Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney


Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in her studio, ca. 1920.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was an American sculptor and art patron, founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

Gertrude Vanderbilt was a great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of one of America’s great fortunes. From her early years she was interested in art, and after her marriage in 1896 to Harry Payne Whitney, she began to pursue sculpture seriously, studying in New York and Paris. (britannica.com)

Primary Medium: Sculpture

Primary Stylistic Term: Realism, Figurative Art, Modernist

HAHS Affiliations: Daniel Chester French was friends with Whitney and had a sculpture studio on MacDougal Alley in the early decades of the 20th century. The site of his studio is now part of New York Studio School.

Recommended Publications: Rebels on Eighth Street: Juliana Force and the Whitney Museum of American Art by Avis Berman (1990); The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made: A Family Chronicle by Flora Biddle (1999)