An Impressionist Legacy

Today corporate art collections are a major feature of the cultural world. Created by executives with vision and sensitivity, they are helping to bring the world of art and business together. When John Bryan, chairman of Sara Lee Corporation, chose the paintings and sculpture reproduced in this volume for the company's headquarters, he believed this to be an ideal way to commemorate the remarkable achievements of the company's founder, Nathan Cummings, from whose personal collection they were acquired. The collection includes masterpieces by such artists as Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Braque, Matisse, Bonnard, Giacometti, Moore, Maillol, Monet, and Leger. They are works which would be worthy of any museum. Even a critic as keen as artists Henry Moore was astounded both by the quality of the individual works and by the selection. That this collection was assembled not by a team of curators and consultants but by a man whom business was a profession makes it all the more refreshing. For Cummings, buying art and buying companies went hand in hand. Indeed, Cummings would often follow up the acquisition of a new company by shipping paintings to its offices. For some new members of the corporate family such generosity may have been surprising, but it was Cummings's way of extending and preserving a tradition of vision and judgement. His legacy as a collector and an entrepreneur shows convincing that art and business are each enriched in a common setting. In this new edition of An Impressionist Legacy, recently acquired works are shown for the first time. They include paintings by Matisse, Money, Giacometti, and Pissarro and sculptures by Giacometti and Manzu. Art historian Richard Brettell has written succinct and informative commentaries on each of the works included here. He illuminates the qualities that John Bryan felt when he selected the paintings and sculptures for the corporate collection.