Charles Lang Freer

Early life Charles Lang Freer was born in Kingston, New York, United States, in 1856. He was the son of Jacob Roosa Freer (1819–1875) and Phoebe Jane Townsend Freer (1826–1868). He was a direct descendant of Hugo Freer, a New Paltz patentee and the first Freer to the United States. The third child of six, his family had little money. Freer's mother died when he was fourteen years of age. After the seventh grade, Freer left school and took a job in a cement factory. In the early 1870s, Freer was noticed by Frank J. Hecker, then general superintendent of the New York, Kingston, & Syracuse Railroad, while working as a clerk in a general store. In the 1870s, a group of investors from Detroit decided to build a rail line in Logansport, Indiana; they hired Hecker to manage the project. Hecker brought the younger Freer along. Seven years later, in 1899, Freer organized a 13-company merger, creating American Car and Foundry in 1899. In the late 19th century, Freer's health declined markedly. The economic depression of the 1890s paired with the stress of Freer's position within the company caused both physical and psychological trauma to the industrialist. Freer was diagnosed with neurasthenia, a nervous condition widespread among the upper-class in the United States. Treatment for neurasthenia included long periods of rest, and men were encouraged to pursue activities in the wilderness. Freer's treatment included outings in the Canadian wilderness and the Catskills. In 1899, Freer retired from industry, focusing his time and efforts on collecting art and travel. Death Freer died in 1919 while staying at the Gotham Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, New York City of what was described as a stroke of apoplexy. He left the bulk of his art collection, more than 5000 objects, to the federal government; it is now housed in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. Freer had no wife or children. The legacy of Charles Lang Freer is not just his wealth or art collection, but it is also his generosity as a patron to artists and the public. The boy who left school to work in a cement factory ultimately presented the United States its very first collection of Fine Art. ==Art collection==

, The Peacock Room, 1876-1877, Leather, Wood, Oil Paint, Canvas, Freer Gallery of Art Freer is known for his collection of late nineteenth century American painting and Asian art, developed largely after his retirement in 1899. Yet, the industrialist had begun collecting art and prints sixteen years prior, in 1883, when Freer purchased a selection of Old Masters prints from New York dealer, Frederick Keppel. His interests continued to grow in subsequent years through personal and professional connections. These relationships fundamentally shaped the collecting principles and philosophy of the collector. Two friendships, however, stand out for the effect they had on the collector and deserve further explanation. The first is with painter, James McNeill Whistler, who is largely considered to be the catalyst for Freer's Asian collection, while the second is with Asian art scholar, Ernest Fenollosa, who helped shape Freer's view of collecting. Freer and Ferguson differed in their tastes, however, as Ferguson preferred Ming and Qing styles. Freer was later asked to appraise a group of paintings Ferguson offered to the Metropolitan Museum, and recommended the purchase only of the earlier paintings, not the Ming and Qing items. There is also indication that Freer had been thinking of a museum project long before it was proposed to the Smithsonian. In the summer of 1900, Freer traveled through Venice, Munich, Nuremberg, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. While in these cities he visited the major ethnological museums, where he drew floor plans and wrote note in a journal. ==Freer Gallery of Art==

. On December 15, 1905, Freer sent U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt a letter in which Freer outlined his initial bequest offer. James McMillan, Freer's friend, U.S. Senator, and partner in the Michigan Car Company, championed the idea of a shaping Washington, DC into a beautiful capital city. His influence helped guide Freer's offer towards Washington. Negotiations continued for the next five months, stalled briefly by Samuel P. Langley, the director of the Smithsonian Institution. In May 1906, the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution accepted Freer's gift on behalf of the United States Government. Freer's gift, provided not only his collection but also the building and initial endowment was the first of its kind in U.S. history. Despite this, Freer's initial bequest was thorough, including an inventory of 2,250 objects that Freer would retain until his death. It also outlined that Freer's new acquisitions would stay with the patron until his death. In 1918 and 1919, Freer placed provisions in his will, further bolstering the structure he established in the 1906 gift. The first provision established an income stream, sourced from stocks and cash dividends, to ensure that the museum employed a highly skilled curator. The patron designated two additional funds to decorate and maintain the museum grounds, specifically interior and exterior ornamental gardens. Once met, Freer established further stipulations. Freer mandated that residuary incomes from his estate continue to support a scholarship for Asian and Middle Eastern studies and acquire new works from Asia, Egypt, and the Middle East. Within the acquisition addition, Freer included a detailed stipulation. All new acquisitions must be approved by the Fine Arts National Commission and a panel of the collector's close friends and confidantes. In his most stringent restriction, Freer stated that the museum may not accept gifts of works of art for the permanent collection. The Museum was also forbidden to display works of art that were not part of the permanent collection. Finally, once brought into the permanent collection, no piece of art was permitted to be loaned out. In 1916, construction began on what is now known as the Freer Gallery in Washington. The building cost a million dollars, all of which was paid by Freer. Completion was delayed by World War I and the gallery was not opened until 1923. ==Works==

• 1912 Catalogue of a selection of art objects from the Freer collection exhibited in the new building of the National museum, April 15 to June 15, 1912 ==Other==

Freer is famous not only for having been an industrialist and art collector, but also an avid writer. His personal communications (letters and telegrams) between himself and Whistler have been published and are legendary in the art community. He also shared decades-long communications between himself and other important American art collectors and patrons. A few of these early patrons went on to establish collections similar in importance (if not necessarily volume) to that of Freer. See The Phillips Collection, The Vess Collection, The Roosevelt Collection, and others. The Detroit Century Box, a time capsule, contains a letter written by Freer in 1900. Freer spent part of his life in Capri where he owned the famous Villa Castello, together with Thomas Spencer Jerome, a socialite, clubman and lawyer from Detroit. A detailed report of Freer life in Italy, at the time of the Capri renaissance, is testified in the book of Carlo Knight, The Tiberio's Lawyer - The Tragic Life and death of Thomas Spencer Jerome. ==See also==