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Clarence Buckingham, 1855-1913

Nationality: American
Date of Birth: 1855
Place of Birth: Zanesville, Ohio

Identity:

Clarence Buckingham was a major Chicago financier and print collector.

Life:

Buckingham formed an extremely important collection of Whistler etchings. He was a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago for 11 years. At his death his large and impressive collection of old master prints (Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Schongauer, Hollar, Piranesi, Goya, Delacroix), modern etchings (Meryon, Seymour Haden, Legros, Whistler, Degas, Manet, Gauguin, Munch and Klinger) and Japanese woodcut prints (Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Okumura Masanobu, Suzuki Harunobu, Tôshûsai Sharaku and Katsukawa Shunshôto) passed to his two sisters Kate and Lucy-Maude. Kate, who was herself a collector of prints and Eastern art, augmented the original collection with further works by Schongauer, Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Samuel Palmer, Meryon, Cameron, Haden and Whistler (Weary on Japanese paper). She was also responsible for a large fountain built in her brother's memory in Chicago. Lucy-Maude died in 1920 and Kate in 1937. Their art legacy entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938.

Bibliography:

Gookin, F. W., Catalogue of a memorial exhibition of Japanese color prints from the collection of the late Clarence Buckingham, Chicago; 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 (497); Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 33, no. 4, 1939, pp. 62-64; http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/search (accessed August 2009).