Roland L. Redmond Explained

Office:9th President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Term Start:1947
Term End:1964
Predecessor:William Church Osborn
Successor:Arthur Amory Houghton Jr.
Birth Name:Roland Livingston Redmond
Birth Date:13 September 1892
Birth Place:Tivoli, New York, U.S.
Death Place:Tivoli, New York, U.S.
Alma Mater:Harvard University
Columbia Law School
Parents:Geraldyn Redmond
Estelle Livingston Redmond
Spouse:
Relatives:Goold H. Redmond (uncle)

Roland Livingston Redmond (September 13, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American lawyer who served as the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Early life

Redmond was born on September 13, 1892, at his parents stately two-story 18th-century mansion, known as Callendar House, Tivoli, New York, which was inherited by his mother and redesigned by McKim, Mead & White in 1910.[1] He was the second son of Geraldyn Redmond (1854–1918)[2] and Estelle Maud (née Livingston) Redmond (1860–1916).[3] His brothers were Johnston Livingston Redmond and Geraldyn Livingston Redmond.[4] In New York, the Redmonds lived at 701 Fifth Avenue, next door to their aunt at 705 Fifth Avenue, in what was disguised by McKim, Mead & White as a single French limestone mansion.[1] His parents, who were prominent in Catholic circles, donated the funds to the Fathers of Mercy, a French community of priests, to build Church of Notre-Dame on 114th Street in Manhattan.

His paternal grandparents were Sabina Elizabeth (née Hoyt) Redmond and William Redmond, a prominent merchant with Wm. Redmond & Son, who was born in Ballymena, County Antrim in Northern Ireland,[5] and was one of the founders of the Union Club. His paternal uncle was the bachelor Goold H. Redmond, and through his paternal aunt, Matilda Redmond Cross, the wife of banker Richard James Cross, he was a first cousin of John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross, prominent architects with the firm of Cross & Cross.[6] His maternal grandparents were Johnston Livingston and Sylvia Mathilde (née Livingston) Livingston.[4] Through his maternal grandmother, a granddaughter of U.S. Representative Henry W. Livingston, he was also a descendant of the Schuyler family.[4] In 1902, his mother and aunt, Countess Carola de Laugier-Villars,[7] built St. Sylvia Church in Tivoli, in memory of Redmond's maternal grandmother.[8]

Redmond attended Harvard University and after graduation in 1915 (cum laude),[9] attended Columbia Law School where he obtained his Juris Doctor in 1917.[10]

Career

From May 12, 1917, to March 2, 1919, he served in the U.S. Army, obtaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant, Field Artillery. Redmond was a member of the Plattsburg Movement and attended Officers Training Camp. After sailing to France, he was detailed to the Artillery School at Fontainebleau and Gondrecourt. Beginning in 1918, he took part in the Battle of Château-Thierry, was transferred to the 306th Field Artillery and fought in the Oise-Aisne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensives. After his return from War, he was admitted to the bar in 1919.

In 1929, Redmond joined the prestigious New York law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn and was with the firm, as counsel, until his death in 1982. For a time, he was Vincent Astor's personal attorney.

He also served on the board of many institutions, including the Pierpont Morgan Library, the New York Public Library, the American Geographic Society and the United States Trust Company of New York.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

From 1947 to 1964,[11] Redmond served as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was a "trustee, elective and emeritus, for 48 years, a record for a Met trustee." While president, two directors worked underneath him, Francis Henry Taylor and James Rorimer, and a massive expansion program that took place between 1951 and 1954, and involved nearly the entire reconstruction of the existing building and modernization of the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.[12]

The most popular exhibition while he was president was in 1963 when the Mona Lisa was on display for one-month. His tenure was also marked by several attacks from artists who felt the museum was opposed to contemporary art, which "Redmond did not take pains to conceal his own lack of sympathy with a good deal of modern art." In 1950, in response to a juried exhibition, entitled American Painting Today - 1950, eighteen well-known American painters later, including Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, collectively known as The Irascibles, sent an open letter to Redmond stating they would not participate because the juries were "notoriously hostile to advanced art."[13]

Personal life

On June 5, 1915, Redmond was married to Sara Delano (1894–1984)[14] at St. Sylvia's Memorial Church with a reception held at the Delano country estate, Steen Valetje.[15] Sara was the youngest daughter of coal tycoon Warren Delano and Jennie (née Walters) Delano.[16] Her mother was the daughter of William Thompson Walters, a merchant and art collector,[17] and the niece of Henry Walters, who formed the Walters Art Museum.[18] [19] Through her namesake aunt Sara Delano Roosevelt, Sara was a first cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They had a home in New York City, at 760 Fifth Avenue (and later at 350 Fifth Avenue), and a residence in Syosset on Long Island known as White Elephant Farm. Before their divorce in 1953, they were the parents of four daughters:

In 1916, upon the death of his mother, he inherited $75,000 (equivalent to $ today) outright and an interest in the trust set up for the remainder of her estate, valued between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000.[28] 1925, he inherited his aunt's home at Tivoli-on-the-Hudson upon her death, along with a legacy in excess of $200,000 (equivalent to $ today).[7]

After he left his wife in the fall of 1952, he took up with Lydia (née Bodrero), Princess di San Faustino,[29] and they married in Palm Beach on December 2, 1957.[30] Lydia, the daughter of Commendatore Gen. Alessandro Bodrero, was the mother of two children, Edith Carpenter Macy (b. 1927) (the wife of Friedrich Karl von Schönborn-Buchheim), from her first marriage to Valentine E. Macy Jr.,[31] and Montino Bourbon del Monte, Prince di San Faustino (b. 1942), from her second marriage to Ranieri Bourbon del Monte, Prince di San Faustino. Ranieri was a son of Carlo Bourbon del Monte, Prince di San Faustino and brother to Virginia Bourbon del Monte, wife of industrialist Edoardo Agnelli.[32]

