Donelson Hoopes; Art historian & Curator
Hyfler/Rosner
private life, except for weekly forays to the public library
to rent movies and read the New York Times
(After reading about his high-powered life, I liked reading
about his simple retirement. Nice detail.)
The Washington Post
BYLINE: Matt Schudel
March 13, 2006 Monday
Final Edition
Art Historian Donelson Hoopes, 73;
Corcoran Curator, Watercolor Expert
Donelson Hoopes, 73, a museum official and art historian who
was a leading authority on 19th-century American painting,
died Feb. 22 at a hospital in Bangor, Maine, from the
effects of a stroke. He lived in Steuben, Maine.
Mr. Hoopes, the author of more than a dozen books, worked at
museums across the country and was the curator of
exhibitions and collections at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
from 1962 until 1964, when the Corcoran was one of the two
or three most prominent museums in Washington. He was also a
member of the Committee for the Preservation of the White
House.
Mr. Hoopes had a particular interest in watercolor painting
and coined the term "the American medium" to describe the
attraction of U.S. artists to watercolors, particularly in
the 19th century. He wrote books on the watercolors of such
leading American painters as Winslow Homer, John Singer
Sargent and Thomas Eakins.
When he was at the Corcoran, Mr. Hoopes organized a major
exhibition, "The Private World of John Singer Sargent,"
which traveled to three other museums. He also created and
wrote the museum's first recorded tour guide.
He spent much of his career moving from one museum to
another, with periods of independent scholarship between his
curatorial stints. At the peak of his career, he was a
dashingly handsome man with a gift for conversation and a
manner that reminded some of a character from a Henry James
novel. He continued to write and organize exhibitions at
museums well into the 1990s.
Donelson Farquhar Hoopes was born in Philadelphia. He
attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He served in
the Army from 1953 until 1955.
In his twenties, he was named director of the Portland
Museum of Art in Maine and promptly improved its
exhibitions, with major shows on Homer and Marsden Hartley.
From 1965 until 1969, after his two-year tenure at the
Corcoran, Mr. Hoopes was curator of paintings and sculpture
at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
From 1972 until 1975, he was curator of American art at the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he added major works
to the collection. During the 1970s, he published two of his
most significant books, "The American Impressionists" (1972)
and "American Watercolor Painting" (1977).
He served on the Committee for the Preservation of the White
House from 1977 until 1982, helping recommend acquisitions
for the White House art collection and offering advice on
architectural and decorative matters.
As director of the Thomas Cole Foundation from 1983 until
1997, Mr. Hoopes helped spearhead the restoration of the
Catskill, N.Y., home of Cole, a major painter in the
19th-century Hudson River School.
Mr. Hoopes retired to Maine in 1997 and led a largely
private life, except for weekly forays to the public library
to rent movies and read the New York Times. He painted and
wrote at his rural home and maintained two antique cars.
He occasionally lectured on art and became involved in a
local environmental organization, to which he donated his
house for use as a retreat for art historians and artists.
His two marriages ended in divorce. There are no immediate
survivors.