William Merchant Richardson French was a director of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Background
William M. R. French was born on October 1, 1843, in Exeter, New Hampshire. He was descended from a long line of distinguished New England ancestors.
One grandfather, Daniel French, was for a time attorney-general of New Hampshire; the other, William Merchant Richardson, was chief justice of that state. Henry Flagg French, his father, was a successful lawyer who indulged his taste for beauty in nature by practicing, in a modest way, landscape gardening.
Ann Richardson French, his mother, had a talent for drawing which both he and his brother, Daniel Chester French, the sculptor, inherited.
Education
After attending the public schools of Exeter and the Phillips Exeter Academy, French entered Harvard, from which he graduated in 1864. For about a year, he served as a volunteer in the Northern army.
Later, he took a special course in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then in 1867, he settled in Chicago.
Career
From engineering work, French went into landscape gardening, but gradually his interest in art and his desire that it be better understood led him to lecture and write on the subject, and in 1878, he became secretary of the Chicago Academy of Design.
The following year, a new society was organized under the name of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, which in December 1882, became the Art Institute of Chicago. He served this organization first as secretary and then, for thirty-five years, as director.
Having conceived of an art museum as something more than a mere repository of works of art, he labored, in this position, to bring the enjoyment of such treasures within the reach of the common people. He was a president of the American Association of Museums in 1907-08; a president, 1912-13, of the Chicago Literary Club; and for a number of years art editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1907, he was made Officier d’Académie by the French government.
When he died, after a brief illness, his funeral was held in Fullerton Memorial Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Achievements
The big thing accomplished by Mr. French during his thirty-five years as director of the Art Institute was the popularizing of art in Chicago.
He was decorated by the French government with the title, "Officier d'Academic. "
Membership
French was a charter member of the American Association of Museums and the Chicago Literary Club.
Personality
French was a man of rare administrative ability, culture, kindliness, and artistic gifts, and was especially remembered for his efforts in making the Art Institute a cultural influence in his community.
Quotes from others about the person
"He spread the cause of art to the people by getting them to the Art Institute, by writing, and lecturing. "
"His personality has had a remarkable influence on the students who have come to the institute. He has taken the part of the father toward them. He has befriended many financially and otherwise. He is loved by every employee of the institute from the scrubwomen and the janitors to the highest salaried men. "
"Mr. French has had a remarkable career, " said Charles L. Hutchinson, president of the Art institute. "He has been director of the institute since its inception. I know of no man who has led a more ideal life. He was fond of his work and was happy in building up the great institute. He was a sterling man all along the line. "
Connections
French was married on September 9, 1879, to Sarah M. Lovejoy, who died August 8, 1881.
On March 27, 1890, he was married to Alice Helm, who with two sons survived him.
