János Scholz (December 20, 1903 – June 3, 1993) was a Hungarian-born American cellist and art collector.

Early life

Scholz was born in 1903 in

Sopron Sopron (; german: Ödenburg, ; sl, Šopron) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő. History Ancient times-13th century When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a ...

, Hungary. He graduated from the

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

in Budapest.

Career

Scholz began playing the cello with the

Budapest Symphony Orchestra The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (also known earlier as Budapest Symphony Orchestra) ( hu, Magyar Rádió Szimfonikus Zenekara; MRZE) is a Hungarian radio orchestra. It is part of the Hungarian Television and Broadcasting Organisation, Mag ...

. He joined the Roth Quartet in 1932. By 1933, he was a cellist in New York City. He became "one of the great cellists of the twentieth century." He also taught at

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 Manha ...

and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

. Scholz began his Italian Art collection in 1935 which grew to 1500 drawings. Representing drawings of both major and minor artists of Italy they are noted for the quality of individual works and the comprehensive nature. In 1973, he donated the works, including "drawings by

Pisanello Pisanello (c. 1380/1395c. 1450/1455), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattroc ...

, Veronese, Titian,

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The ...

, and Piranesi", to

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th ...

. Scholz conducted seminars for New York University Institute of Fine Arts, Columbia University and the New School for Social Research providing rare first hand contact with works through his collection. Many exhibitions were organized in the U.S., Canada and Italy.

Personal life and death

Scholz was married twice. His first wife was Anne Bigelow Rosen. His second wife, Helen Marshall Schelling, was the widow of conductor

Ernest Schelling Ernest Henry Schelling (July 26, 1876 – December 8, 1939) was an American pianist, composer, and conductor, and music director. He was the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1935 to 1937. Biography He was born in Belvidere, ...

. They resided on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street (Man ...

in Manhattan, New York City. Scholz had two sons with Anne Bigelow Rosen and one with Helen Marshall Schelling. Scholz died on June 3, 1993 in New York City, at age 89.

Art collecting and Philanthropy

Scholz assembled a large collection of Italian drawings, acquiring, in 1939, theatre-related drawings from Michael Mayr, and, in 1944, 1000 Italian drawings, including 49 Bibienas. In 1973 Scholz offered to bequeath his collection to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Scholz also donated more than 5,000 photographs to the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame as well as works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2016 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 100 ...

reached a settlement with the family of Michael Berolzheimer, a Jewish art collector who had been persecuted by the Nazis, for a drawing of a stag that Scholz had gifted to the museum.

Selected works

* *Italian Master Drawings, 1350-1800, From The Janos Scholz Collection, Selected And Described by Janos Scholz

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scholz, Janos 1903 births 1993 deaths People from Sopron People from the Upper East Side Hungarian emigrants to the United States Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni American cellists American art collectors 20th-century cellists