Theodore Pitcairn

Theodore Pitcairn (1893–1973), son of PPG Industries founder John Pitcairn, was an art collector and philanthropist, and a minister in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.[1]

Pitcairn purchased two paintings by Vincent van Gogh from the Montross Gallery in 1920. He is also known to have owned paintings by El Greco and Monet[2] as well as Egyptian antiquities.[3]

In 1927 he wrote a book titled The Book Sealed with Seven Seals with the purpose of introducing to the General Church certain new theological ideas proposed by a Dutch layman, H. D. G. Groeneveld.[4]

In the late 1930s, a doctrinal schism within the General Church centering on Groeneveld's ideas led Rev. Pitcairn and several other church members to found a new branch of The New Church known as The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma.[5]

In 1939, Rev. Pitcairn established a non-profit corporation for the purposes of promoting and maintaining the new church.[6]

The events of the Second World War delayed formalization of the new Church's organization. Finally, in March 1947, the Church's international governmental structure was drawn up by a provisional international council composed of Pitcairn, the Revs. Ernst Pfeiffer and Philip N. Odhner, and the laymen Groeneveld and Anton Zelling, and was approved by Church members in America and Holland later that year.[7]

In 1967, he published My Lord My God, a collection of essays on religious topics.

Pitcairn served as a leader of the new church until his death.[5]

Thomas Hoving, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, described meeting the Reverend Pitcairn in the course of negotiating the purchase of Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet.[8]

Pitcairn funded the first chamber orchestra in the United States, the Philharmonia, with Anshel Brusilow conducting.

References

  1. ↑ Jaffe, Dennis T.; Jungé, Dirk; Paul, Joseph (2004). "Reinventing a family dynasty". : Family Business Magazine (Winter).
  2. ↑ Laurette McCarthy, Walter Pach 1883-1958): The Armory Show and the Untold Story of Modern Art in America (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), p. 77.
  3. ↑ "The Role of the Pitcairn Collections in the Decision to Build Glencairn"
  4. ↑ "Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma". Novelguide.com. Jan 2009.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bostock, Peter G. (22 October 2000). "Management Style: A Break from Tradition". Retrieved 16 October 2008.
  6. ↑ Pitcairn et al. v. Fox et al., Rominger Legal 1199 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania 2002).
  7. ↑ "Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma - History of the Church". Retrieved 23 Jan 2009.
  8. ↑ Hoving, Thomas, Making the Mummies Dance, 1993, pp. 135-141, Touchstone, NY.

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