Page 12 - Metropolitan Museum Collection September 2016

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JUNIOR (1874-1960)

While some of the pieces acquired by Widener are now in the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and those acquired by Frick remained in
the Frick Collection, some of J.P. Morgan’s Chinese ceramics were returned
to the Metropolitan Museum thanks to the generous benefaction of John D.
Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) (fg. 5). ‘Junior’ was the only son and principal
heir of John D. Rockefeller Senior, the founder of Standard Oil. He was
a devout and self-effacing man, who initially, after graduating from Brown
University, worked with his father but discovered that he was not suited to
the cut and thrust of high-powered business. He therefore devoted himself to
philanthropy – frst on his father’s behalf and then on his own. He was hard-
working and his honesty and diplomacy won him the admiration of many
when, in 1915, he stepped in to restore calm after the ‘Ludlow Massacre’
at Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron. He was a passionate advocate of
conservation and his benevolence helped to create a number of America’s
National Parks, as well as the preservation of colonial Williamsburg. He was
additionally anxious to promote international understanding and, amongst
other projects, John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded the purchase of the land on
which the United Nations Headquarters complex was constructed.

The sale of the Morgan Chinese ceramics in 1913 seems to have really
awoken Rockefeller’s interest in the subject. He was offered items from the
collection by the art dealer Joseph Duveen on behalf of the heirs, and wished
to purchase so many that he had to ask his father, John D. Rockefeller Senior,
for a loan of some US$2 million. His father gave him the money. Thereafter
Rockefeller junior undertook personal study and committed himself to
acquiring only the fnest pieces for his collection, which he kept in his New
York home and at the Rockefeller estate in Sleepy Hollow.

Rockefeller had a preference for overglaze enamelled porcelains of the famille
verte, famille noire, and famille jaune groups. Indeed, his two earliest
purchases were two famille noire vases, and he noted: ‘I was fascinated by
them, and soon bought more.’ When Rockefeller died in 1960 he bequeathed
a number of these Chinese ceramics to the Metropolitan Museum. These
included two of the famille verte vases to be sold by Christie’s New York this
September [Lot 870], one of which had been purchased from the J.P. Morgan
collection [Lot 872].

Lot 872 Lot 870
10
Fig. 5. John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. (1839-1937), son of J.D. Rockefeller,
photographed upon his return from Egypt, March 29th, 1929. Culver
Pictures/The Art Archive at Art Resource, New York.