Janice H. Levin (1913–2001) was an American businesswoman and philanthropist and art collector from New York City. She was a patron of the ballet and collected mostly French

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

paintings. She was a supporter of higher education as well as charities in Israel. She donated many of her paintings to museums.

Early life

Janice Hoffman was born on July 3, 1913, in Manhattan, New York CIty, United States.Enid Nemy
Janice Levin, 87, Philanthropist of the Arts
'' The New York Times'', March 27, 2001 Her father was Samuel Hoffman and her mother, Rene Hoffman. She attended

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

and New York University.

Philanthropy

She served as the President of the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation. Via the

Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is a non-profit 501(c)(3), non-partisan organization dedicated to enhancing the United States' image abroad through American art. Founded as a public-private partnership in 1986, FAPE ...

, she made a charitable contribution for the design of a sculpture garden on the grounds of

Winfield House Winfield House is an English townhouse in Regent's Park, central London and the official residence of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The grounds are , the second-largest private garden in London after that of Buckingham ...

, the official residence of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in London. It includes two bronzes by Polish-born Jewish American sculptor Elie Nadelman: ''Seated Woman with Raised Arm'' (c.1924.) and ''Seated Woman with Raised Arm'' (c.1924).Sculptural Diplomacy
'' Sculpture'', September 2001 - Vol.20 No.7 It was designed by landscape architect

Morgan Wheelock Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singe ...

and dedicated on October 12, 2000. Janice also served on the board of trustees of the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...

. In 2000, she endowed the Janice Levin Dancer Award at the New York City Ballet, a fellowship given to a dancer of its corps de ballet every year. She was also a donor to the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. She paid for the tuition of Israeli-born Magda Fishman at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

. Fishman now serves as the cantor a
B'nai Torah Congregation
in

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

. She was a donor to the New York University School of Medicine, where she established the Janice H. Levin Student Scholarship Fund and served on its Foundation Board from 1998 to 2001.Paid Notice: Deaths LEVIN, JANICE H.
''The New York Times'', March 25, 2001 The James Michael Levin Playground in Central Park is named after her late son. The Janice H. Levin Building as well as the Philip J. Levin Theater on the campus of Rutgers University in

Piscataway, New Jersey Piscataway () is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, in the Raritan Valley. At the 2010 United States Census, the population was 56,044, an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) fr ...

, are the result of charitable donations made by Levin. Her philanthropy extended to Israel. She was a donor to the Israel Education Fund of the United Jewish Communities. She also made charitable contributions to the American Friends of the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

and the American Friends of The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 1960s, she established the Janice H. and Philip J. Levin Music Center in

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

through a charitable gift made to the Tel Aviv Foundation, the fundraising arm of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

.Janice H. and Philip J. Levin Music Center
The center gives music lessons to 1510 children from the greater Tel Aviv area, be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim, four times a week.

Art collection

Portraits at the Stock Exchange MET DT1044

Levin collected mostly French impressionist paintings.A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 29, 2002 Her extensive art collection included paintings by

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...

Eugène Boudin Eugène Louis Boudin (; 12 July 18248 August 1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His pastels, summa ...

, Edgar Degas,

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). H ...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that " ...

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the l ...

Édouard Vuillard Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior s ...

, etc. Janice had knowledge of many Impressionist paintings, and because of this she gave the Metropolitan Museum of Art three of the most influential Impressionist paintings. Those paintings were Sisley's ''Saburs Meadows in the Morning Sun,'' Camille Pissarro's '' Côte des Grouettes,'' and Edgar Degas's ''Portraits at the Stock Exchange.'' With the help of her husband, Philip Levin, they were able to be donors of art as well as collectors. She served as an Honorary Trustee of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

(Met) in New York City from 1993 to 2001. Indeed, she donated paintings by Degas, Pissarro and Sisley to the Met in New York City. She also donated paintings to the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

in New York City, including, ''On the Cliff at Pourville, Clear Weather'' (1882). An early painting by Monet, ''The Artist's Garden in Argenteuil (A Corner of the Garden with Dahlias)'' (1873) was given to the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, from her collection. ''Le Déjeuner'', a 1923 painting by Bonnard, was acquired by Levin in 1971. It was auctioned by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...

in New York City in 2006 and it is now at the

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another o ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. Similarly, she auctioned ''La Seine à Vernon'' by Bonnard at Christie's to endow her family foundation.Christie's: PIERRE BONNARD (1867-1947): LA SEINE À VERNON
/ref> In 2002, the Met staged an exhibition of Levin's collection, the catalogue for which was published as ''The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art'' by the

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univer ...

and edited by

Richard Shone Richard Shone (born 1949) is a British art historian and art critic specializing in British modern art, and from 2003–15 was the editor of ''The Burlington Magazine''. Career At age 16, Shone was already well enough connected in the Brit ...

of ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation sin ...

''.The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art
/ref> The exhibition took place at the Met from November 19, 2002, through February 9, 2003.

Personal life

She married Philip J. Levin (died 1971), a lawyer and real estate developer. They had two sons,

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

and James Michael; and two daughters, Catherine. and Susan. Adam Levin was the founder of Credit.com and Cyberscout, and

Susan Tepper 'Susan Tepper'' (August 30, 1943 – February 18, 1991) was an American Neo-Expressionist and Figurative painter. Early life and education Susan Tepper was born Susan Levin on August 30, 1943, in Plainfield, New Jersey, the daughter of Philip ...

was a well-regarded artist. They resided on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 populatio ...

in Manhattan, East Hampton and

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intraco ...

. One of their granddaughters,

Arielle Tepper Madover Arielle Tepper is a theater and film producer, native New Yorker, and founder of the concierge service, WhatShouldWeDo?! She also serves as the Board Chair for The Public Theater in New York. Tepper has won six Tony Awards. Early life Arielle Te ...

, is a Broadway producer. In 2002, a pair of diamonds by

Van Cleef & Arpels Van Cleef & Arpels is a French high-end luxury jewelry company. It was founded in 1896 by the Dutch diamond-cutter Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law Salomon Arpels in Paris. Their pieces often feature flowers, animals, and fairies, and ha ...

in 1968 was sold from her estate for US$1,659,500.Kat Harriman
Brilliant!
'' W'', December 22, 2014

Death

She died on March 23, 2001, in Palm Beach, Florida. She was eighty-seven years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, Janice 1913 births 2001 deaths People from Manhattan People from East Hampton (town), New York People from Palm Beach, Florida Hunter College alumni New York University alumni American philanthropists American art collectors Women art collectors People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City Ballet Rutgers University people Philanthropists from New York (state)