Lecture - The Americans Who Collected Spain: From Meade to Meadows

Dr. Amanda Dotseth, Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum and Centennial Chair in the Meadows School of the Arts, discusses the history of collecting Spanish art in the United States. 

From around 1850 to 1950, American collectors amassed some of the most significant holdings of Spanish art outside its borders. The Gilded Age wealthy such as Henry Clay Frick, Paul Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, and others bought paintings and sculpture by Spanish artists as part of their collections. Archer B. Huntington, Arthur and Mildred Stapley Byne, Isabella Stewart Garnder, and, most famously, William Randolph Hearst purchased decorative art, books, and incorporated architectural elements into their homes. 

These collectors, however, followed in the footsteps of lesser-known Americans like Richard Worsam Meade and the founder of the Meadows Museum in Dallas, Algur H. Meadows. This lecture provides an overview of the history of Spanish art in America by introducing audiences to some of the key personalities that shaped our collections.