth Tannahill and Anna Elizabeth Hudson. His father, Robert Blyth Tannahill (born in Detroit in 1863) in 1889 joined J. L. Hudson in the retail trade; married Anna Elizabeth Hudson who was one of three sisters of J. L. Hudson; by 1900, served as vice-president of the successful J. L. Hudson Department Store. Robert Hudson Tannahill was born and grew-up in the William Van Moore/Robert Blyth Tannahill Home located in 67 Peterboro in the Peterboro-Charlotte Historic District in Midtown Detroit, built in 1882.

Art Collector

Tannahill donated 475 works of art donated during his lifetime plus cash totaling $550,000 to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). The museum received 557 additional works bequeathed upon his death that were valued at approximately $13,000,000. His total gifts constitute a major portion of the permanent collection of the DIA. One of the paintings that Tannahill bequeathed to the DIA,

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by Vincent Van Gogh, was the object of a restitution claim from the heirs of Martha Nathan, who had owned the painting before fleeing Nazi Germany. The DIA hired provenance researchers to conduct an 18 month study into the history of the painting, which Tannahill had acquired in 1941, and when they concluded that the Van Gogh had not been looted by Nazis, the DIA's legal team filed a "quiet title" lawsuit against the heirs. The museum successfully invoked a statute of limitations and retained custody of the painting. Tannahill served as a member of the City of Detroit Arts Commission from 1930 to 1962 and was instrumental in establishing the Detroit Artists Market. His collection focused on 19th- and 20th-century artists including

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

Edgar 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 es ...

, Paul Gauguin, Juan Gris, Paul Klee,

John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Biography Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth, ...

, Henri Matisse,

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...

, Claude Monet, Georgia O'Keeffe,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

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and Georges Seurat. His collection also included a significant number of African sculptures.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tannahill, Robert Hudson American art collectors American philanthropists People from Detroit 1969 deaths 1893 births People associated with the Detroit Institute of Arts