Redmond died on April 20, 1982, at his home in Tivoli.[33]

Honors and legacy

Redmond was awarded the Legion of Honor from France as well as decorations from the Netherlands (as Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau) and Denmark.[34]

References

Notes
Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Miller . Tom . Daytonian in Manhattan: The Lost Redmond Mansions -- Nos. 701-705 Park Avenue . 22 March 2019 . Daytonian in Manhattan . 1 December 2014.
  2. News: REDMOND--Geraldyn . 22 March 2019 . . November 28, 1918 . 17 . en.
  3. News: MRS. E. L. REDMOND DEAD. -- Member of Old New York Family Prominent in Catholic Charities . 22 March 2019 . . 18 June 1916.
  4. Book: Reynolds . Cuyler . Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation . 1914 . Lewis Historical Publishing Company . 1322 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  5. Book: Selleck . Charles Melbourne . Norwalk . 1896 . Charles Melbourne Selleck . 358 . 12 November 2018 . en.
  6. Book: Pennoyer . Peter . Walker . Anne . New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross . 2014 . The Monacelli Press, LLC . 9781580933803 . 143 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  7. News: WILL OF COUNTESS ASSIGNS $10,000,000; Property of Carola L. de Laugier-Villars Disposed Of in Document for Probate at Poughkeepsie. . 22 March 2019 . . 28 March 1925.
  8. Book: The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. . 1914 . Catholic Editing Company . 436 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  9. Book: The Harvard University Register, Vol. 42 . 1915 . . 295 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  10. Book: Columbia University Catalogue . 1918 . . 275 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  11. News: REDMOND ELECTED ART MUSEUM HEAD; Lawyer Becomes President of Metropolitan as Successor to William C. Osborn . 22 March 2019 . . 21 January 1947.
  12. News: Metropolitan Elects New Museum Head . 22 March 2019 . . 16 September 1964.
  13. News: 18 Painters Boycott Metropolitan; Charge 'Hostility to Advanced Art' . March 22, 2019 . . May 22, 1950 .
  14. News: Renaissance at Walters . 22 March 2019 . . April 5, 1987 . 262 . en.
  15. News: SARA DELANO, BRIDE OF R. L. REDMOND; Cardinal Farley Officiates at Wedding of Members of Two Noted Families . 22 March 2019 . . 6 June 1915.
  16. News: Announce Troth of Sara Delano . 22 March 2019 . . March 15, 1915 . 15 . en.
  17. News: AMERICA'S GREAT ART COLLECTOR William Thompson Walters, Known Everywhere for His Devotion to Art, Dies in Baltimore. . 26 February 2019 . . November 23, 1894.
  18. News: HENRY WALTERS IN SURPRISE MARRIAGE Baltimore Financier, 73, Weds Mrs. Pembroke Jones, Widow of His Old Friend. THEY SAIL ON AQUITANIA Noted Art Collector and Bride Tell on Steamer of Their Wedding a Few Hours Before. . 26 February 2019 . . April 12, 1922.
  19. Book: Johnston . William R. . William and Henry Walters, the Reticent Collectors . 1999 . . 9780801860409 . 15 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  20. News: Berns . David . Sylvie L. Redmond Wed to William Griffiths Jr. . 22 March 2019 . . 22 December 1940.
  21. Griffiths . Sylvie R. . Johnston Livingston, the Express Business, and the California Connection . The Hudson Valley Regional Review . 21–37 . 22 March 2019.
  22. News: Paid Notice: Deaths PERKINS, SHEILA R. . 22 March 2019 . . 9 July 2000.
  23. News: SHEILA REDMOND BECOMES A BRIDE; Chapin Alumna Wed in Florida to Lieut. Malcolm D. Perkins of Army Air Transport . 22 March 2019 . . 3 February 1944.
  24. News: Redmond--Read . 22 March 2019 . . 31 Jul 1947 . 17 . en.
  25. News: Berns . David . Cynthia Redmond Major's Fiancee; Troth Announced . 22 March 2019 . . 7 December 1945.
  26. News: Winburn . Jay Te . CYNTHIA REDMOND IS WED TO OFFICER; Escorted by Her Father at Marriage to Maj. Peter Somes Hopkins of Army Engineers SHE HAS FIVE ATTENDANTS Bridegroom, Now on Terminal Leave, Plans to Complete His Studies at M.I.T. . 22 March 2019 . . 6 January 1946.
  27. Book: Social Register, Volumes 117-121; Volume 123 . 2003 . . 504 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  28. News: MRS. REDMOND'S WILL FILED; Left $75,000 to Each of Sons and Family Estate to Her Husband. . 22 March 2019 . . 28 June 1916.
  29. Book: Gross . Michael . Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art . 2010 . Broadway Books . 9780767924894 . 227 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  30. News: R.L. REDMOND MARRIES; Museum Head Weds Princess Lydia di San Faustino . 22 March 2019 . . 3 December 1957.
  31. Book: Thayer . William Roscoe . Castle . William Richards . Howe . Mark Antony De Wolfe . Pier . Arthur Stanwood . Voto . Bernard Augustine De . Morrison . Theodore . The Harvard Graduates' Magazine . 1925 . Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association . 495 . 22 March 2019 . en.
  32. News: Princess di San Faustino To Wed New Yorker . 22 March 2019 . . 27 Nov 1957 . 13 . en.
  33. News: Roland Redmond, Lawyer, Dead; Former President of Met Museum . 22 March 2019 . . 22 April 1982.
  34. News: Museum Officials Get Awards . 22 March 2019 . . 25 February 1955.