\"Corcoran Gallery of Art\" William Wilson Corcoran 7x.5 Hand Signed COA For Sale
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\"Corcoran Gallery of Art\" William Wilson Corcoran 7x.5 Hand Signed COA:
$139.99
Up for sale is an autographed Vintage 7x.5 Hand Signed
by William Wilson Corcoran Dated 1843 . This piece comes certified
through Todd Mueller, and comes with matching COA.
ES - 2519
William
Wilson Corcoran (December
27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Corcoran
was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in
the District of Columbia. He
was one of 12 children (six boys and six girls), six of whom survived to
maturity, born to Thomas Corcoran, a
well-to-do merchant twice elected as mayor of Georgetown, and Hannah Lemmon.
His father was born in Ireland, settled in Georgetown in 1788, and established
a leather business.
William Corcoran was raised in Georgetown where he studied classics and
mathematics at local private schools run by Alexander Kirk and the Reverend
Addison Belt, and also took classes for a year at Georgetown College, the
predecessor of Georgetown University.
Instead of finishing his education, he joined the family business and developed
a successful business career. Corcoran entered business at the age of 17,
working in dry goods store owned by two brothers, and opened his own branch
store two years later.The Corcoran brothers established a wholesale sale and
commission business, but their ventures failed after the Panic of 1819. He worked in another family business, and
in 1828, he took control of large amount of real estate from his father.
Corcoran was employed as a clerk at the Bank of Columbia at Georgetown
branch, and then as a real estate and loan manager at the Second Bank of the United
States in Washington. He also participated in the domestic
slave trade. In 1837, Corcoran established a brokerage firm on Pennsylvania
Avenue at 15th Street. He was successful and in 1840 entered
into a partnership with George Washington Riggs, a
son of Elisha Riggs. The Corcoran
and Riggs private banking firm enjoyed the patronage of Treasury
Secretary Levi Woodbury and
prospered after it re-sold to investors $5 million of U.S. Treasury notes in
1843. In 1845, it purchased the former Second Bank of
the United States building located on 15th Street at New York Avenue.
In Spring 1847, the Corcoran and Riggs sold to investors
at home and abroad the bulk of two issues of the U.S. Treasury Mexican War bonds;
Corcoran's earnings were $1 million. In 1854, Corcoran retired from Corcoran
and Riggs to focus on his investments in real estate, land grants,
armaments, railroads, as well as pursue pleasure and philanthropic endeavors. In
contrast to many contemporary art patrons, Corcoran was not exclusively interested
in European works, and he assembled one of the first important collections
of American art. By the mid-1850s his pictures and sculpture
were overflowing his mansion on Lafayette Square and
in 1859 he hired the foremost architect of the day, James Renwick, to build a picture gallery in the Second Before the gallery was ready, however, the Civil War began, and
Corcoran, a Southern sympathizer, left Washington for Paris,
where his son-in-law, George Eustis Jr., was a representative of the Confederacy.
The half-finished building designed by Renwick was taken over by the U.S.
Government and used as a supply depot. When the war was over, Corcoran returned
to Washington; the building was finished in 1869 and the Corcoran Gallery of
Art opened in 1874, but the structure was soon outgrown. A new building for the
Corcoran Gallery of Art and its nascent school of art (now the Corcoran College
of Art + Design) was designed by American architect Ernest Flagg in the Beaux-Arts style and
completed in 1897, nine years after Corcoran's death. The façade of the
building reflects the "Neo-Grec," an offshoot of Beaux-Arts
that attempted to reflect the functions of the building by revealing detailed
and decorative accents on the exterior. The Corcoran Gallery's first home is
now the Renwick Gallery, a
Smithsonian museum. In 1854, after his retirement, he devoted himself and his
substantial fortune to art and philanthropy. In 1848, Corcoran had purchased 15 acres (6 ha)
of land for Oak Hill
Cemetery, which overlooks Rock Creek Park. He organized the Oak Hill Cemetery Company to
oversee the cemetery, which was formally incorporated by Act of Congress on March 3, 1849. Corcoran paid for the
construction of a Gothic Revival chapel
in Oak Hill Cemetery, commonly known as the Renwick
Chapel. It is the only building designed by Renwick in
Washington other than Corcoran's original museum (see below) and the first
("Castle") building on the Washington Mall of the Smithsonian
Institution. Corcoran also established a $10,000 fund, administered by the
Benevolent Society, to purchase firewood for the poor in Georgetown. Corcoran
also gave many gifts to several universities, including The George Washington
University, the Maryland Agricultural
College, the College of William and
Mary, and Washington and Lee
University. Corcoran also contributed to a fund to purchase George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, after his family could no longer
keep it up, and the federal
government refused to purchase it.[4] One of William Wilson Corcoran's longtime business
associate and friend was the renowned George Peabody. Corcoran made many other important bequests to
the people of Washington, including several departments of the Columbian
University (now the George Washington
University), and the land and half the construction costs for what
is now the Church of
the Ascension and Saint Agnes. Corcoran was also the President of
the Corporation of Columbian (George Washington) University. Early in 1883, Corcoran
arranged to have the body of John Howard Payne returned to the United States, an
expense he personally bore. Payne, actor, poet, and author of "Home! Sweet Home!" had been the United States Consul to
the Bey of Tunis in 1852 and had died there.
Payne had been good friends of Corcoran and his business partner, George W.
Riggs, in 1850, prior to Payne's second appointment as Consul to Tunis. Corcoran
also established in 1869 the Louise Home
for Women—named in memory of his deceased wife—to help support and
maintain impoverished women. The home opened in 1871 on Massachusetts Ave. NW,
between 15th and 16th Streets, in Washington, D.C., where it operated until
1947; the original building was razed in 1949. The Louise Home moved to the
Codman House at Decatur Place and 22nd Street NW and in 1976 merged operations
with the Abraham and Laura Lisner Home for Aged Women. As of 2021, the
Louise Home continues to operate as part of the />
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