Adele Earnest
Adele Earnest (1901-1993) was an American folk art collector and historian, noted as an authority on wildfowl decoys.
Adele Earnest | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1901 |
| Died | 1993 (aged 91–92) |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College |
| Occupation | Art collector |
| Spouse(s) | Joel Earnest |
| Children | 1 |
Early life[]
Earnest was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, and attended Wellesley College. As a young woman, newly married, she lived for a time in Pennsylvania German country, an experience to which she ascribed her interest in folk art.
Art collection[]
She worked for a time as Eva LaGalliene's stage manager before moving to Stony Point, New York, where with , she opened the Stony Point Folk Art Gallery in 1948. The gallery soon became known for its displays of folk sculpture, of which decoys were a particular highlight. Growing from this interest, Earnest in 1965 published The Art of the Decoy: American Bird Carving, among the first books to discuss decoys in a scholarly context.[1]
Alongside Hamilton, , , , and Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., she was a founding trustee of the American Folk Art Museum.[2] Instrumental in supporting many of its early programs, she donated numerous works to the collection, including a pair of decoys by ; also among her gifts was a weathervane depicting the Archangel Gabriel which went on to become a symbol of the institution.
In 1984 she published a combination memoir-history of the field of folk art collecting, Folk Art in America: A Personal View.[1] Earnest traced her interest in the art of decoys to a set of three carvings of which she purchased in 1954; two of these she sold to Stewart Gregory, and one has since been dubbed the Earnest-Gregory dovetailed goose.[3]
Death[]
She died in a nursing home in Mount Vernon, Washington. She was survived by her son, Eugene, and two grandchildren, her husband Joel having died many years before.[4] Earnest's papers are held in the archives of the American Folk Art Museum.[5]
References[]
- ^ a b Gerard C. Wertkin (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95614-1.
- ^ National Museum of American Art (U.S.); Lynda Roscoe Hartigan (1 January 1990). Made with Passion. National Museum of American Art. ISBN 978-0-87474-289-3.
- ^ "A Record Finish As Copley Closes Chapter On $7.35 Million O'Brien Sporting Collection". Retrieved Apr 12, 2019.
- ^ "Adele Earnest, Expert On Folk Art, Dies at 92". Dec 3, 1993. Retrieved Apr 12, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ "American Folk Art Museum Archives | AFAM | Adele Earnest Papers". folkartmuseum.libraryhost.com. Retrieved Apr 12, 2019.
- 1901 births
- 1993 deaths
- American women historians
- American art historians
- Women art historians
- American art collectors
- Women art collectors
- 20th-century American historians
- 20th-century American women writers
- 20th-century American philanthropists
- Wellesley College alumni
- People from Waltham, Massachusetts
- People from Stony Point, New York
- Historians from Massachusetts
- Historians from New York (state)
- Philanthropists from Massachusetts
- Philanthropists from New York (state)
- American women philanthropists
- Museum founders