WILLIAM THOMAS EVANS

Background

William Thomas Evans was born at Clough-Jordan, Ireland, and, as an infant, was brought to the United States by his parents William and Maria Jane (Williams) Evans, both descendants of Welsh officers in Cromwell’s army.

Education

He was educated in the public schools of New York City, and because of excellent standing in his studies, was permitted to enter the College of the City of New York (then the New York Free Academy) before attaining the age commonly required.

After two years at college he entered an architect’s office where he studied for a year.

Career

After a third year in college, accepted a position in the counting house of E. S. JafTray & Company. This led him into a business career, for when two senior clerks, Philo L. Mills and John Gibb, left Jaffray’s to form the firm of Mills & Gibb, wholesale dry-goods merchants, he went with them, first as an employee, later, and practically until his death, as a member of the firm. Undoubtedly his study of architecture turned his attention to art but he himself dated his definite interest in American painting to a book, G. W. Sheldon’s American Painters, which his wife (Mary Jane Hinman of New York, whom he had married in 1867) gave him on his birthday in 1879. They were living at that time in a house on Van Vorst Square, Jersey City, and there Evans began collecting paintings. So rapidly did acquisitions accumulate that he added a picture gallery to this house. When in 1890 this home was given up Evans sold all the paintings by foreign artists which he owned, retaining only those which were by American painters. In 1892 the family took possession of a new house at 5 West Seventy-sixth St. , New York, to which a new gallery had been added, and therein were hung the American pictures. From that time on Evans bought only works by Americans. A large part of the collection which hung in the New have been a kindly man with “calm and reassuring eyes, ” “a firm, clear, ' sweetly modulated voice, ” and “a character of purity. ” He is said to have cured his own chronic disorder and lie lived until his seventy-second year. The inner life of Evans is best traced in his writings. A. J. York house was sent abroad, by invitation, for display in Austria and Bavaria. This was one of the first exhibitions of American paintings shown abroad, and the Bavarian government decorated Evans with the Order of St. Michael. Evans, inherently a lover of art, was also a man of business acumen, essentially a friend of American artists, and one of the first to regard the works of American painters as profitable investment. No sooner was this collection sold than he started another. In a comparatively short time the new purchases filled his house in Montclair to overflowing, and even the loft of his stable was turned into a gallery. In March 1907 he offered to the National Gallery of Art (lately legalized by a decree of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia), a collection of paintings by contemporary American artists, and promptly upon acceptance turned over to the nation forty-three works, including masterpieces by Winslow Homer, LaFarge, Inness, and Wyant withdrawn from his private collection. They were temporarily installed as a loan in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington. To this collection Evans made numerous additions until finally the gift comprised 150 paintings, a bust, and 115 examples of tlie work of the foremost American wood-engravers. Through his purchases, made chiefly in the studios, Evans formed many close friendships among the artists. Especially significant was his friendship with Henry W. Ranger, who influenced Evans not only in his selections but in his gift to the National Gallery which, in turn, almost certainly led to the establishment of the Ranger Fund, providing for the yearly addition of works by American painters to the National collection. In Montclair he was active in creating interest in art. He became president of the Municipal Art Commission and by offering to present to Montclair a collection of thirty paintings by American artists of high standing, induced the establishment in 1909 of the Montclair Art Gallery and Museum. He held a third sale of paintings in 1913 and a fourth in May 1916, when the firm of Mills & Gibb went into receiver ship. This sale was for the benefit of the firm’s creditors. It is a distressing fact that after giving so generously, his business failed, through no fault of his own, and when he died he was no longer a rich man. He had five daughters and two sons.

Achievements

• In 1900, when he moved to a new house in Montclair, New Jersey, which had no picture gallery, Evans sold his entire collection of 270 American paintings, which he had bought in most instances, directly from the painters (see Catalogue oj American Paintings Belonging to W. T. Evans to be sold. .. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 and 2 . .. on Exhibit at the American Art Galleries, 1900), and by this sale, which brought him the sum of $159, 340, established for the first time market values for the works of American artists.

Views

William T. Evans did more perhaps than any other collector to promote interest in American art, and to his liberal patronage many living American artists owe their first step toward success.

Membership

president of the Municipal Art Commission

Connections

Father:

William Evans

Mother:

Maria Jane (Williams) Evans