Sixth Generation

26. Milton LOWENTHAL^44,58 was born on 31 October 1910 in Manhattan, New York, USA.^42,58,59 ⁴² He died on 24 May 1987 at the age of 76 in New York City, New York, USA.⁵⁸ He was a lawyer. Milton had no children. New York Times
Collectors Both Daring and Lucky

By HOLLAND COTTER
DEC. 20, 1996
FIFTY years ago, major private collections of vanguard American art were few and far between. The venturesome individuals who did collect such work were lucky, though. They had first pick of a fertile harvest and, if they chose wisely, they had treasures for a song.
Edith and Milton Lowenthal chose wisely. Between 1943 and 1965, these two New Yorkers collected more than 150 paintings and sculptures, most dating from the 1930's and 40's. And while some of their selections dated quickly, as often as not they struck gold.
Many of their best buys, landmark examples of American modernism, they gave to museums during their lives or by bequest. The Metropolitan Museum of Art received seven paintings and a drawing in 1992, and now, in a handsome gesture of gratitude, it is showcasing these works with 40 additional pieces assembled from around the country in ''American Art: The Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection.''
The exhibition is stylistically diverse; it couldn't be otherwise. The Lowenthals (he was a lawyer; she was a psychologist) had eclectic tastes. But its very variety is revealing, not only of the sensibilities of the collectors themselves, but also of the complex paths explored by American art just before and during World War II.
The Lowenthals got their first intensive exposure to new art at the Metropolitan itself when, in the winter of 1942-43, they visited its ''Artists for Victory'' exhibition, mounted to coincide with the first anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What they saw was predominantly figurative work in an Expressionist mode, and after more than 20 return visits to the show, that was what they began to collect.
Over the years they remained loyal to this content-heavy, quasi-narrative style of painting, and there are several examples in the show. Some, like Ben Shahn's monumental ''Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti'' (1931-32), are overtly and persuasively polemical. Others, like Abraham Rattner's keyed-up spiritual allegories, honorable in intention, come across as period pieces today.
What is surprising, though, is how quickly and radically the Lowenthals departed from these initial preferences, casting their net wide and pulling in outstanding prizes, several of which are now owned by the Met.
One of these is the Precisionist painting ''Americana'' (1931), by Charles Sheeler, its overhead depiction of a room furnished with austere Shaker tables and rugs amounting to a paean to a national style. Another is the snappy pink, green and lemon yellow of ''Report From Rockport'' (1940), by Stuart Davis, in which the artist's blend of American popular art and Matisse explode like a shower of confetti.
A similar mix of the urbane and the everyday is evident in two paintings by Milton Avery, one of a lobster-red baby squirming on a chair, the other a full-length portrait of the artist's 11-year-old daughter gathering shells by the sea and looking provocatively like a prepubescent Venus.
But the great portraits and seascapes in the show are by Marsden Hartley. The Lowenthals first bought Hartley's work in 1944 and then collected it avidly and in depth, from his pre-World War I German abstractions (two are here) to the late ''Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine, No. 2,'' done the year before his death.
Most striking of all are Hartley's gripping, near-devotional portraits of the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder and the English poet John Donne. Hartley, a poet himself, passionately admired Donne's level-eyed view of mortality, and he depicts the poet's stoic face locked in a rock-hard shroud. Ryder he turns into a combination of visionary sage and street crazy, wearing his flowing beard like a scarf and staring off into space with an astigmatic gaze.
Not everything in ''American Painting,'' which has been organized by Lisa Minz Messinger, is on this level. The single painting by Paul Burlin makes one glad to be spared the 10 others that the Lowenthals bought, and it leaves one to wonder at the work they passed over, namely the great American abstraction of the postwar years.
Still, the best paintings here are textbook classics now, and each is a tribute to the refinement and receptivity of the Lowenthals' eye. At the same time, one remembers, the collection was conceived not as a mere sum of its brilliant parts. The collectors saw it as a gathering of American art for an American audience in a period when ''American'' carried implications of imaginative freedom, diversity and daring.
Can the term be used in the same spirit when applied to new art today? It seldom is, but I think it can be, and this show helps rekindle the warmth of that enthusiasm.
''American Art: The Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection'' remains on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82d Street, through Jan. 12.
The Milton and Edith Lowenthal papers, 1940-1989 are held by the Archives of American Art.

