Sarah Campbell Blaffer (née Campbell; August 27, 1885 May 13, 1975) was an American philanthropist and contributor to the art collection of the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

. She inherited two fortunes based on oil money – one from her father's investments in

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...

, and the other from her husband's investments in

Humble Oil Humble Oil and Refining Co. was an American oil company founded in 1911 in Humble, Texas. In 1919, a 50% interest in Humble was acquired by the Standard Oil of New Jersey which acquired the rest of the company in September 1959. The Humble bran ...

Early life

She was born on August 27, 1885, to William Thomas Campbell and his wife Sarah Turnbull in

Waxahachie, Texas Waxahachie ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,140 in 2020. The city was founded in 1850, and incorporated in 1871. Much of the employment is provided by a number of industries and by ...

. William Thomas Campbell co-founded the

Texas Company Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company until its ...

. She attended school at a convent in

Lampasas, Texas Lampasas ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lampasas County, Texas, United States. Its population was 7,291 at the 2020 census. Lampasas is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood metropolitan area, Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Kil ...

, before matriculating at the

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded o ...

Philanthropy

In 1964, Blaffer created the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Its mission of sending works of art on tour to make them more accessible to people who live in smaller communities. The foundation assembled collections of

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, a ...

etchings and

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

engravings, and also amassed a collection of Italian Renaissance paintings and a collection of early modern paintings from the Netherlands. Notably, Blaffer also owned

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

's abstract ''No. 7'' (1951). Blaffer is the namesake of the

Blaffer Art Museum Blaffer Art Museum is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in the Arts District of the University of Houston campus. Housed in the university’s Fine Arts Building, it is part of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. It was ...

at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

. The non-collecting contemporary art museum was founded in 1973 and is housed within the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts at the university. Some of its early activities consisted of loaning works of arts for travelling expositions within Texas. In 2000, the

(MFAH) established permanent display space for part of the Blaffer Foundation Collection. These are housed in five different galleries of MFAH’s Beck Building.

Personal life

In 1909, she married

Robert Lee Blaffer The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

, one of the co-founders of

. The couple had four children, including arts patron Jane Blaffer Owen.OWEN, JANE BLAFFER 1915, 2010
obituary. ''The New York Times'', 4 July 2010. Retrieved 2023-07-06.

Death

Blaffer died in Houston on May 13, 1975.

References

External links

Sarah “Sadie” Campbell Blaffer on ''Find a grave''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaffer, Sarah Campbell 1885 births 1975 deaths Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumni 20th-century American philanthropists