He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree in geology and art history in 1886 and an LL.B. in 1889.[1] While he was studying at Harvard, he lived at Beck Hall,[4] and he was a member of the Porcellian Club.[1]
Career
Winthrop co-founded a law firm in New York City with James B. Ludlow and Frederick Philips.[1][2] He retired in 1896.[1]
Philanthropy
Winthrop restored a number of buildings in Lenox, Massachusetts, namely the Church on the Hill, a Congregational church; the Lenox Academy, later known as the Lenox Academy; and the Colonial Courthouse, which houses the Lenox Library as a result of his patronage.[2] Subsequently, Winthrop served as the President of the Lenox Library.[2]
Winthrop served as the President of the Women's Hospital in New York City from 1915 to 1941.[2]
Art collection
Winthrop was an "internationally known art collector."[5] He was influenced from an early age by Charles Eliot Norton and his nephew, Francis Bullard, two prominent art collectors from Boston.[2] He was assisted in assembling his collection by Martin Birnbaum, an art dealer from New York City.[1][6] Winthrop never lent any of his artwork to museums.[7] When he showed visitors around his collection, he pretended to be the butler.[8]
Winthrop's collection amounted to 4,000 objects by the time of his death.[1][7]
Winthrop served on the Visiting Committee of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University for twelve years.[2]
Personal life
Winthrop married Mary Tallmadge Trevor in 1892.[1] They had two daughters, Emily and Katherine.[1] In New York City, they resided in a townhouse in Murray Hill, Manhattan, until they moved to 15 East 81st Street on the Upper East Side.[1] They summered at Groton Place, a 150-acre estate spreading across the Baldhead Mountain in Lenox, Massachusetts, whose main house was designed by Carrère and Hastings and whose grounds included 500 peacocks and pheasants.[5][9] His wife predeceased him in 1900.[1] His daughters were educated by private tutors; despite his attentive parenting, they both eloped with the help: one with a chauffeur, the other one with an electrician.[1][7]
Winthrop was described by art critic Richard Dorment as "a figure straight out of the pages of Henry James."[7]
Winthrop bequeathed his art collection to the Fogg Art Museum at his alma mater, Harvard University.[1] His will had a clause whereby the museum could only lend his artwork to other museums if they donated US$100,000 to the Foundling Hospital in New York City.[7] In the early 2000s, as inflation meant that the sum was less colossal than in 1937, the university decided to donated the sum to the hospital and plan a worldwide exhibition.[7] By 2003-2004, his entire art collection was exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France, followed by the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[1] The exhibit was called "A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L Winthrop Collection, Harvard University."[7]
^ abcdefghijForbes, Edward W.; Sachs, Paul J. (November 1943). "Grenville Lindall Winthrop". Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum. 10 (2): 26–28. JSTOR4301116.
^Freiberg, Malcolm (1979). "Frederic Winthrop". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 91 (3): 26–28. JSTOR25080853.