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Anne d'Harnoncourt became director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1982 and chief executive in 1997. (ap/file 2007) |
Anne d'Harnoncourt, 64; led expansion of Philadelphia art museum
PHILADELPHIA - Anne d'Harnoncourt, the longtime head of the Philadelphia Museum of Art who championed art as essential to the city's financial and cultural vigor, and one of the field's most important women, has died. She was 64.
Ms. d'Harnoncourt died at home in Philadelphia on Monday morning of natural causes, museum spokesman Norman Keyes said. He said her death was unexpected.
Ms. d'Harnoncourt came to the museum in 1967 as a curatorial assistant. She became museum director in 1982 and replaced Robert Montgomery Scott in 1997 as chief executive officer.
"She broke ground and she just kept growing," said Derek Gillman, executive director of The Barnes Foundation. "On all the three continents I've worked, the art world is very much dominated by men. . . . Anne was not only impressively credentialed but massively respected."
Under her directorship, the Philadelphia Museum of Art experienced a period of expansion including the purchase of a shuttered art deco landmark near the museum that added 173,000 square feet of restoration, research, and gallery space for works previously in storage for lack of room.
Another upcoming expansion, a $500 million project by architect Frank O. Gehry, will be constructed 30 feet below the main museum building's east plaza.
Ms. d'Harnoncourt also led the charge to raise tens of millions of dollars to keep Thomas Eakins's masterpiece "The Gross Clinic" in the city after news broke of its impending sale to a group including
"Anne's death is a severe loss to our beloved museum, to the world of art, and to those who knew and loved her," said museum board chairman Gerry Lenfest. "She was learned, a gifted speaker, had a great effervescent personality, was a great director, and, above all, a deeply caring person."
Ms. d'Harnoncourt was born on Sept. 7, 1943, the only child of Rene d'Harnoncourt, art historian and famed director of New York's Museum of Modern Art, and Sara Carr, a fashion designer.
She graduated from Radcliffe College and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, then was hired as a curatorial assistant at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After a curator stint at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1969 to 1971, she returned to Philadelphia and spent the rest of her career there.
"She casts an enormous shadow, in the best sense of the word, on Philadelphia and on the art world," said Edward T. Lewis, president and chief executive of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "I don't think there's any way we can ever replace her."
Ms. d'Harnoncourt leaves her husband of 37 years, Joseph J. Rishel, a senior curator at the museum.
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