Page 17 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

THE WIDENER PORCELAINS

HE CHINESE PORCELAINS collected by Peter A. B. Widener and his son, Joseph Widener, with one exception,
were made in the Kangxi (1662-1772) and later reigns of the Qing dynasty, or roughly from the late
T seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. They were only a part of the splendid and large gift made
to the National Gallery by these Founding Benefactors in 1940. The decorative arts in the collection were includ-
ed at the insistence of Joseph Widener and as a condition of the entire gift, although some categories, like
Chinese porcelains, had no place in Andrew Mellon's original plan. Because the Widener paintings and sculpture
were too important to lose, a concession was made to accept the decorative arts objects. When the National
Gallery opened in 1941, the Widener porcelains were displayed as they are today, in mirrored, lighted cases and
in the same galleries.
Peter A. B. Widener was born in Philadelphia in 1834. As a butcher working in a south Philadelphia
slaughterhouse, he first made money selling meat to the Union army. In later years he made millions in trolley
cars. He and his son, Joseph, were friends of the distinguished Philadelphia collector, John G. Johnson, and John
Walker suggests that "the motivation for his collecting was directly related to Philadelphia society. He wished to
rise above their snobbery on the wings of his art collection." l
Peter died in 1915, leaving the disposition of his collection to Joseph, who had helped his father in its
formation. Joseph continued to collect for the family homestead, Lynnewood Hall. Much later, in the 19305, he
arranged with Andrew Mellon for the incorporation of the entire collection into the National Gallery of Art.
Before his death in 1943, he saw the collection formed by two generations of his family removed from Lynnewood
Hall and installed in the Gallery.
The Wideners, Peter and Joseph, were representative of that early generation of very rich men who
brought to this country the best they could buy from Europe to establish their own private collections, which
eventually came to enrich American public institutions. These men probably had a variety of motivations. While
prestigious art collectors were a class unto themselves, they were individually very different in personality, style
of collecting, and degree of dedication. For some, considerations of investment or social status may have played
a part in acquisition. Others had or developed an authentic aesthetic interest, even a passion. Most relied, to a
greater or lesser degree, on the guidance of scholars and the advice of dealers. While making use of expert opin-
ions, a number of these collectors spent much personal time and effort in the pursuit of information, knowledge,
and taste. There were, of course, differing degrees of achievement and a mixture of motives in the considerable
activity of the art collectors of the time. The range was from accumulator to connoisseur.
Yet the generation of collectors to which the Wideners belonged had enough in common to allow cer-
tain generalizations to be made. Enormous prices were paid in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
for certain classes of art. Fashion and rivalry may have played a part, as well as availability. Dealers "discovered"
and "pushed" accordingly. There were certain landmark sales. Renaissance paintings and sculpture were pur-
chased by Widener, Frick, Altman, Rockefeller, Bache, and others.
To create the ambiance deemed appropriate to such major works, collectors chose as accompaniments
tapestries, furniture, oriental rugs, and European and oriental porcelain, as well as cabinet pieces such as rock
crystals, enamels, jewels, and glass. Because these objects played a secondary role, Chinese porcelain, for exam-
ple, was not studied with the same fervor as Italian painting. The interest of the collector, in spite of the high

W I D E N E R P O R C E L A I N S 1