Henry Harper Benedict

Identity:

There is a short biography of Henry Harper Benedict, print collector and idustrialist, in 'America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography', in The New York Tribune, 1895-96, starting:

'Henry Harper Benedict was born in German Flats, Herkimer County, N.Y., Oct. 9, 1844 ..., educated ... at the public schools and at Little Falls Academy and Fairfield Seminary in Herkimer county. Later the young man spent some time at Marshall Institute at Easton, N.Y., and ... at Hamilton College, being graduated therefrom in 1869. ...'

Again, according to The New York Tribune, 'In 1867, he married Maria Nellis, daughter of Henry G. Nellis, and granddaughter of General George H. Nellis, of Fort Plain, N.Y. They have one child living, a daughter, fifteen years of age. Their home has been at 116 Willow Street, Brooklyn Heights. ...Mr. Benedict is a member of the Hamilton club and Long Island Historical Society in Brooklyn, and of the Grolier, Republican, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Union League Arkwright clubs in New York. ...' The Grolier Club was a club for print collectors and connoisseurs.

Of their four children only one survived, Helen Elizabeth Benedict Forest. Maria Nellis Benedict died in 1915.

Two years later he married Katherine Geddes Benedict (d. 1961) who was then 26 years old. They had one daughter, Josephine Catharine Benedict (Mrs James Douglass Sharpe). The opulent H. H. Benedict Mansion was at No. 5 East 75th Street, New York. Benedict retired in 1913, immensely rich. His wife and daughter inherited a large part of Benedict's collection and fortune, although there were some legal disputes over the inheritance.

Life:

Benedict graduated from Hamilton College with the Class of 1869, and was a generous donor to the college, serving as a trustee from 1897-1935, and funding the Hall of Languages, built in 1897, and a Chapel organ. The college journal describes him as follows : 'One of the pioneers in the manufacturing and marketing of the typewriter, Benedict went to work at E. Remington and Sons in nearby Ilion, N.Y., ... This company not only manufactured arms and agricultural implements but also did piece work for inventors who devised new machines. One such invention, in 1873, was for a typewriter designed by Christopher Latham Sholes. Although the Remington company did not make much progress with the manufacture of the new instrument, Benedict realized its potential.' Benedict and two partners bought the rights to the typewriter and organized a firm to sell the "practical writing machine." The name Remington was retained, and in 1902 the Remington Typewriter Co. was formed with Benedict as president until his retirement in 1913. ' ('Faces Behind the Façades').

In addition, The New York Tribune wrote that: 'Mr. Benedict entered the employment of E. Remington & Sons, manufacturers of rifles and guns at Ilion, N.Y.... he was elected in time a director of the corporation of E. Remington & Sons, and treasurer of The Remington Sewing Machine Co. ...

In 1882, having been admitted to membership in the firm of Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict, he removed to New York city to engage in the sale of Remington typewriters. ... In 1886, the firm purchased the entire typewriter plant of the Remingtons, including all rights and franchises, and have since conducted the manufacture as well as the sale of the machine, attaining a remarkable success.

In 1884, Mr. Benedict made a first trip to Europe in the interest of his firm, and has since been abroad many times, ... his family usually accompanies him. He has had charge of the foreign department of his firm's business ...'

It is not known if he met Whistler. He had bought the watercolour Off the Brittany Coast m1042 by 1901.

The New York Tribune described Benedict as 'A man of refined tastes, he has made a collection of engravings and etchings by the great masters, which is of the highest quality, perhaps unsurpassed by any other of its size anywhere. He also possesses a good library and a collection of oil paintings, mostly by American artists, which, like his prints, represent the several artists at their best. '

Benedict's collection of old master prints and drawings is now scattered. For instance, his impression of Turner's 'Beaumaris, Isle of Anglesea' from the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (1827-38) is in the Tate (T04604).

His contemporary print collection included a substantial group of etchings by Alphonse Legros. Benedict was in touch with Harold Wright of Colnaghi's, who, as well as helping Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip, to list the Whistler estate, was preparing a catalogue of Legros' oeuvre (letters from Benedict and the print dealer David Kennedy to Harold Wright, on 4 and 5 March 1915, discuss Benedict's collection of Legros' etchings; Special Collections Department, GUL MS Wright L58-59 and draft catalogue, MS Wright L437-L440).

Benedict amassed a distinctive collection of Whistler etchings and small works (drawings, pastels and watercolours: r.: Designs for a fan; v.: Studies of a woman and a man m0427 Study for 'Symphony in Flesh-colour and pink: Mrs F. R. Leyland' m0433, Portrait study of a lady m0553, Study of drapery m0567, A seated lady m0692, Old Battersea Bridge m0700, Bead-stringers m0732, Venetian Street m0756, The Tobacco Warehouse m0762, A Venetian canal m0765;, Calle San Trovaso, Venice m0775, Putney Bridge m0874, Off the Brittany Coast m1042). He was generous on lending them to, for instance, the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in Boston in 1904.

He appears to have been particularly interested in sketches and working drawings, and probably bought them rather cheaply. For instance, Portrait study of a lady m0553 was sold at Christie's on 13 December 1910 for £4 and probably bought for Benedict or acquired by Benedict immediately afterwards. Some came from the collections of T.R.Way and H.S.Theobald in London, but not necessaily directly; the dealers E.G. and David Kennedy were certainly in contact with Benedict. Benedict had several fine Venetian pastels including Calle San Trovaso); this was with Kennedy in 1907 and was probably sold by him to Benedict.

E. G. Kennedy listed 58 etchings as owned by Benedict in 1910. At least a further sixteen etchings are now in public collections. These include a unique impression of the first state of Rag Pickers, Quartier Mouffetard, Paris [29], touched with grey wash and now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. In 1920 loans from his print collection were made to an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

His wife and daughter inherited his collection, which they described to Frederick Coburn when he and Joseph Revillon were attempting to write a catalogue of Whistler's works on paper (24 November 1945, GUL Rev 1955). Some of this collection was auctioned at Sotheby's in 1962-63.

Bibliography:

Lugt 1298 and 2936; anon., America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography, Vol. 1, New York; The New York Tribune, New York, 1895-96, pp. 81-83, quoted in 'Herkimer County NY, Ancestral sightings Part 4; New York Times, 8 May 1920, p. 14; auction catalogue, Mrs H. H. Benedict sale, Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1962; The Distinguished Collection of Old Master and Modern Engravings and Etchings of the Late Henry Harper Benedict, auction, Sotheby's, London, 1963; Christopher Gray, 'From Turn of the Century, a Block of Former Stables', New York Times, 20 April 1997; anon., 'Faces Behind the Façades', Alumni review, Fall 2006, ; 'The H. H. Benedict Mansion -- No. 5 East 75th Street', Dayton in Manhattan, 14 March 2015, Blog; Tate online catalogue .

Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website.