"Corcoran Gallery of Art" William Wilson Corcoran 7x.5 Hand Signed COA For Sale

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"Corcoran Gallery of Art" William Wilson Corcoran 7x.5 Hand Signed COA:
$199.99

Up for sale is an autographed Vintage 7x.5 Hand Signed

by William Wilson Corcoran Dated 1843 .  This piece comes certified

through Todd Mueller, and comes with matching COA. 

ES - 2519

William

Wilson Corcoran (December

27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Corcoran

was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in

the District of Columbia. He

was one of 12 children (six boys and six girls), six of whom survived to

maturity, born to Thomas Corcoran, a

well-to-do merchant twice elected as mayor of Georgetown, and Hannah Lemmon.

His father was born in Ireland, settled in Georgetown in 1788, and established

a leather business.

William Corcoran was raised in Georgetown where he studied classics and

mathematics at local private schools run by Alexander Kirk and the Reverend

Addison Belt, and also took classes for a year at Georgetown College, the

predecessor of Georgetown University.

Instead of finishing his education, he joined the family business and developed

a successful business career. Corcoran entered business at the age of 17,

working in dry goods store owned by two brothers, and opened his own branch

store two years later.The Corcoran brothers established a wholesale sale and

commission business, but their ventures failed after the Panic of 1819. He worked in another family business, and

in 1828, he took control of large amount of real estate from his father.

Corcoran was employed as a clerk at the Bank of Columbia at Georgetown

branch, and then as a real estate and loan manager at the Second Bank of the United

States in Washington. He also participated in the domestic

slave trade. In 1837, Corcoran established a brokerage firm on Pennsylvania

Avenue at 15th Street. He was successful and in 1840 entered

into a partnership with George Washington Riggs, a

son of Elisha Riggs. The Corcoran

and Riggs private banking firm enjoyed the patronage of Treasury

Secretary Levi Woodbury and

prospered after it re-sold to investors $5 million of U.S. Treasury notes in

1843. In 1845, it purchased the former Second Bank of

the United States building located on 15th Street at New York Avenue.

In Spring 1847, the Corcoran and Riggs sold to investors

at home and abroad the bulk of two issues of the U.S. Treasury Mexican War bonds;

Corcoran's earnings were $1 million. In 1854, Corcoran retired from Corcoran

and Riggs to focus on his investments in real estate, land grants,

armaments, railroads, as well as pursue pleasure and philanthropic endeavors. In

contrast to many contemporary art patrons, Corcoran was not exclusively interested

in European works, and he assembled one of the first important collections

of American art. By the mid-1850s his pictures and sculpture

were overflowing his mansion on Lafayette Square and

in 1859 he hired the foremost architect of the day, James Renwick, to build a picture gallery in the Second Before the gallery was ready, however, the Civil War began, and

Corcoran, a Southern sympathizer, left Washington for Paris,

where his son-in-law, George Eustis Jr., was a representative of the Confederacy.

The half-finished building designed by Renwick was taken over by the U.S.

Government and used as a supply depot. When the war was over, Corcoran returned

to Washington; the building was finished in 1869 and the Corcoran Gallery of

Art opened in 1874, but the structure was soon outgrown. A new building for the

Corcoran Gallery of Art and its nascent school of art (now the Corcoran College

of Art + Design) was designed by American architect Ernest Flagg in the Beaux-Arts style and

completed in 1897, nine years after Corcoran's death. The façade of the

building reflects the "Neo-Grec," an offshoot of Beaux-Arts

that attempted to reflect the functions of the building by revealing detailed

and decorative accents on the exterior. The Corcoran Gallery's first home is

now the Renwick Gallery, a

Smithsonian museum. In 1854, after his retirement, he devoted himself and his

substantial fortune to art and philanthropy. In 1848, Corcoran had purchased 15 acres (6 ha)

of land for Oak Hill

Cemetery, which overlooks Rock Creek Park. He organized the Oak Hill Cemetery Company to

oversee the cemetery, which was formally incorporated by Act of Congress on March 3, 1849. Corcoran paid for the

construction of a Gothic Revival chapel

in Oak Hill Cemetery, commonly known as the Renwick

Chapel. It is the only building designed by Renwick in

Washington other than Corcoran's original museum (see below) and the first

("Castle") building on the Washington Mall of the Smithsonian

Institution. Corcoran also established a $10,000 fund, administered by the

Benevolent Society, to purchase firewood for the poor in Georgetown. Corcoran

also gave many gifts to several universities, including The George Washington

University, the Maryland Agricultural

College, the College of William and

Mary, and Washington and Lee

University. Corcoran also contributed to a fund to purchase George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, after his family could no longer

keep it up, and the federal

government refused to purchase it.[4] One of William Wilson Corcoran's longtime business

associate and friend was the renowned George Peabody. Corcoran made many other important bequests to

the people of Washington, including several departments of the Columbian

University (now the George Washington

University), and the land and half the construction costs for what

is now the Church of

the Ascension and Saint Agnes. Corcoran was also the President of

the Corporation of Columbian (George Washington) University. Early in 1883, Corcoran

arranged to have the body of John Howard Payne returned to the United States, an

expense he personally bore. Payne, actor, poet, and author of "Home! Sweet Home!" had been the United States Consul to

the Bey of Tunis in 1852 and had died there.

Payne had been good friends of Corcoran and his business partner, George W.

Riggs, in 1850, prior to Payne's second appointment as Consul to Tunis. Corcoran

also established in 1869 the Louise Home

for Women—named in memory of his deceased wife—to help support and

maintain impoverished women. The home opened in 1871 on Massachusetts Ave. NW,

between 15th and 16th Streets, in Washington, D.C., where it operated until

1947; the original building was razed in 1949. The Louise Home moved to the

Codman House at Decatur Place and 22nd Street NW and in 1976 merged operations

with the Abraham and Laura Lisner Home for Aged Women. As of 2021, the

Louise Home continues to operate as part of the />

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