{{Short description|American curator and art historian (1916–2001)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Eleanor Sayre | image = Eleanor_Axson_Sayre_in_1938.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = 1938, Bryn Mawr College | birth_name = Eleanor Axson Sayre | birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|03|26}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|05|12|1916|03|26}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | other_names = Eleanor A. Sayre | education = Bryn Mawr College (BA) | occupation = Museum curator, art historian | years_active = 1940–1991 | known_for = | notable_works = | parents = {{plainlist| * Jessie Woodrow Wilson * Francis Bowes Sayre Sr. }} | relatives = {{plainlist| * Francis Bowes Sayre Jr. (brother) * Ellen Axson Wilson (grandmother) * Woodrow Wilson (grandfather) }} | awards = Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts | honours = Order of Isabella the Catholic }}
'''Eleanor Axson Sayre''' (March 26, 1916 – May 12, 2001) was an American curator, art historian, and a specialist on the works of Goya. She was the first woman to serve as departmental curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Working as curator of prints and drawings, she collected Goya's etchings from museums around the world to catalogue and create international exhibits. She was awarded a knighthood with the ''Lazo de Dama'' in the Order of Isabella the Catholic by Spain in 1975 and the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1991.
==Early life== [[File:Eleanor Axson Sayre 1st photo.jpg|thumb|left|Sayre as an infant with her father, Francis, April 1916]] Eleanor Axson Sayre was born on March 26, 1916, at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Jessie Woodrow (née Wilson) and Francis Bowes Sayre, Sr. She was the granddaughter of President Woodrow Wilson,{{sfn|''The Philadelphia Inquirer''|1916|p=5}} who served as her godfather at her christening on 11 November 1916 at St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church in Williamstown, Massachusetts.{{sfn|''The Belvidere Daily Republican''|1916|p=4}}{{sfn|Coggswell|1916|p=47}} Her mother was active with the YWCA and women's rights organizations, while her father was a law professor at Harvard Law School{{sfn|''The North Adams Transcript''|1933|p=3}} and later the Assistant Secretary of State, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a diplomat.{{sfn|''The North Adams Transcript''|1936|p=2}}{{sfn|Jones|1941|p=10}} When she was three years old, the family relocated from Williamstown to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then in 1923, moved to Siam, where Sayre's father worked as an advisor to the Siamese government, until 1929, when they returned to Cambridge.{{sfn|Jones|1941|p=10}} She studied art at Bryn Mawr College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1938.{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}}{{sfn|''Bryn Mawr College Yearbook''|1938|p=136}} While looking for a summer job, after graduation, Sayre interviewed with Paul J. Sachs at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum and was hired to work in the print department. Finding that she enjoyed working with prints, Sayer enrolled in graduate courses at Harvard, where she studied for two years under Sachs.{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} She also developed an interest in Goya when Philip Hofer, founder of Harvard's department of printing and graphic arts suggested she might find the artist interesting.{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}}{{sfn|''The New York Times''|1984}}
==Career== Sayre began her career at the Yale University Art Gallery and in 1942 continued her career with a brief post at the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London, Connecticut.{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}}{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} That same year, she was hired as an assistant curator in the education department and worked at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence.{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} In 1945, she joined the staff of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}} working under Henry Rossiter. In 1951 when Rossiter bought the proofs of Goya's series ''The Disasters of War'', which had at one time been owned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet, Sayre began studying the prints. In 1954, she secured a grant from the American Philosophical Society to conduct research in Spain on Goya's prints.{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} Five years later, in 1959, she identified "the earliest known drawing by Goya" in a folio containing what had been tagged as sporting prints from England.{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}}
In 1960, Sayre was promoted to assistant curator of prints and drawings{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} and in 1963, she was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to return to Spain to make further study of Goya's works.{{sfn|''The Boston Globe''|1963|p=3}} That same year, she identified a Goya miniature and was able to authenticate its pedigree, prompting the MFA to purchase the piece.{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}} In 1967, she became the curator of prints and drawings when Rossiter retired, making her the first woman to head a department at the Museum since it was founded 97 years earlier. With her staff of six employees, Sayer aimed to improve the holdings of the museum.{{sfn|Driscoll|1967|p=136}} Among exhibits which she prepared were 300 Dürer prints from the collection of Tomás Harris{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} and a collection of Rembrandt prints.{{sfn|''The New York Times''|2001}} Beginning in the 1970s, she taught print seminars at Harvard and in 1971 wrote ''Late Caprichos by Goya: Fragments from a Series'', as her commentary and notes on a series of works by Goya.{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} She developed an innovative exchange with Hugh MacAndrew from the Ashmolean Museum, where the two spent 1975 living in each other's homes and working each other's careers.{{sfn|''The New York Times''|2001}}
