Grenville Lindall Winthrop

Grenville Lindall Winthrop (1864–1943) was an American lawyer and art collector from New York City. A direct descendant of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he restored historic buildings in Lenox, Massachusetts, and assembled a large art collection in his Upper East Side townhouse. He bequeathed his entire art collection to the Fogg Art Museum of his alma mater, Harvard University.

Early life

Grenville Lindall Winthrop was born on February 11, 1864, in New York City. His father, Robert Winthrop, His brother, Beekman Winthrop, went on to serve as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907. He had another brother, Frederic Winthrop.

He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geology and art history in 1886 and an LL.B. in 1889. and he was a member of the Porcellian Club. He was influenced from an early age by Charles Eliot Norton and his nephew, Francis Bullard, two prominent art collectors from Boston. Winthrop never lent any of his artwork to museums.

Winthrop collected "early Wedgwood, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Mesoamerican masks, gold-ground Italian paintings, French drawings, clocks, Korean Buddhas."

Winthrop served on the Visiting Committee of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University for twelve years. His wife predeceased him in 1900. His funeral was held at the Grace Episcopal Church. in New York City, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The exhibit was called "A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L Winthrop Collection, Harvard University."

Winthrop's Lenox estate, Groton Place, was purchased by educator Max Bondy, who opened the Windsor Mountain School there shortly after Winthrop's death. It is now owned by Boston University.