Felice Stampfle (25 July 1912 – 31 December 2000) was an American

Curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of Drawings and Prints at the

Morgan Library The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...

for nearly 40 years, and editor of the scholarly journal ''Master Drawings''.

Biography

Stampfle was born in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, in 1912. She received a BA in Art History and an MA in Art and Archaeology from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

. She attended Paul Sach's training class “Museum Work and Museum Problems” at the

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

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(1943–45). She was appointed the first Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Morgan Library by Pierpont Morgan's librarian and its first director,

Belle da Costa Greene Belle da Costa Greene (November 26, 1879 – May 10, 1950) was an American librarian who managed and developed the personal library of J. P. Morgan. After Morgan died in 1913, Greene continued as librarian for his son, Jack Morgan, and in 1 ...

, in 1945. As Curator, Stampfle oversaw acquisitions of art that more than doubled the size of the library's collection. She organised exhibitions that revealed the strengths of the collection, beginning in 1949 with an exhibition to showcase her discovery of more than 100 previously unknown sheets by

Giovanni Battista Piranesi Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric " ...

that had recently come to the Morgan from the collection of Frances Louise Tracey Morgan, wife of J. P. Morgan. In 1963, Stampfle founded the quarterly journal ''Master Drawings'' to promote the study and connoisseurship of drawings. She remained Editor until 1983. Beginning in 1965, Stampfle organized three seminal exhibitions of Italian drawings from New York collections in collaboration with Jacob Bean, curator of drawings at 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 ...

. Stampfle published widely on Dutch and Flemish art, and co-authored the catalogue to 'Rembrandt: Experimental Etcher', an exhibition organized in 1969 by the Morgan Library and the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

. In 1978, she published ''Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library'', a catalogue of the Morgan's Piranesi drawings. Stampfle retired in 1983, but continued to work on a large catalogue of the Morgan's fifteenth and sixteenth century Netherlandish drawings and seventeenth and eighteenth century Flemish drawings, published in 1991. Her catalogue, ''Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries. Vol. 2'', was written with

Jane Shoaf Turner Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name including list of persons and characters with the name * Jane (surname), related to the given name including list of persons and characters with the name Film and television * ''Jan ...

and published in 2006. Art work by Rembrandt and Dürer were gifted to the Morgan in Stampfle's honour. Stampfle was described by contemporaries as 'a formidable presence with a serious and unflappable demeanor'. She was a leader in a male-dominated field, and retained a formal manner - she was always addressed, even by her staff, as Miss Stampfle. She died at the age of 88 at her home in Kennet Square,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

References

External links

* 'The Women Who Made the Morgan: Belle da Costa Greene, Felice Stampfle, and Edith Porada': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQnz9P_tzcs {{DEFAULTSORT:Stampfle, Felice American art historians American women art historians 1912 births 2000 deaths People from Kansas City, Missouri Washington University in St. Louis alumni Harvard University people American women curators American curators