Overview
Collection Information

Size
: 4.4 linear ft. (on 5 microfilm reels)
Summary
: Biographical material; correspondence and greeting cards; writings; business records; printed material about the Lowenthal collection, exhibitions, and artists, photographs; scrapbooks; and sound recordings.
REEL 4904, frames 1-114: Thirty-nine greeting cards from artists, illustrated with original prints, drawings, and off-set reproductions. Included are 20 from Jose de Creeft and Lorrie Goulet, 8 from Abraham and Esther Rattner, 4 each from Chaim Gross and Milton and Sally Avery, 2 from Max Weber, and 1 from Jacob Lawrence.
REELS 4904 (fr. 126-end) - 4908: Biographical material includes a resume and transcripts for Edith Lowenthal, an obituary of Isadore Lowenthal, M.D., Milton's father, and clippings related to the Lowenthals. General correspondence, 1947-1991, is primarily with museums, university galleries, and publishers regarding loans and gifts of art work, contributions, lectures, travel, and permissions to reproduce for publication. In addition, there are a correspondence file, 1963-1990, with the Brooklyn Museum, regarding loans, contributions, and conservation work, and correspondence from artists, including letters, greeting cards, and announcements from Stuart Davis, Jacob Lawrence, Josef Presser, Abraham Rattner, Charles Sheeler, Max Weber, and others.
Writings and notes by Milton Lowenthal are about the role of the art collector, his thoughts on works of art and artists, and drafts of letters. Writings by others include Henry Miller's "The Rattner Portfolio" and Elizabeth McCausland's proposal for a Marsden Hartley catalog raisonne. Material relating specifically to the Lowenthal Collection includes lists, valuations, collection exhibition records, documentation of gifts, financial records, receipts, clippings, catalogs, and a 2 v. index of acquisitions. A file containing memorabilia relating to Stuart Davis includes clippings, an address book, printed materials, and notes.
Printed materials include clippings about artists, collectors, and other art related issues and exhibitions, exhibition announcements, and catalogs. Photographs are of artists and works of art. Files relating to the "Friends of the Whitney", ca. 1956-1961, include correspondence, by-laws, annual and other reports, statements, and catalogs of loan exhibitions. Scrapbooks (4 v.), 1942-1953, contain letters and greeting cards (many illustrated) from friends, artists and associates, clippings, exhibition announcements, and catalogs about artists, museums, and exhibitions.
Unmicrofilmed material consists of negatives, slides, and transparencies of works of art and 3 phonograph albums (78 r.p.m) of a radio interview with art collectors and a recording of a school performance by Stuart Davis' son.
Biographical/Historical Note

Art collectors, benefactors of the Brooklyn Museum; New York, N.Y. Mr. Lowenthal was a lawyer whose clients included Stuart Davis.
Provenance

Donated 1993 by Louis M. Bernstein, Mrs. Lowenthal's nephew, except for illustrated greeting cards on reel 4904, frames 1-114, which were received as a loan for microfilming.
Location of Originals

Illustrated greeting cards, reel 4904, frames 1-114: Originals returned to the lenders after microfilming.

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/milton-and-edith-lowenthal-papers-6365 There is a short book written for an exhibition about the entire collection here:
http://www.academia.edu/24192898/American_Art_The_Edith_and_Milton_Lowenthal_Collection_The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art

Milton LOWENTHAL and Edith A. ? were married. Edith A. ?⁶⁰ was born on 21 November 1909 in New York City, New York, USA.⁶⁰ She died in May 1991 at the age of 81 in New York City, New York, USA.⁶¹ She had no children.