Ted Pillsbury left a legacy rich in art

6 April 2010

click to enlarge

Ted Pillsbury. Photo: Heritage Auction Galleries

The death last month of Edmund P. "Ted" Pillsbury, a major player on the American art museum scene, was a suicide, his family said Monday.

An earlier statement said his March 25 death was due to a heart attack.

Dr. Pillsbury, 66, was chairman of fine arts at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. He was previously the founding director of the Yale Center for British Art, which opened to the public in 1977. From 1980 to 1998, Pillsbury was director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Dr. Pillsbury is well-known for securing important acquisitions for the Kimbell including: “Portrait of Don Pedro de Barberana,’’ an unusually large piece by the 17th-century Spanish artist Diego Velazquez; “The Cardsharps,’’ a seminal work by Caravaggio from the 1590s; a 1906 Picasso, “Nude Combing Her Hair’’; “L’Asie,’’ a 1946 oil by Matisse; and art by Fra Angelico, Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens, Cezanne, and Mondrian.

A specialist in Italian Renaissance art, Dr. Pillsbury earned degrees from Yale and the Courtlauld Institute, part of the University of London.

Read more at The Dallas Morning News

More News Feed Headlines

Julien Hudson, 1811-1844 American. Creole Boy With A Moth, 1835, oil on canvas, courtesy of a private collection; photo courtesy of Fodera Fine Art Conservation, Ltd.

First Retrospective of Early African American Artist Julien Hudson at Worcester Art Museum

A groundbreaking exhibition opened Dec. 9 at the Worcester Art Museum entitled “In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color in Pre-Civil War New Orleans.” Julien Hudson (1811-1844) is the second-earliest documented portrait painter of African descent to work in the United States. Little-known today, Hudson died an untimely, somewhat mysterious death, and only fragments of his oeuvre survive to tell his story.

'May,' by Alexander Motyl, $25/month to rent ($550 to buy), artsicle.com.

Virtual Art Buying Gets a Boost From New Websites

A bevy of new online ventures are helping to streamline the process of buying art for both beginners and established collectors, facilitating keyboard-click access to information and galleries.

An installation view of the new Tuscaloosa Museum of Art: Home of the Westervelt Collection.

New Tuscaloosa Museum of Art to Showcase Important American Art

Last week, the Tuscaloosa Museum of Art opened its doors, finally giving a home to the art collection assembled by Jack Warner. Earlier this year, the Jack Warner Foundation and Westervelt Company separated, leaving the fate undetermined as to where their respective collections would be housed. Several key works were sold by the Westervelt Co. at auction and privately. Now, more than 800 pieces...

Portrait of a Man and Woman in an Interior, painted about 1666, by Eglon van der Neer (Dutch, 1634–1703). Oil on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Seth K. Sweetser Fund.

Museum Curator as Art Detective

At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Victoria Reed is the first and only endowed curator of provenance at an American museum. Since 2010, her role has been to research objects in the museum's collections, and new acquisitions, in order to determine the right of ownership. At times, Reed's findings have led to restitution...