Rudolf Ernst

Henry P. McIlhenny, Philadelphia

His sale, Christie's, New York, 20 May 1987, lot 163

Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 22 May 2018, lot 75

Born in Vienna in 1854, Rudolf Ernst was the son of the architectural painter Leopold Ernst. After attending the Vienna Academy in 1869 and exhibiting in Munich he traveled to Italy in 1874. As early as 1876 Ernst decided to settle in Paris where he would exhibit at the Salon des Artistes Français for the following six decades.

American connoisseur Henry P. McIlhenny (1910-1986) served the Philadelphia Museum of Art for fifty years, first as Curator of Decorative Arts and later as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. His remarkable collection of 19th-century paintings, by artists such as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Edgar Degas, was housed in his Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia townhouse and Glenvagh Castle, his country estate in Ireland (a fitting location for his important Victorian art), joining neoclassical and Empire furniture and Anglo-Indian objects among many other works representing his many passions. In 1986, around 450 objects from McIlhenny’s collection were bequeathed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a transformative gift and lasting testament to his expansive interests and keen eye.