"Detroit Institute of Art" Wilhelm Valentiner Clipped Signature Mounted For Sale

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"Detroit Institute of Art" Wilhelm Valentiner Clipped Signature Mounted:
$299.99

Up for sale a RARE!  "Detroit Institute of Art" Wilhelm Valentiner Clipped Signature Mounted. 

2, 1880 – September 6, 1958) was a German-American art historian, art critic and museum administrator. He was educated and trained in

Europe, first working at the Mauritshuis in The Hague and at museums in Berlin. In 1907 he moved to the United States to become the

first curator of the department of decorative arts in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. After returning to Europe to serve in the

German Army in World War I, Valentiner later was appointed to other positions

in the US. From the mid-1920s, he strongly influenced the development of museum

administration in the United States. He served as director of the Detroit Institute of Art in Michigan, from 1924 to 1945. Valentiner became a naturalized

US citizen about 1930 and lived in the country for nearly half his life in

total. During the early 1930s, he commissioned Mexican artist Diego Rivera to create a 27-panel mural series about

Detroit industry for an interior court of the museum, and gained the patronage

of Edsel Ford for the project. While controversial in

content, the work attracted thousands of new visitors and led to the museum

being granted a larger budget by the city. 

Valentiner is especially known for his writings on Flemish and Dutch painting. William Valentiner was born at Karlsruhe (Baden) and attended local schools. He Thode,

and in the Netherlands with Cornelis Hofstede de Groot and

with Abraham Bredius. He served

as the latter's assistant at the Gallery of The Hague (Mauritshuis). In 1905 he was called

to Berlin by William Bode, under whom he worked at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin.

In 1906 he published his dissertation on Rembrandt,

which he had started in 1904: Rembrandt auf der Lateinschule. In

1907 he was appointed as the first curator of

the department of decorative arts in

the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Under his supervision, this department became

one of the foremost in the world. At the start of World War I, Valentiner returned to Germany to serve in the

army. After service at the front in 1916, he was appointed to the general staff in Berlin. Following the end of the war,

Valentiner was offered a position in Detroit, Michigan, where he served for more than two decades.

He became a naturalized American citizen around 1930 and lived in the United

States for the remainder of his life. From 1924-1945 he was appointed first as

advisor and then Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts,

one of the cultural institutions that expanded during the city's boom years.

The museum was founded as the Detroit Museum of Art in 1885, and was renamed

Detroit Institute of Arts in 1919. Under his leadership the museum developed

into one of the leading art institutions in the United States. His acquisitions

and exhibitions in Detroit were products of his wide-ranging scholarship. He

was a friend of Edsel Ford and

conducted private seminars on the history of art for Ford's family.He

commissioned Mexican artist Diego Rivera to create a series of murals after having

seen his work in San Francisco, California.

He convinced Ford to be a patron and underwrite the cost of the murals.

Titled Detroit Industry, they

were revolutionary in content for Detroit at the time and generated

considerable local controversy. Valentiner developed an expert staff of

curators, a vision of an encyclopedic collection, and the museum as a resource

for the city, the state, and the Midwest. In 1945 he had to resign from his

post in Detroit due to a city age restriction in the civil service. He was

instrumental in the development of both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In 1955 Valentiner was appointed as the first Director of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the

capital. He held this position until his death in September 1958.

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