Samuel Putnam Avery

Samuel Putnam Avery (March 11, 1822 – September 22, 1904) was an influential American print dealer, connoisseur, and philanthropist based in New York City. He played a central role in the 19th-century American art market, advising collectors, supporting cultural institutions, and helping to shape collections that later formed parts of major museums and libraries. Avery's activities connected him with artists, patrons, museums, and academic institutions across the United States and Europe.

Early life and family

Born in New York City in 1822, Avery was raised amid the commercial and cultural expansion of antebellum New York. He apprenticed in engraving and printmaking, aligning him professionally with figures associated with the Hudson River School, American Academy of the Fine Arts, and communities of printmakers in Manhattan. His marriage to Mary Ann Ogden linked him to families active in New York civic and cultural life. His son, Henry Ogden Avery, became an architect and later lent his name to an academic chair and collection that intersected with institutions such as Columbia University and the Cooper Union.

Career as an art dealer and collector

Avery established himself as a leading dealer in European and American prints, entering networks that included dealers, collectors, and artists like Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and contemporaries in New York's art market. He maintained business and scholarly ties with European houses and auction rooms in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Florence, and Rome, participating in sales alongside firms such as the Sotheby's lineage and brokers who handled works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, and J. M. W. Turner. Domestically, Avery advised collectors whose tastes overlapped with patrons of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. His cataloging, authentication, framing, and distribution of prints involved collaboration with printmakers and conservators associated with the New-York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural History (in shared New York cultural circuits), and the trustees of newly founded arts organizations in the post-Civil War era.

Contributions to art institutions and philanthropy

Avery contributed materially and curatorially to institutions that include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where his donations and advisory role influenced acquisitions, and the New York Public Library, which received portions of his print collection and contributed to the growth of their graphic arts holdings. He was active with trustees and founders connected to the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago (through exchanges and influence among collectors), and municipal cultural boards in New York City. He supported educational initiatives at the Cooper Union, the Pratt Institute, and allied with art educators linked to Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania art histories. Avery's philanthropy also intersected with patrons associated with the development of the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Prints and Drawings, efforts by curators influenced by S. R. Koehler-style collecting, and transatlantic collectors such as Henry Clay Frick, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Samuel P. Avery-era contemporaries (collectors and dealers across New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago).

Personal life and legacy

Avery's personal network included artists, critics, and civic leaders active in institutions such as the Century Association, the American Fine Arts Society, and social circles tied to the Knickerbocker Club and other New York organizations. His son, Henry Ogden Avery, whose premature death impacted Avery, left a legacy in architectural education that became associated with collections and endowments influencing the academic landscape of Columbia University and the Cooper Union. Avery's collection and bequests shaped formation and enrichment of holdings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, and regional museums across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Posthumously, his name appears in provenance records, auction catalogues, and institutional accession logs that link to later collectors like Isabella Stewart Gardner, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr..

Selected works and collections under his care

Avery specialized in European old master prints and contemporary graphic works, handling and advising on pieces by Rembrandt, Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Gustave Doré, Francisco Goya, and William Blake. He brokered and curated collections that included works by American artists and printmakers such as Asher B. Durand, Alexander H. Wyant, John Frederick Kensett, Martin Johnson Heade, Winslow Homer, and James McNeill Whistler. His dealings connected to major collections and institutions that later housed works from his inventory: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and university collections at Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University. Auction catalogues and dealer records tie Avery to sales and provenance chains involving Sotheby's, Christie's, and prominent American collectors including Henry Clay Frick, J. Pierpont Morgan, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Thomas B. Clarke, Samuel P. Avery-era clients in New York, and regional collectors in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

Category:1822 births Category:1904 deaths Category:American art dealers Category:Philanthropists from New York (state)