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Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) French WATERLILIES, 1903 Oil on canvas Height 32 inches Width 40 inches Gift of Mr. Joseph Rubin, 1953.11 |
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It really isn't 'til you get to Monet's highest points, his series which include his series of
Waterlilies, that we find the fully developed and fully mature essence of what we
now regard as classical Impressionism. This was done in his garden in 1903, and
probably represents the highest point of his entire Waterlilies series. This work
was given to the Art Institute by a gentleman by the name of Mr. Joseph Rubin, who ran a
company in New York City called the Loma Dress Corporation. And sometime before
1953, Dr. Esther Seaver, who was the Director of The Dayton Art Institute in the first part
of the 1950s, had encountered this picture and was acquainted with a dealer in New York
by the name of Silberman and began a correspondence with Silberman and then Rubin, to
say that, ''I know I'm taking liberty of requesting the painting for The Dayton Art Institute in
the event that you would consider giving it to a museum outside the New York area." He
wrote back that he would be pleased to give it to the collection of the Art Institute: "This
museum has made steady progress since 1919. I would like to help such an institution. I
feel therefore that I wish to present a fine painting to a museum outside of New York,
where art facilities are more limited than here. I think this would be a greater civic
service." And of course today, nearly 50 years later, we can thank Mr. Rubin for his
generosity in improving the lot of an institution and a community like Dayton, Ohio.
Alexander Lee Nyerges
