Havemeyer, Louisine (1855–1929)
Havemeyer, Louisine (1855–1929)
American art collector. Born Louisine Waldron Elder in Philadelphia, PA, 1855; died of heart disease, Jan 6, 1929; dau. of George W. Elder (sugar refiner); m. Henry Osborne Havemeyer (mogul in sugar industry), 1883 (died 1907); children: Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen (b. 1884); Horace Havemeyer (b. 1886); Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960, also a collector).
Convinced husband to collect paintings; joined hands with Mary Cassatt for purchasing expeditions; tracked and stored their vast collection—which included Greco's View of Toledo, Goya's Women on a Balcony, Manet's Le Bal de l'Opéra, Daumier's Third Class Carriage, and Courbet's Landscape and Deer—in 5th Avenue mansion; continued collecting after husband's death (1907); a feminist, lectured in support of enfranchisement and better education for women; bequeathed 142 works of art from "The H.O. Havemeyer Collection" to Metropolitan Museum of Art.
See also Women in World History.