Daniel Sargent Curtis

Daniel Sargent Curtis (1825-1908) Lawyer and banker and Trustee of the Boston Public Library, director of the Boston National Bank owner of Palazzo Barbaro.^[1]

Born in Boston to Thomas Buckminster Curtis and Maria Osborne Sargent whose father Daniel Sargent. Cousin of artist John Singer Sargent and father of artist Ralph Wormley Curtis. He was a graduate of Harvard University in 1846 and of Harvard Law School in 1848.^[2]

Daniel belonged to an old Bostonian family whose ancestors arrived to America in the Mayflower. He married Ariana Randolph Wormley (1833-1922) in 1853 in Newport. Ariana’s parents were land owners from Virginia but she was born and raised in London. They returned to the US in 1848.^[3] Daniel and Ariana settled in Boston where their sons Osborne and Ralph were born.

Daniel generously donated volumes to the Bosoton Public library’s collections during his trusteeship. The Curis' left Boston in 1877 and got to Venice in 1880 where they lived most of their lives except for the many travels they took abroad renting the palace when not at home. Starting from 1881 they first rented a part of Palazzo Barbaro when in Venice but later in 1885 they bought the second noble floor and the upper floors for 13.500 dollars. Ariana said the palace was worth much more because its value shouldn’t be set by the number of rooms but by its original 18th century decorations. After it was sold by the last of the Barbaros the palace was in great decay and most of its original decoration, above all paintings, was gone. The Curtises begun a thorough restoration and kept the palace with love and dedication bringing it back to social and cultural life and making it the meeting place for some cosmopolitan Americans of the time. Other non American visitors were also there to visit or entertain the hosts, among others the British poet Robert Browning who was a regular at the Palazzo Barbaro during his stays in Venice. Daniel developed a true friendship with the poet, the spent several hours together including leisure walks at the Lido. He gave his last public reading for the Curtises and their guests in November 1889 some thirty days before his death.^[4]

Isabella Stewart Gardner art collector and foremost patron of the arts in her time fell in love with it renting it several times from 1890 when the Curtis's were travelling. When she went back to Boston, she built her “Venetian Palazzo”, an interpretation of the Renaissance palaces of Venice.http://blog.slow-venice.com/wonderful-palazzo-barbaro/

John Singer Sargent, Henry James, Whistler and Claude Monet were just some of the many artists. Other members of the “Barbaro Circle” included Bernard Berenson, William Merritt Chase, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Edith Wharton.[20] Another supporter of the “Barbaro Circle” was Charles Eliot Norton.[21]

Daniel and Ariana resided at Palazzo Barbaro until their deaths, their heirs still own it.

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