Florence Meyer Blumenthal (1875–1930) was a philanthropist who founded the Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal (Franco-American Florence Blumenthal Foundation), which awarded the Prix Blumenthal from 1919-1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians — to promote Franco- American relations.[1]
For their altruism, Florence Blumenthal and her husband George Blumenthal received the French Legion of Honor in 1929.[1] Both a street as well as a public square in Paris are named in her honor.
Contents |
Born in Los Angeles in 1875 was the third of eight children[1] of Eugene Meyer, dry goods merchant from Strasbourg, France and Harriet Newmark Meyer, daughter of Joseph Newmark, who founded New York’s Elm Street Synagogue.[2] Blumenthal's younger brother Eugene Meyer Jr. became the president and publisher of the Washington Post[1] (and was the father of Katherine Graham, editor of the Washington Post during Watergate).[3] In 1898, Florence Blumenthal married international financier George Blumenthal.[1] In 1919, she organized the La Fondation américaine Blumenthal pour la pensée et l’art français (American Foundation for French Art and Thought) in Paris to discover young French artists, aid them financially, and in the process draw the United States and France closer together through art, thought, and literature.[1]
In 1925, Blumenthal moved to Paris with her husband, later donating to the Children’s Hospital in Paris the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Sorbonne in Paris. She and her husband received the French Legion of Honor in 1929,[1] and Blumenthal died of bronchial pneumonia at her home in Paris on September 21, 1930, at age fifty-five.[1]
Washington Post editor Katharine Graham described her aunt, known within the family as Florie, as having a perfect figure and for "bringing home massive amounts of clothing from Paris."[4] Blumenthal was also related to the Levi Strauss family through her older sisters, Rosalie and Elise, each of whom had married a nephew of Strauss'.[4]
The Blumenthals summered in France or on yachts in the Mediterranean[3] and were noted for their residences, Knollwood Club in the Adirondacks, their mansion in New York (half a city block and had an indoor tiled swimming pool)[4][5] as well as their mansion in Paris, for which an entire wing was built to house a new organ.[4]
In 1907, she and her husband were injured in an automobile accident in Paris, where George Blumenthal received a bad cut on his face.[6] The Blumenthals had one son, who died at an early age.[5]
Blumenthal died on September 21, 1930, at age fifty-five, of bronchial pneumonia at home in Paris.[2]
In 2010 (May 14-June 5), the Médiathèque of Haguenau hosted an exhibit of the Florence Blumenthal archives.[7]
Born in Frankfurt am Main,[8] George Blumenthal a foreign-exchange banker who had been sent to the United States by Speyer & Co.,[8] rose to prominence as the head of the U.S branch of Lazard Frères and was a partner of Lazard Frères in France. Blumenthal was president of the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York,[9] where he donated $2mil and where the Blumenthal auditorium is named after him. He was a trustee of the Museum of Art for many years as well as president of the American Hospital of Paris. He served as the seventh president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1934 until his death in 1941, where he gave $1mil[8] and where he funded the colonnaded Spanish Renaissance patio.[10] He retired from Lazard in 1901, giving up his seat on the stock exchange, and returned as a partner in 1906. He returned to the stock exchange in 1916, purchasing a seat for $63,000.[11] With J. P. Morgan the elder, he was one of five bankers who saved Grover Cleveland from giving up specie payments in 1896, with their $65,000,000 gold loans.[8]
His niece, Katherine Graham, in her memoir Personal History, described her uncle as a "difficult man with a big ego." He and Florence also named the Blumenthal Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which contains rare and illustrated books, manuscripts, Haggadot, as a resource for scholarly research.[12]
After the death of Florence Blumenthal, George Blumenthal married Mrs. Mary (Marion) Clews, the former Miss Mary Ann Payne of New York, and widow of James Clews, banker — in December 1935 at age 77.[13] The two later endowed the George and Marion Blumenthal Research Scholarships awarded annually for demonstrated merit in community arts leadership by the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California.
The Prix Blumenthal (or Blumenthal Prize) was a grant or stipend awarded through the Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal (Franco-American Florence Blumenthal Foundation), which Florence Blumenthal had founded. Grants were given from 1919-1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.
Juries including Paul Signac and Aristide Maillol,[1] awarded a Prix Blumenthal purse of six thousand francs per year for two years. This was increased from 1926 until her death in 1930 to ten thousand francs a year.
From 1919 to 1954 nearly two hundred artists received grants,[1] including in 1921 Georges Migot (1891–1976), composer, painter, and a carver; in 1926 Paul Belmondo, sculptor; also in 1926 Paule Marrot, textile artist;[14] in 1930 Robert Couturier, sculptor; in 1934 Jean Oberlé, painter and in 1941 Jean Follain, author and poet.
As an example of the impact of the Prix Blumenthal, textile artist Paule Marrot received the stipend in 1928, which allowed Marrot to open her workshop in Batignolles on rue Truffaut — where she became widely known for furniture textiles.[15] Marrot went on to experience strong popularity and commercial success in the U.S. after World War II, made a strong impact at Renault in pioneering the company's textile and color division, and redefined furnishing fabrics in France. In 1952 Marrot won in 1952, the French Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor), (Chevalier) — and her textiles continue under license to diverse companies including Nike, Anthropologie and the handbag maker, Hayden-Harnett.[15]
