Martha Codman Karolik

Martha Catherine Codman Karolik (July 24, 1858 – April 21, 1948) was a philanthropist and American art collector based in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1939 and 1947 she and her husband Maxim Karolik donated two major collections of early American furniture, paintings, and prints and drawings to the Boston Fine Arts Museum, which built a new wing to house it. She also commissioned him to build nearby supporting structures of stables and apartments, known as the Codman Carriage House and Stable.

In 1928 at the age of 69, Codman married Maxim Karolik, a much younger Russian opera singer. Martha Codman Karolik sold her Washington, DC house in 1938, during the Great Depression.

In 1910 Codman commissioned her cousin again, to design what was known as "Berkeley Villa" (now Bellevue House), a Colonial Revival mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, where she spent most summers. Later the house was owned by Jane Pickens Hoving, an American singer on Broadway, radio and television for 20 years. She was married to Walter Hoving, owner of Tiffany & Company and Bonwit Teller. Ronald Lee Fleming, an urban planner, bought the house in 1999. Bellevue House was Ogden Codman's last project in Newport. It now houses part of the American art collection that Martha Codman amassed, at first by herself and then with her husband.

On February 2, 1928, Martha Codman married Maxim Karolik (1893-1963), a Russian opera singer by profession, scandalizing Boston society. He was 30 or 35 years younger than she.

Martha Codman was a leader in Newport, a member of Art Association of Newport, Garden Club, Improvement Association, Newport Historical Society, and Redwood Library.

In 1944 Maxim Karolik bought Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole. Martha Codman donated the painting to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1947. This painting is still held by the museum and can be seen on display in their galleries.

It was among 225 paintings the couple donated to the museum in 1947, works that are largely from the period 1815–1865.

Martha Codman Karolik died on April 21, 1948.