Walter Stanton Brewster, 1872-1954
Nationality: American
Date of Birth: 1872
Identity:
Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954) was a Chicago broker and print collector.
Life:
A graduate of Yale, Brewster became a Trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was fascinated by Whistler, both the man and artist and formed an important collection of Whistler etchings, as well as many other items pertaining to the artist. He donated his extensive collection of Whistleriana to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1934, comprising prints, correspondence, newspaper cuttings and photographs. Prior to this in 1923 he had given 30 prints by Rodolphe Bresdin to the museum, the former collection of Whistler's friend, the Symbolist writer and poet, Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921).
Brewster had two distinct collector's marks, one for his Whistler prints and a second for works by other artists. Among his Whistler etchings was a cancelled set, published by the Fine Art Society in London in 1879, acquired by Brewster from Walter M. Hill, another Chicago collector. Brewster also had a bound edition of 26 cancelled impressions from the Second Venice Set. His Naval Review set was purportedly that which Whistler presented to Queen Victoria as a Jubilee gift in June 1887. However, there are no collector's stamps or marks on individual impressions and Queen Victoria's actual set, bound in a mustard yellow leather presentation folio with gold stamped design, is in the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow.
Bibliography:
Lugt, Frits, Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes: marques estampillèes et écrites de collections particulières et publiques; marques de marchands, de monteurs et d'imprimeurs; etc..., Amsterdam, 1921 (2651a); Prentiss, Mildred J., 'Prints and Drawings by Rodolphe Bresdin', Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 25, no. 4, April 1931, pp. 55-56.