Richard L. Feigen, Art Dealer and Collector, Remembered

  • January 31, 2021 17:25

  • Email
From Richard Feigen the Getty Museum in Los Angeles purchased Orazio Gentileschi's painting "Danaë and the Shower of Gold" (ca. 1623) for $30.5 million, at Sotheby’s, in 2016.
The J. Paul Getty Museum

New York art dealer and collector Richard L. Feigen passed away from COVID-19 complications on January 29, 2021. He was 90. Read remembrances from Artforum and ARTnews.

The Richard L. Feigen & Co. wrote on the gallery's website:

"It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the passing of our founder and chairman, Richard L. Feigen. 

Richard opened his first space in Chicago in 1957 and operated several galleries for over 60 years until the end of his life.  At his last location on 77th Street, Richard continued his daily work schedule and enjoyed seeing colleagues and clients who came by to pay tribute to the legendary elder statesman.   He was passionate, he was brilliant, and he was never shy of giving his opinion to the high and mighty, be that about a particular painting, the policy of a museum or how a collection should grow.  We admired his vision, grit and stamina until the end.

"The Dormition of the Virgin" by Carlo Saraceni (Italian, Venice 1579?–1620 Venice) ca. 1612. Oil on canvas, 120 1/8 x 91 in. Gift of Richard L. Feigen, in honor of Max Hollein, and in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2019.
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Collectors and museums all over the world have benefited from his vision and he was generous with the institutions that he loved. He started out by collecting modern works and later, the dialogue with art historians such as Sidney Freedberg and Laurence Kanter resulted in one of the finest private collections of Italian pictures in the country.  To his alma mater Yale (B.A.'52) he gifted many of his renowned works of the early Italian Renaissance.

In 2019 Richard donated Carlo Saraceni’s magnificent altarpiece, The Dormition of the Virgin, to the Met in honor of Max Hollein and in celebration of the Museum’s 150th anniversary. Keith Christiansen calls it, 'a major gift that transforms the Museum’s representation of baroque painting.'

Above all, Richard was a passionate collector.  A giant of the art world, he will be fondly remembered for his larger-than-life personality and for all the lives he touched."

Read more at ARTnews

Tags: european art

  • Email

More News Feed Headlines

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) Sunset, 1830-5.

After 13 Years, ARTFIXdaily to Cease Daily News Service

  • ArtfixDaily / August 15th, 2022

ARTFIXdaily will end weekday e-newsletter service after 13 years of publishing art world press releases, events and ...

Read More...
Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Critical Mass, 2002 (Courtesy of the Cheech Marin Collection and Riverside Art Museum).

Inaugural Exhibition at The Cheech Highlights Groundbreaking Chicano Artists

  • ArtfixDaily / July 7th, 2022

One of the nation’s first permanent spaces dedicated to showcasing Chicano art and culture opened on June ...

Read More...
Jacob Lawrence,.  .  .  is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?—Patrick Henry,1775 , Panel 1, 1955, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56, egg tempera on hardboard.  Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross.  © 2022 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Crystal Bridges Explores the U.S. Constitution Through Art in New Exhibition 'We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy'

  • ArtfixDaily / July 7th, 2022

Original print of the U.S. Constitution headlines exhibition sponsored by Ken Griffin (who purchased it for $43.2 ...

Read More...
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), Christ of St John of the Cross, 1951, oil on canvas © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Dalí / El Greco Side-by-Side Exhibit Prompts: 'Are They Really Paintings of the Same Thing?'

  • ArtfixDaily / July 6th, 2022

From July 9 to December 4, 2022, The Auckland Project in the U.K. will unite two Spanish masterpieces from British ...

Read More...

Related Press Releases