That same year, Sayre assembled an exhibition of 255 Goya works called ''The Changing Image: Prints by Francisco Goya'' which illustrated how the artist developed an idea from the preliminary study of a subject through the final printed version. To create the exhibit, she joined holdings from the Boston MFA with drawings from Madrid's Museo del Prado and proofs borrowed from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, and the British Museum. Included were the graphic images of the devastation of war in the series called ''Disasters'', his prints depicting vices plaguing Spain which were called ''Caprichos'' (capriciousness),{{sfn|Irving|1975|p=33a}} the series demonstrating the absurdity of humanity named ''Disparates'' (nonsense), and his works recording the history of the bullfight, known as ''Tauromaquia''.{{sfn|Irving|1975|p=33b}} The traveling exhibit was presented at various international museums, including the National Gallery of Canada{{sfn|Irving|1975|p=33a}} and the Lang Gallery of Claremont Colleges, near Los Angeles, California.{{sfn|Seldis|1975|p=277}} In appreciation of her scholarship on Goya, Sayre was awarded the ''Lazo de Dama'' of the Order of Isabella the Catholic from the Spanish crown in 1975.{{sfn|''The Los Angeles Times''|2001}}{{sfn|''The Print Collector's Newsletter''|1975|p=133}}
In 1977, Sayre curated an exhibit on Beatrix Potter, combining drawings and book illustrations with a mini-zoo, provided by the Boston park system.{{sfn|''The New York Times''|2001}} Retiring in 1984, she continued to support the MFA as curator emeritus, organizing ''Goya and the Spirit of Enlightenment'' in 1989 for the museum.{{sfn|Sorensen|2010}} Once again, calling on worldwide museums, such as the Prado and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she worked with Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, director of the Prado, to create the scholarly catalogue and exhibit featuring 200 of Goya's works. The catalogue explored how Goya's images serve to reflect the philosophical and political realities of his time.{{sfn|Benforado|1989|p=49}} In 1991, she was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts by Juan Carlos I, King of Spain.{{sfn|''The Los Angeles Times''|2001}}{{sfn|de León Sotelo|1991|p=53}}
==Death and legacy== Sayre died in her home at Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 12, 2001.{{sfn|''The Los Angeles Times''|2001}}{{sfn|''The New York Times''|2001}} She was known during her lifetime as the "foremost American authority on Goya's graphic work".{{sfn|Seldis|1975|p=277}}
== References == ===Citations=== {{reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin|30em}} *{{cite news |last1=Benforado |first1=Susan |title=Goya Book Praised as 'Contribution to History of Ideas' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21302081/albuquerque_journal/ |accessdate=27 June 2018 |newspaper=The Albuquerque Journal |date=April 16, 1989 |location=Albuquerque, New Mexico |page=49 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |last1=Coggswell |first1=John |title=Baby Un-Awed by President |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21305612/boston_post/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |publisher=The Boston Post |date=November 12, 1916 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=47 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |last1=de León Sotelo |first1=Trinidad |title=Los Reyes entregaron ayer las medallas al mérito en Bellas Artes |url=http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/1991/07/04/053.html |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=ABC |date=4 July 1991 |location=Madrid, Spain |language=Spanish |trans-title=The King delivered the medals of the merit in Fine Arts yesterday}} *{{cite news |last1=Driscoll |first1=Edgar J. Jr.|title=Eleanor Sayre, 'Digger', 'Extremely Thorough' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21301009/the_boston_globe/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=June 11, 1967 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=136 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |last1=Irving |first1=Kit |title=Goya: Moralist, social critic champion of liberty, ...and one of the best printmakers of all time. (pt 1) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21302335/the_ottawa_journal/ |accessdate=27 June 2018 |publisher=The Ottawa Journal |date=January 18, 1975 |location=Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |page=33a |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} and {{cite news |ref=none |last1=Irving |first1=Kit |title=Goya: Moralist, social critic champion of liberty, ...and one of the best printmakers of all time. (pt 2) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21302353/the_ottawa_journal/ |accessdate=27 June 2018 |publisher=The Ottawa Journal |date=January 18, 1975 |location=Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |page=33b |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Janet |title=Philippines Commissioner Well Known in Boston |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21306289/the_boston_globe/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=December 12, 1941 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=10 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |last1=Seldis |first1=Henry J. |title=The Nightmarish Visions of Goya (pt. 1) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21311017/the_los_angeles_times/ |accessdate=27 June 2018 |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=February 22, 1975 |location=Los Angeles, California |page=277 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} and {{cite news |ref=none |last1=Seldis |first1=Henry J. |title=The Nightmarish Visions of Goya (pt. 2) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21311029/the_los_angeles_times/ |accessdate=27 June 2018 |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=February 22, 1975 |location=Los Angeles, California |page=278 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite web |last1=Sorensen |first1=Lee |title=Sayre, Eleanor |url=http://arthistorians.info/sayree |website=Art Historians |publisher=Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies of Duke University |accessdate=26 June 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619163908/http://arthistorians.info/sayree |archivedate=19 June 2018 |location=Durham, North Carolina |date=2010}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The Philadelphia Inquirer''|1916}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Baby Sayre, President's Grandchild, Doing Well |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21301051/the_philadelphia_inquirer/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=April 12, 1916 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite book |ref={{harvid|''Bryn Mawr College Yearbook''|1938}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Bryn Mawr College Yearbook: Class of 1938 |date=1938 |publisher=Bryn Mawr College |location=Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania |pages=116, 134 |url=https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=bmc_yearbooks |accessdate=26 June 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910211924/https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=bmc_yearbooks |archivedate=10 September 2015}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The Los Angeles Times''|2001}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Eleanor Axson Sayre; Museum Curator Was Authority on Goya |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-16-me-64140-story.html |access-date=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=May 16, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203203159/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/16/local/me-64140 |archive-date=3 December 2015 |url-status=live|location=Los Angeles, California}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The New York Times''|2001}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Eleanor Sayre, 85, Curator and Goya Expert |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/17/arts/eleanor-sayre-85-curator-and-goya-expert.html |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 17, 2001 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124093447/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/17/arts/eleanor-sayre-85-curator-and-goya-expert.html |archivedate=24 November 2016 |location=New York City, New York}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The North Adams Transcript''|1936}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=F. B. Sayre's Daughter in Bryn Mawr Ceremonies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21306243/the_north_adams_transcript/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |publisher=The North Adams Transcript |date=April 20, 1936 |location=North Adams, Massachusetts |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The Boston Globe''|1963}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Miss Sayer Given Grant to Study Goya's Paintings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21308787/the_boston_globe/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=March 4, 1963 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The North Adams Transcript''|1933}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Mrs. Francis Bowes Sayre Dies Following Operation |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21304961/the_north_adams_transcript/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |publisher=The North Adams Transcript |date=January 16, 1933 |location=North Adams, Massachusetts |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} *{{cite journal |ref={{harvid|''The Print Collector's Newsletter''|1975}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=News of the Print World: People & Places |journal=The Print Collector's Newsletter |date=November–December 1975 |volume=6 |issue=5 |pages=132–134 |jstor=44129983 |publisher=The Print Collector's Newsletter Inc. |location=New York, New York |issn=0032-8537}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The New York Times''|1984}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Philip Hofer, 86, a Book Collector at Harvard |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/12/obituaries/philip-hofer-86-a-book-collector-at-harvard.html |accessdate=26 June 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 12, 1984 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524153629/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/12/obituaries/philip-hofer-86-a-book-collector-at-harvard.html |archivedate=24 May 2015 |location=New York City, New York |page=B-15}} *{{cite news |ref={{harvid|''The Belvidere Daily Republican''|1916}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Wilson Talks to Students |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21305512/belvidere_daily_republican/ |accessdate=26 June 2018 |publisher=The Belvidere Daily Republican |date=November 11, 1916 |location=Belvidere, Illinois |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} {{refend}}
==External links== *[https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-eleanor-sayre-13089 Oral History Interview of Sayre by Robert F. Brown, for the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayre, Eleanor}} Category:1916 births Category:2001 deaths Category:People from Philadelphia Category:People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:American art curators Category:American women curators Category:Recipients of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Category:Family of Woodrow Wilson Category:20th-century American women Category:American art historians Category:American women art historians Category:Historians from Pennsylvania Category:Historians from Massachusetts Category:20th-century American people