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James
Breckinridge Speed and his granddaughter Alice Speed Stoll |
The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J. B. Speed Memorial
Museum, and later as The J.B. Speed Art Museum, is Kentucky’s
oldest and largest art museum. It was founded in 1925 by Hattie
Bishop Speed as a memorial to her husband, James
Breckinridge Speed, a prominent Louisville businessman
and philanthropist.
Designed by
Louisville architect Arthur Loomis, the museum opened its doors
on January 15, 1927, with an exhibition sponsored by the Louisville
Art Association. Over a hundred American and European painters
were represented and nearly two thousand visitors attended the
opening.
Mrs. Speed served as
the first president and director of the museum. In 1933, the museum
was incorporated as a privately endowed institution, and its board
of governors was established. In 1934, the museum received its
first major donation, a valuable collection of North American
Indian artifacts given by Dr. Frederick Weygold. In 1941, Dr.
Preston Pope Satterwhite made a significant gift to the museum
- his collection of 15th century and 16th century French and Italian
Decorative Arts including tapestries and furniture. In 1944, he
donated the English renaissance room, which was moved in its entirety
from Devonshire, England. Dr. Satterwhite’s gift necessitated
an enlargement of the museum and in his will he provided for the
addition that bears his name. Completed in 1954, it was the first
of three additions to the original building.
Mrs.
Hattie Bishop Speed |
Hattie Bishop Speed
died in 1942 and after her death, her niece, Jenny Loring Robbins,
held the position of Director. Catherine Grey, a member of the
museum’s first Board of Governors and a friend of Mrs. Speed’s,
was acting director until 1946, when Paul S. Harris became the
first professional director. During his tenure, acquisitions to
the collection were made mostly in the areas of decorative arts
and furniture. In 1962, he was succeeded by Addison Franklin Page,
curator of contemporary art at the Detroit Institute of Arts,
who served until 1984. During Mr. Page’s tenure, the museum
collection was enriched and expanded, and the north and south
additions were built.
After another major
addition to the building in 1973, the Speed celebrated its 50th
anniversary in 1977 with the acquisition of Rembrandt's magnificent
Portrait of a Woman. Mr. Page and the Board of Governors led the
campaign to raise the $1.5 million necessary to purchase the work,
one of the museum’s most significant acquisitions. In 1983,
the Speed’s most recent wing, designed by Robert Geddes
of Princeton, New Jersey, opened.
Mr. Page retired as
Director in 1984 and was followed in 1986 by Peter Morrin, who
was formerly curator of 20th century art at the High Museum in
Atlanta. Mr. Morrin continued the enrichment of the collection
and initiated an outreach program to involve the communities the
museum serves. Retiring after 21 years as Director, Mr. Morrin
was succeeded by Dr. Charles L. Venable, formerly the Deputy Director
for Collections and Programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Rembrandt
van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 — 1669)
Portrait of a Woman, 1634
Oil on panel
Purchased with funds contributed by individuals, corporations
and the entire community of Louisville, as well as the Commonwealth
of Kentucky |
While the museum was
closed for a dramatic renovation project in 1996, the museum received
a life-changing gift, a bequest of more than $50 million from
Alice Speed Stoll, granddaughter of James Breckinridge Speed.
The bequest marks one of the largest given to any art museum and
significantly increased the Speed's endowment, ranking it among
the top 25 in the United States. Mrs. Stoll’s bequest secured
the museum’s future and has allowed for several significant
acquisitions including Jacob van Ruisdael’si, (1653),
and Paul Cezanne’s Post-Impressionist masterpiece, Two
Apples on a Table (about 1895-1900). Since
reopening in November 1997, the Speed has dazzled the region with
exciting traveling exhibitions, new acquisitions to the permanent
collection, and a new parking garage. It has also benefited greatly
by a bequest from the estate of long-time Board of Governors member
General Dillman A. Rash who left the museum works by Marc Chagall,
Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Maurice
Utrillo.
The museum is supported
entirely by donations, endowments, grants, ticket sales, and memberships.
The focus of the collection is Western art, from antiquity to
the present day. Holdings of paintings from the Netherlands, French
and Italian works, and contemporary art are particularly strong,
with Sculpture prominent throughout. Representative artists include
Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Tiepolo, Henry
Moore, Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and contemporary
artists Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Francis, Petah
Coyne, Sam Gilliam, Vito Acconci, and Juan Munoz.
Today, the Speed Art
museum has come a long way since Mrs. Speed first opened the doors
to the original museum nearly 75 years ago. Its magnificent building
and impressive collection of over 13,000 pieces serve more than
180,000 visitors each year, making it a nationally recognized
institution.
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