Paul Joseph Sachs (November 24, 1878 – February 18, 1965) was an American investor, businessman and museum director. Sachs served as associate director of the Fogg Art Museum and as a partner in the financial firm

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

. He is recognized for having developed one of the earliest museum studies courses in the United States.

Biography

Sachs was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, the eldest son of Louisa (née Goldman) and Samuel Sachs. His father having been a partner of the investment firm

, and his mother, the daughter of the firm's founder

Marcus Goldman Marcus Goldman (born Marcus Goldmann; December 9, 1821 – July 20, 1904) was a German American investment banker, businessman, and financier. He was the founder of Goldman Sachs, which has since become one of the world's largest investment ban ...

. He attended the Sachs School, which was founded by his uncle

Julius Sachs Julius Sachs (July 6, 1849 – February 2, 1934) was an American educator, founder of the Sachs Collegiate Institute who belongs to the Goldman–Sachs family of bankers. Sachs was born on July 6, 1849, in Baltimore. After taking his A.B. at ...

and which later became the

Dwight School Dwight School is a private independent for-profit college preparatory school located on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. Dwight offers the International Baccalaureate curriculum to students ages two through grade twelve. History Fou ...

. He then continued his education at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he graduated in 1900. As an undergraduate, Sachs collected prints and drawings with classmate Edward Waldo Forbes, who would eventually become director of

Fogg Museum of Art 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 ...

in 1909. After graduating, Sachs went to work in the family business, becoming a partner in 1904. Sachs had been making donations to the Fogg since 1911, then only a small art collection consisting mostly of out-of-fashion American paintings and primitive Italian works. In 1912, Sachs was appointed to the museum's Visiting Committee. Two years later, Forbes persuaded Sachs to leave his family business to become an assistant curator, despite Sachs having no curatorial background. Sachs spent that summer in Italy seeing as much art as possible before his arrival at Harvard in the autumn of 1915. Sachs began lecturing in

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

from 1916 to 1917 at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

where he had been appointed "Lecturer in Art." He was made an assistant professor in the Fine Arts department at Harvard in 1917. In 1922, he began his innovative course on museum curatorship titled "Fine Arts 15a: Museum Work and Museum Problems.", dealing with both curatorial and financial aspects of running a museum. He was appointed full professor in 1927. Sachs set about developing a program of museum education, developing students as what he termed the "connoisseur-scholar." One course was commonly called "the Print Course," which featured a seminar-style analysis of prints and drawings drawn largely from Sachs' own personal collection. From 1935 onward, he served regularly as chair of the Fine Arts department. In 1929, Sachs became one of seven founding members of 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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

and gave it its first drawing, a

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

portrait of the artist's mother. During World War II, Sachs, along with disciple George L. Stout, was one of the people who developed plans to safeguard American works of art during the war, and one who set in motion the task force (later known as the

Monuments Men The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFAA) was a program established by the Allies in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of about 400 service members and civilians worked ...

) of American military officers who rescued European art and architecture during the war. In 1945, Sachs retired together from Fogg, while he remained on the teaching faculty of Harvard until 1948 when he was named a professor emeritus.

Personal life and death

In 1904, he married Meta Pollak; they remained married until her death on December 25, 1960. They had three daughters: Elizabeth Pollak Weiss, Celia Robinson Stillwell (married to Charles Alexander Robinson Jr., and after his death to Richard Stillwell), and Marjorie Pickhardt Wilson. Sachs died in February 1965.

Legacy

Many of Sachs' students would go on to become leading figures in the fields of museum and art including Chick Austin, Alfred H. Barr Jr., Frederick B. Deknatel, Sydney Joseph Freedberg, George M.A. Hanfmann, Julien Levy,

Henry Plumer McIlhenny Henry Plumer McIlhenny (October 7, 1910 – May 11, 1986) was an American connoisseur of art and antiques, world traveler, socialite, philanthropist, curator, and chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Early days McIlhenny attended Harvard ...

, Agnes Mongan, Walter Pach, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., Perry T. Rathbone, and James Rorimer.

Honors

* Elected member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

: 1922 * Honorary Doctorate from

: 1942 * Elected member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

: 1947

References

External links