Few collectors left a mark on the art world quite like Leonard A. Lauder, and for me, that legacy is also personal. I first met Mr. Lauder through my stepfather, George Ledes; his son, William P. Lauder, now Chair of the Board of the Estée Lauder Companies, recently introduced me to Emily Braun, Curator of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, via email. Ms. Braun has guided the Lauder Collection since 1987 and spoke movingly at his memorial at Lincoln Center this fall. I’d often run into Mr. Lauder at his favorite restaurants, from Sette Mezzo in New York, to Claridge’s in London, and the old Café Jean-Pierre in Palm Beach. I’d also of course see him at the Norton Museum gala or Society of the Four Arts—where he’d greet me by name with a warm smile and the familiar, “How’s your mother and George?”
My own passion for art took me to Christie’s, where I studied contemporary art, and it was always a delight to see works I admired, like the collection of Irving Penn photographs that hung in Mr. Lauder’s Fifth Avenue apartment. Those moments made his connoisseurship and generosity feel all the more tangible.
Now, as Sotheby’s prepares to offer The Leonard A. Lauder Collection, a once-in-a-generation sale inaugurating its new global headquarters at the Breuer Building on November 18, I asked Emily Braun for PALMER to discuss Mr. Lauder’s “blue sky” philosophy, the sale’s marquee works –from Klimt’s full-length Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, to six sculptures by Matisse, and major works by Munch, Picasso, Martin, Oldenberg and van Bruggen— and the philanthropic vision behind the collection.
The core of the collection will be offered in a standalone 24-lot evening sale at Sotheby’s led by the celebrated full-length Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer by Gustav Klimt (1914-16). A painting which has never before appeared at auction (Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s).
Not long after Mr. Lauder died this summer, we heard someone had seen an enormous painting hoisted by crane out of the 12th floor window of his apartment and loaded on to a truck. Is that true?
Yes, it was Fernand Léger’s enormous painting, The Typographer. Mr. Lauder promised his Cubist Collection of eighty works to the Met in 2013; over the course of the next decade, he gave more than half of them to the museum. (He also continued to acquire, adding nine more paintings, drawings and watercolors, for a total of 90.) When he died, the rest of the collection was trucked up Fifth Avenue to the Met (by expert art handlers, of course!). All the crates could exit via the elevator, but not The Typographer. When it went out the window, and as it was hoisted down, I’m sure he was smiling from above. This was his greatest fantasy come true — the completion of another gift to the public good.
Fernand Léger, Composition (The Typographer), 1918–1919. Oil on canvas. 98 1/4 × 72 1/4 in. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder).
We are told he loved “the wow factor.” Can you give us an example?
“Think blue sky,” he would say, and then add “now figure out how we can get there”. Of course, he helped you think it through. He was a great teacher and mentor, but he also listened and listened carefully. Ten years ago, when it came time to decide where to donate his Cubist collection, the question he raised was how to keep a collection “alive” once it was donated and on the walls. What new ideas could institutions come up with for education, research, exhibitions etc.? We visited with leaders of several top institutions to hear what they would do with his extraordinary Cubist collection, how they think, what they could imagine. He never wanted to make demands, but instead, wanted to get a clear sense of the energy, creativity, and intelligence in the room. On such adventures—or after viewing a picture—he always made time for us to review what we had seen and heard over a cappuccino and, ideally, some opera cake or plum tart.
He is said to have had a “superlative eye.” What is meant by that?
He was a connoisseur: since his teenage years, he went to museums, he looked, looked again, read, sized up other collections and even observed what other people were looking at in museums. In other words, he trained his eye to discern degrees of quality. He was also convinced that provenance—the history of ownership of a picture – was an indicator of quality and historical validity. He thought of great art as a collective, societal treasure, not a personal asset. That is why curators and conservators admired him. He respected them and really understood what they did to study, display, and conserve, our cultural patrimony.
Is it true his love of collecting all started with post cards?
Yes, he was a postcard expert who could remember every one of the hundred-thousand plus he ever bought. Postcard collectors worldwide cherished him for having validated their passion, by getting postcards onto the walls of art museums in critically acclaimed exhibitions and beautiful catalogues. He was fascinated by graphic design from a young age: he used to gather picture postcards of Art Deco Miami Beach hotels, and soon after, World War II propaganda posters. He would be the first to admit that his legendary eye for marketing started there. Leonard loved the intersection between the creativity of artists who designed ephemera, and those who led the avant-garde and changed the way we see the world. And of course, some of the same artists who designed posters and postcards were also fine art painters and sculptors.
What drove Mr. Lauder’s passion for philanthropic giving?
Leonard wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. It wasn’t about having his name on a museum wing, though of course he appreciated those who donated to capital projects! He felt that the hearts and souls of museums were their collections – and their expert curators. We always say he is one of a kind, but actually, he wanted people to follow his example. He wanted to instill excellence, imagination, and care, and not just at the Met and the Whitney, but also at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Peabody Essex, the Norton Museum in Palm Beach, the Portland Museum, and MoMA – all institutions where he gave works of art or entire collections.