The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1869-12-23
Extraordinary Fine Art COllection--Ec-
centricitieS OF Wealthy BOstOnian.

lT Is not generally known that the mos
extensive and undoubtedly most valuable
collection of oil paintings ever owned il
| the United States is III the City of Boston
and belongs to the estate of the late
Thomas Thompson, Esq, q man noted foI
MS great wealth and many eccentricities
III Will be remembered that Mr.. Thomp
son died Ill New York in the spring ol
the present year, and the singular bequest,
| made In his will were but another instance
of the peculiarities which marked the man
through life.
tie was lover of the fine arts from hi.
| youth, and at the time of the burning OF
the fremont Temple, in Boston, in March
1852, he lost by the conflagPation a fine
| art collection which had cost him upward:
OF $92 900, and this, be it remembered
was at time when money was gold and
everything was cheap.
This misfortune for time discouraged
him, but he could not overcome his tastes
and habits. In half dozen years his
new collection was greater than the one
he had lost, occupying an entire build.
ing, consisting of more than dozen large
rooms, and the pictures not only covered
the walls, but were positively kept in
piles so that it may probably be truthful
ly said that no one except the owner ever
saw the entire collection, or anything ap-
preaching the whole Of it.
Some old citizens of Boston, presidents
of the banks and insurance companies
where Mr. Thompson did business, artists
and LITERARY men, were occasionally invited
TO pass an afternoon or often an entire day
among these treasures, but they are unan.
lmous in the expression that they could
not begin to look at them all. Portraits
OF citizens and friends, notable personages,
copies of the old masters, and many IN
doubted originals, best specimens Of the
English, French, Italian, Dutch, and in
tact every school, have place in this re-
markable collection. No artist nor picture
dealer who did not at times have transac-
tions with this man. The poor artist
found him an appreciative and kindly
critic, and received liberal price; his OBJ
ject then was to aid the artist and advance
the cause of art. The professional dealer
found him different man entirely. No
one quicker detected a cheat or demanded
more for his money, but as it was always
known that with him market could be
found at some price, and the pay was cash
in hand, he was a customer not to be neg
lected. This vast collection contains
many paintings bOu hit for few hun0red
dollars which had been previously sold for
as many thousands; there are also many
for which Mr.. Thompson paid several
thousand dollars each, and that are per
haps to-day worth greatly more No col
lection known is SO rich in rare and origi-
nal pictures.
AS some men are misers of money, this
eccentric person was miser with his pic
lures; he loved them as his life, and he
kept them jealously to himself Probably
not a hundred persons have ever seen
them, and an application to him for that
purpose was almost invariably met with a
polite but studied evasion of a compliance
with the request.
Nearly ten years ago, Mr.. Thompson
had misunderstanding with the assess
sors of Boston, and cOnceiving himself to
have been injured by their action, resolved
to leave the city of his birth, never again
to return to it. This resolve he studiously
kept, and although residing for severa!
years in the immediate vicinity, and being
a large real estate owner in the CITY, he
never revisited it, ceased to communicate
with his former friends no resided there
and apparently banished from his Thoughts
the fact of its existence. From the day
he left the city he ceased to buy pictures.
The artist lost good friend, and picture
venders missed their best customer The
entire collection was slowed away, and
from that day to this he has been securely
guarded from every eye until within the
past month Mr. j. Harvey Young, the
well-knOwn portrait painter, and director
of the Fine Arts Exhibition of Boston
Atheneum, was employed by order of the
EXecutriX to examine and catalogue the
collection.
Mr.. Young is probably the only living
man who has seen all these pictures.
They are stored in most unpromising
street, and in building which no one
would suspect of being such a repository.
Mr.. Young asserts that although he had
in his youth some knowledge of them,
and had himself contributed one or two
efforts, yet when he entered the building
and found such immense piles closely
packed one against another, tier after tier,
and floor above floor, he was aghast, and
although devoting to the work all the
spare time which the demands of his pro-
fession allowed, and having all the assist
ance he required, yet weeks were needed
before anything like a list could be pre-
pared
Bierstadt, the artist, who knew Mr..
Thompson well, and of whose own paint
ings there are some dozen or more, ex-
presses an opinion that a similar collection
cannot now be put together for half
million dollars. No single hall in the
is sufficiently large to eXhibi.
them. Some idea may be conveyed by
the fact that when they were removed To
their present resting place the actual cost
of carriage was about $500, and in making
to remove the collection To
New York, where it will shortly be taken,
not less than ten freight cars will be re-
quired, even if packed close without box
ing or the waste of any supertluous ROOM
Upon the catalogue made by Mr.. Young
are found signed pictures of all schools,
many unquestioned originals sby such ar
It's as Sir Charles Eastlake, Thomas Law
renee, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Peter
Lely, Godfrey Kneller, Allan Ramsay,
George Morland, Gainsborough, Phillips,
Hogarth, Meadows, Etty, Turner, Mas
myth, Rumney, Opie, Copley, Stewart,
and Stoddard of the English
school, and Boucher, Lambinet, De Bufe,
Mignard, Baron, Burnet, Isabey, De
Dreux, of the French. Italian, Dutch and
German, are represented by Schidoni,
Guercino, Teniers, Seebach, Paul Zuccarel
Ii, Vandyke, Van Ostade, Diaz, Boucher.
Van Mas, and many others equally well
known, whose names have been made IA
nous, and original pictures from whose
hands have become rare. There are large
number of copies and originals by the most
celebrated artists of the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries, such as Titan,
Rembrandt, Rubens. and others. Many
portraits of the beauties of American So
ciety are buried beneath the weight of
pictures, and will be
brought to the air and sunshine once
more
American artists are largely represented,
and many of the early works of men now
famous may be found here, some of them
giving the early promise of genius now at
its zenith. The names of Sully, Inman,
Bierstadt, Durand, Brown, Peale, Hart,
Birch, Doughty, and nearly every one
who was known ten years ago may be
foupd LARGELY reDresented on the catalogue