Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Home 

Cornelius Newton Bliss

Nationality: American
Date of birth: 1833.1.26
Place of birth: Fall River, Mass
Date of death: 1911.10.9
Place of death: New York
Category: collector, merchant

Identity:

He married Elizabeth Mary Plummer in 1859. Their children were Lillie P. Bliss (1864-1931), one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and of the financier Cornelius Newton Bliss Jr. (1875-1949).

Life:

He was a successful merchant (Bliss, Fabyan & Co. , wholesale dry-goods merchants), politician (Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President William McKinley) and art collector. He bought Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge y033 and presented it to the Addison Gallery of American Art in 1928.

Bibliography:

The Frick Collection, Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America, The Frick Collection.

'Cornelius Newton Bliss', Wikipedia.