D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A M E T R O C U R AT E S AT T H E M E T R O P O L I TA N PAV I L I O N
Christopher Boshears and Mary Katherine Ryan
Ryan’s grandfather, Thomas Fortune Ryan, was famous in his day for having made a huge fortune at end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Ryan, like his grandfather who left him millions, was a stockbroker here in New York. The marriage bore two children but the couple was divorced in 1936. Both remarried within years, but Janet married a man named William Rhinelander Stewart, Jr., in months. William Stewart was very famous in New York and, indeed, in the national consciousness. He was famous for being rich, a bon vivant with a wit that could travel. He was 22 QUEST
Patrick Mele, Sara Gilbane, Wendy Goodman and Antonio Buzzetta
Irwin and Liz Warren with Barbara Gordon and Steve Cannon
rich, from generations of landowning New York families, including the Rhinelanders and the Lispenards, Huguenots who’d arrived in America in the late 17th century. In the New York Times, William Stewart was described as “one of the most conspicuous men in American society... Tales of his charm and good looks were whispered by impressionable maidens and proclaimed by the more flamboyant publications. Wealthy as well as handsome, with a lineage going back to the early days of the city, he had often been called ‘the most attractive man in New York.’’’ He was a man who knew
everybody and was frequently on the glamorous nightclub scene. The Times referred to him as “a leading spirit at dozens of notable society functions, including the Beaux Arts Ball.” He was a friend of president Franklin D. Roosevelt, with whom he fished off their friend Vincent Astor’s yacht, the Nourmahal. There was a significant age difference between man and wife: he was 47 and she was 26. The night before the wedding, the to-be-betrothed gave a dinner at the St. Regis for Mary Pickford, Merle Oberon, Cole Porter, and Leonard Hanna of Cleveland, and then took
John and Linda Mills
their guests to the theater. Life as Mrs. William Rhinelander Stewart came with a lot of attention in the press. The man often referred to as a “Beau Brummell” now had a wife who was known as “the most beautiful woman in New York.” Three years into the marriage in 1939, the bride gave birth to a daughter, Serena, named for her father’s maternal great-aunt, Serena Rhinelander. In 1940, when Janet Stewart was named on the very first Best-Dressed List in the United States, William Stewart was named “best-dressed man in New York” by the Custom Tailors Guild. Her image in
A N N I E WAT T
John Berthot and Kathy Murphy