Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Biography

“John David Wolfe,” 1871. Daniel Huntington (American, 1816-1906) Bequest to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1887 by Miss Wolfe

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe was known in her lifetime for her wealth, her elegance, her social charm, and her extraordinary contributions to a wide range of charities. She had inherited from her father a profound commitment to the educational, religious, and philanthropic endeavors he had for years generously fostered with his considerable fortune. While she devoted much of her energy toward continuing aid for his projects, her concerns covered a wider humanitarian spectrum, from the Children’s Aid Society, to a Negro church in lower Manhattan, a home for incurables on the site of a Lorillard estate in the Bronx, and many other private and unpublicized contributions to hospitals and pioneering social endeavors. She also possessed a strong and independent mind and evidenced an early interest in art in many of its forms. This was perhaps nurtured by the private education she received, the environment in which she lived, and the many trips she took abroad with her family. She began collecting art long before inheriting her combined Lorillard and Wolfe fortunes, her devotion to art culminating in her remarkable gifts to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Her father, John David Wolfe, came from a merchant family that emigrated from Saxony to New York City in the 18th century. His father served with George Washington’s army during the Revolution and later founded with his brother a hardware business that became the very successful Wolfe and Bishop Company. In 1822 John David Wolfe married Dorothea Ann Lorillard, a member of the wealthy family long-established in the tobacco business. The Lorillards also had roots in the American Revolution. The couple’s first daughter, Mary, born in 1823 apparently died young. Their only other child, Catharine, was born in 1828. Dorothea died in 1866, leaving Catharine, at the death of her father in 1872, the sole heir to both fortunes.

In addition to the portion of the hardware business he inherited, John David Wolfe greatly increased his fortune through well-timed real estate transactions. He took advantage of his substantial wealth to retire early from the business and to devote himself to supporting many charitable causes. He favored religious institutions, ranging from Colorado and Kansas to New York, and educational endeavors such as the New York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and Union College in Schenectady, New York.

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe

Courtesy of the Collection of The New York Historical Society

“A Roman Girl at a Fountain,” 1875. Leon Bonnat (French, 1833-1922) Bequest to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1887 by Miss Wolfe

In 1846 the family bought a house very near to Grace Church, which at that time was just moving from its original location near Trinity Church on lower Broadway to its new, impressive Gothic structure at 10th Street and Broadway. This was the first building designed by the subsequently renowned architect James Renwick, Jr. Devoutly religious, the Wolfes were deeply supportive of the Church, contributing to it both financially and in other ways. John David Wolfe became a vestryman and eventually Senior Warden. The family moved again, in 1856, this time to a double brownstone at Madison Avenue and 24th Street, the house that was to be Catharine’s primary residence until her death. The location was at the heart of New York City’s fashionable scene, attracting not only fine hotels and restaurants, but also art galleries and dealers (Goupil, from whom Catharine bought many paintings, was just around the corner), and in 1863 the National Academy of Design moved nearby.

Catharine’s early interest in art is apparent from the fact that at eighteen she subscribed to the American Art Union, winning a painting at its annual art lottery in 1846. But she was soon encouraged by her cousin, John Wolfe, who had started collecting art in his youth and who left the family business after the Civil War to devote himself to collecting European paintings. When in 1863 he auctioned off his first collection, Catharine made her earliest documented purchase of paintings. In the 1870s, after her father’s death, she began seriously acquiring art. While she relied to a considerable extent on John, who was known as an important collector and who had many European connections, she had her own highly developed opinions and herself commissioned at least forty works, favoring contemporary painters of both religious and genre subjects, as well as still lifes and landscapes. Her preferred artists included Bonheur, Bouguereau, Breton, Cot, Daubigny, von Kaulbach, Max, Schenck, and Vibert. A painting she commissioned from Leon Bonnat, “A Roman Girl at a Fountain,” became one of her most treasured works. She embraced a view, widespread at the time, that it was easier to authenticate contemporary painters; they were less expensive than old masters, and more easily available. They probably also reflected the tastes of the society in which she moved. But hers was a vibrant character, committed to the life around her, and she clearly drew deep satisfaction from supporting living artists. The numerous religious paintings she acquired reflected her devout church connections, shown in her support of Grace Church and other religious institutions. But it was essential to her that her collection be a living part of her home; the paintings filled the walls of her Madison Avenue house and shared the space with innumerable objects she collected on her many travels abroad.

Published: November 3, 1887 Copyright © The New York Times

She also believed strongly in the value of education and the role that museums could play in presenting art to the public. When The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated in 1870 by a group of businessmen, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe was the only woman listed among the 106 individuals who contributed to the initial fund-raising drive. The goal was $250,000, and she pledged $2,500. That her interests were wide-ranging is also revealed by the fact that she supported the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, and she underwrote the first archeological expedition to Iraq in 1884-85. This latter work led to the University of Pennsylvania’s subsequent important excavations in the Middle East.

In the 1880s, her focus shifted to building a large Romanesque mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, next to a summer home belonging to her cousin, Pierre Lorillard, in an area local legend claimed to be the landing place of Leif Ericson in 1000 AD. She named the house Vinland and went to great lengths to oversee designs and decorative work that would reinforce the Norse connection. No efforts were spared; she hired the distinguished Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns to build the house, Frederick Law Olmsted to oversee the landscaping, and William Morris of the English Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements in England to supervise the interior decor. Edward Burne-Jones provided stained glass windows; Walter Crane painted friezes and frescoes; and Catharine herself supervised many of the stone and wood carvings. The rooms were filled with tapestries, mosaics, and even woodwork based on the Runic art of the Vikings. It was the place where she fulfilled her most personal wishes and revealed her long-standing interest in arts and crafts across a wide range of artistic expression. And it was the place where she enjoyed entertaining guests from all walks of cultural life.

Miss Wolfe’s note accompanying her check for her subsciption to The Met.

Vinland interiors designed and supervised by William Morris

Her will also provided significant bequests to the many other institutions and causes she had long supported. She gave her collection of shells and library of conchology, along with $200,000, to the American Museum of Natural History, where her father had been the first President. To Grace Church she bequeathed $350,000. This was in addition to many other gifts she had previously made to the Church, including the first and largest stained glass window, the Chantry (a small gem of a chapel), and Grace House, now known as the Parish House. Her long dedication to Grace Church was owing in part to her support of the Church’s history of commitment to social outreach. It had in the 1850s built Grace Chapel, on East 14th Street, to provide services to the growing numbers of immigrants. The classes in language, carpentry, electricity, drawing, dressmaking, and other skills that Grace Chapel offered greatly appealed to Catharine’s desire to make useful charitable contributions. Her support of the Chapel was constant. When in her will she stipulated that her bequest to the Church be used for some kind of women’s work, it was fitting that the funds be used to support and encourage young women art students, thus bringing together Catharine’s interest in art and her deep charitable concerns. The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, provided with space in Grace House, was the fortunate result.

Entrance to Grace House donated by Miss Wolfe

The “Te Deum“ stained glass window is the oldest and largest stained glass window in Grace Church, designed by the renowned English firm, Clayton & Bell and donated by Miss Wolfe

From the

New York Daily Graphic

February 13,1878 The Chantry and Sunday School also donated by Miss Wolfe

All photos by William Minifie

Ferdinand Richardt’s famous painting of Grace Church, 1858

Photo by William Minifie