Charles Bierer Wrightsman (June 13, 1895 – May 27, 1986) was an American oil executive and arts patron. His second wife,

Jayne Jayne is a name. Surname *Billy Jayne, American television and film actor * Caroline Furness Jayne (1873–1909), American ethnologist * Erika Jayne, American dance/club music performer * Francis Jayne (1845–1921), British bishop and academic * H ...

was also an arts patron.

Personal life

Charles Bierer Wrightsman was born on June 13, 1895, in

Pawnee, Oklahoma Pawnee (Pawnee language, Pawnee: Paári, ) is a city and county seat of Pawnee County, Oklahoma, Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The town is northeast of Stillwater, Oklahoma, Stillwater at the junction of U.S. Route 64 in Oklahoma, U.S. ...

. He was the son of Charles John Wrightsman (1868–1959), an Oklahoma oilman and lawyer, and Edna (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Wrightsman) Wrightsman (1872–1950). He attended

Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, then transferred to

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, joining the class of 1918. He became president of Standard Oil of Kansas. He married twice, first to Irene Dill Stafford (1896–1960), with whom he had two daughters: Irene Wrightsman and Charlene Stafford Wrightsman (1927–1963) the latter of whom, like her father, would also marry twice, first to actor

Helmut Dantine Helmut Dantine (7 October 1918 – 2 May 1982) was an Austrian-American actor who often played Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. His best-known performances are perhaps the German pilot in ''Mrs. Miniver'' and the desperate Bulgarian ref ...

and second to newspaper columnist

Igor Cassini Count Igor Cassini Loiewski (September 15, 1915 – January 5, 2002) was a Russian-American syndicated gossip columnist for the Hearst newspaper chain. He was one of the journalists to write the '' Cholly Knickerbocker'' column. Career He was ...

. Wrightsman's second wife was the above-noted Jayne Kirkman Larkin (1919–2019). Wrightsman had homes in London and Palm Beach at which he frequently hosted

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

. Wrightsman died at his home on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

on May 27, 1986.

Art collection

On retirement, he used his money to buy artworks for his private collection and for the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, most notably donating

Gerard David Gerard David ( – 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been the Meester ghera ...

's '' Virgin and Child with Four Angels'' and Vermeer's '' Portrait of a Young Woman'', along with works by

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; 5 March 1696 – 27 March 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an import ...

Georges de La Tour Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chia ...

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

and

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

. He also funded the Museum's eight Wrightsman Rooms, furnished and decorated in the 18th century French style, and three further galleries for objets-d'art and furniture from that period. In 1961 he successfully bid $392,000 for

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, an ...

's ''

Portrait of the Duke of Wellington ''Portrait of the Duke of Wellington'' may refer to: * ''Portrait of the Duke of Wellington'' (Goya), a painting by Francisco de Goya * ''Portrait of the Duke of Wellington'' (Lawrence), a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence * ''Portrait of the Duke of ...

''. However, the

UK government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

blocked the purchase and the painting was instead sold to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

in London to enable it to stay in the United Kingdom.

Polo

In the 1930s, Wrightsman was known as a tournament

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

player and the owner of championship polo ponies.

References

External links

A Guide to the Wrightsman Galleries
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wrightsman 1895 births 1986 deaths American philanthropists American art collectors American businesspeople in the oil industry People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Columbia College (New York) alumni Stanford University alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni