Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

At 67 years old, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney physical status not available right now. We will update Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1971), an American sculptor, art patron, and collector, as well as the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 1931.

She was a well-known social figure and hostess who was born into the wealthy Vanderbilt family and married into the Whitney family.

Early life

Gertrude Vanderbilt was born in New York City on January 9, 1875, the second daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899) and Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1852–1934), as well as a great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. She older sister died before Gertrude was born, but she and her younger brother and a younger sister grew up together. The family's New York City home, which also known as 1 West 57th Street, was an opulent mansion built on 742-748 Fifth Avenue. Gertrude spent her summers in Newport, Rhode Island, at the family's summer home, The Breakers, where she kept up with the boys in all their rigorous sporting activities. She was educated by private tutors and at the exclusive Brearley School for women students in New York City. She had small drawings and watercolor paintings in her personal journals, which were the first signs of an interest in the arts.

Gertrude Whitney discovered Montmartre and Montparnasse, France, during her early 1900s visit to Europe. What she saw inspired her to pursue her creativity and become a sculptor.

She attended the Art Students League of New York with Hendrik Christian Andersen and James Earl Fraser. Anna Vaughn Hyatt and Malvina Hoffman were among the other women students in her classes. She worked with Andrew O'Connor in Paris and Auguste Rodin had a lot of criticism. Her work with public monument sculptors inspired her later career. Despite the fact that her catalogs include several smaller sculptures, she is best known today for her monumental works.

Aspiration, a life-size male nude in plaster with a bronze plaque on display outside the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, 1901, she received her first public commission. She began working under an assumed name, afraid that she would be perceived as a socialite and that her profession would not be taken seriously. Neither her family nor (after her marriage) her husband were supportive of her decision to pursue her art as an artist. "Never expect Harry to take your work seriously," she told an artist friend. It never made a difference to him that I think as I do about art and it will never will be (except as a point of irritation). She believed that a man would have been more respected as an artist, and that her fortune put her in a lose-lose situation: critics would have criticized if she took commissions because other artists were more needed, but she was blamed for undercutting the market for other artists if she wasn't compensated.

Whitney first owned an apartment and studio in Greenwich Village, 1907. In Passy, a trendy Parisian suburb in the XVI arrondissement, she also established a studio.

By 1910, she was exhibiting her art in public under her own name. The 1910 National Academy of Design had Paganisme Immortel, a statue of a young girl seated on a rock with outstretched arms next to a male figure. In 1911, Spanish Peasant was accepted at the Paris Salon, and Aztec Fountain was given a bronze medal at the San Francisco Exhibition in 1915. In 1916, she had her first solo performance in New York City. In 1914, the 50-50 Art Sale was the first charity exhibition she curated.

Personal life

Gertrude had a close friend named Esther in her youth, with whom a number of love letters were revealed that revealed both her and her passions for a physical relationship that surpassed friendship. Esther was the niece of Richard Morris Hunt, the architect who designed Gertrude's family home in New York City and summer home, as well as several other Vanderbilt mansions in Newport, Rhode Island. When Esther kissed me," Gertrude thought it was one of the "thrills of my life" and her mother, Alice, was so worried about the friendship that she refused to visit Esther. The break seemed to have worked; while Esther continued to write heartbroken letters of longing, Gertrude went on to find a bevy of male beaux.

She married Harry Payne Whitney (1872–1930) at age 21 on August 25, 1896. Whitney, a banker and investor, was the son of William Collins Whitney, a lawyer, and Flora Payne, the daughter of former US President Robert Kennedy. Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio, as well as his sister, a Standard Oil Company magnate, and a Standard Oil Company magnate. Harry Whitney inherited a fortune in oil and tobacco as well as financial markets. The couple lived in town houses that were originally belonging to William Whitney, first at 2 East 57th St., across the street from Gertrude's parents, and then at 871 Fifth Avenue, New York, where William Whitney died. They had a country estate in Old Westbury, Long Island. Three children were born in Gertrude and Harry Whitney

Harry Whitney died of pneumonia at the age of 58, leaving his widow an estate worth $72 million. Gloria Vanderbilt, her ten-year-old niece, was at the center of a large court contest with her sister-in-law, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, for her custody of her ten-year-old niece in 1934. At the time of the custody war, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney did win custody of her niece.

Gertrude Whitney died on April 18, 1942, at the age of 67, and was laid to rest next to her husband in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. Her death was attributed to a heart disease, according to the official. Flora Whitney Miller assumed her mother's position as the head of the Whitney Museum, and her daughter, Flora Miller Biddle, took over her mother's position as the Whitney Museum's head curator, and Flora Miller Biddle was named after her.

Source