Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Gertrude Vanderbilt was born on January 9, 1875, in New York City, the second daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899) and Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1852–1934), and a great-granddaughter of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt. Her older sister died before Gertrude was born, but she grew up with several brothers and a younger sister. The family's New York City home was an opulent mansion at 742–748 Fifth Avenue., also known as 1 West 57th Street. As a young girl, Gertrude spent her summers in Newport, Rhode Island, at the family's summer home, The Breakers, where she kept up with the boys in all their rigorous sporting activities. She was educated by private tutors and at the exclusive Brearley School for women students in New York City. She kept small drawings and watercolor paintings in her personal journals which were her first signs of being interested in the arts.

While visiting Europe in the early 1900s, Gertrude Whitney discovered the burgeoning art world of Montmartre and Montparnasse in France. What she saw encouraged her to pursue her creativity and become a sculptor. She studied at the Art Students League of New York with Hendrik Christian Andersen and James Earle Fraser. Other women students in her classes included Anna Vaughn Hyatt and Malvina Hoffman. In Paris she studied with Andrew O'Connor and also received criticism from Auguste Rodin. Her training with sculptors of public monuments influenced her later direction. Although her catalogs include numerous smaller sculptures, she is best known today for her monumental works. Her first public commission was Aspiration, a life-size male nude in plaster, which appeared outside the New York State Building at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. Initially she worked under an assumed name, fearing that she would be portrayed as a socialite and her work not taken seriously. Neither her family nor (after her marriage) her husband were supportive of her desire to work seriously as an artist. She once told an artist friend, "Never expect Harry to take your work seriously... It never has made any difference to him that I feel as I do about art and it never will (except as a source of annoyance)." She believed that a man would have been taken more seriously as an artist, and that her wealth put her in a lose-lose situation: criticized if she took commissions because other artists were more needy, but blamed for undercutting the market for other artists if she was not paid. In 1907, Whitney established an apartment and studio in Greenwich Village. She also set up a studio in Passy, a fashionable Parisian neighborhood in the XVI arrondissement. By 1910, she was exhibiting her work publicly under her own name. Paganisme Immortel, a statue of a young girl sitting on a rock, with outstretched arms, next to a male figure, was shown at the 1910 National Academy of Design. Spanish Peasant was accepted at the Paris Salon in 1911, and Aztec Fountain was awarded a bronze medal in 1915 at the San Francisco Exhibition. Her first solo show occurred in New York City in 1916. The first charity exhibition she organized was in 1914 called the 50-50 Art Sale.

During World War I, Gertrude Whitney dedicated a great deal of her time and money to various relief efforts, establishing and maintaining a fully operational hospital for wounded soldiers in Juilly, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) northwest of Paris in France. While at this hospital, Gertrude Whitney made drawings of the soldiers which became plans for her memorials in New York City. Her work prior to the war had a much less realistic style, which she strayed away from to give the work a more serious feeling. In 1915, her brother Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt perished in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. She completed a series of smaller pieces realistically depicting soldiers in wartime, but her smaller works were not seen as particularly significant during her lifetime; her choice to depict the subjects as nudes was criticized. Since her death critics have recognized the expert craftsmanship of her smaller works. In addition to participating in shows with other artists, Whitney held a number of solo exhibitions during her career. These included a show of her wartime sculptures at her Eighth Street Studio in November 1919; a show at the Art Institute of Chicago, March 1 to April 15, 1923; and one in New York City, March 17–28, 1936. The majority of works created in this period of her work were made in her studio in Paris. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a commemorative show of her works in 1943.

Gertrude had a dear friend named Esther in her youth with whom a number of love letters were uncovered which made explicit the desires both had for a physical relationship that surpassed friendship. Esther was the daughter of Richard Morris Hunt, the architect who had built Gertrude's family home in New York City and summer home—The Breakers—in Newport, Rhode Island, as well as many of the other Vanderbilts' mansions. Gertrude considered it one of the "thrills of my life, when Esther kissed me," and her mother, Alice, was so concerned about the friendship that she forbade Gertrude to see Esther. The separation seemed to have worked; for while Esther continued to write heartbroken letters of longing, Gertrude went on to have a bevy of male beaux. At age 21, on August 25, 1896, she married the extremely wealthy sportsman Harry Payne Whitney (1872–1930). A banker and investor, Whitney was the son of politician William Collins Whitney and Flora Payne, the daughter of former U.S. Senator from Ohio Henry B. Payne, and sister to a Standard Oil Company magnate. Harry Whitney inherited a fortune in oil and tobacco as well as interests in banking. In New York, the couple lived in town houses originally belonging to William Whitney, first at 2 East 57th St., across the street from Gertrude's parents, and after William Whitney's death, at 871 Fifth Avenue. They also had a country estate in Old Westbury, Long Island. Gertrude and Harry Whitney had three children: Flora Payne Whitney (1897–1986) Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1899–1992) Barbara Whitney (1903–1983; m. 1960, to George W. Headley). Harry Whitney died of pneumonia in 1930, at age 58, leaving an estate valued at approximately $72 million. The bulk of the fortune was left in Trust for their three children; Gertrude received a life interest in their Manhattan townhouse at 871 Fifth Avenue. In 1934, she was at the center of a highly publicized court battle with her brother Reginald's widow, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, for custody of her ten-year-old niece, Gloria Vanderbilt. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney did win custody of her niece at the end of the custody battle. Gertrude Whitney died on April 18, 1942, at age 67, and was interred next to her husband in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. The reported cause of her death was from a heart condition. Her daughter Flora Whitney Miller assumed her mother's duties as head of the Whitney Museum, and was succeeded by her daughter, Flora Miller Biddle.

Following the death of Gertrude's father Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1899, she inherited a quarter-share of a $20,000,000 trust fund along with her siblings Alfred, Reginald and Gladys, from which she would enjoy a life interest in the trust's income. She also received $1,125,000 outright from a $5,000,000 Trust fund which her grandfather William H. Vanderbilt I had provided her father in his will; Alfred, Reginald and Gladys also each received $1,125,000 outright from this trust, whilst their elder brother Cornelius Vanderbilt III's share of this trust was $500,000. As a mark of special affection, Gertrude's father also made an additional provision in his will bequeathing $1,000,000 outright to Gertrude. Following the death of her mother Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt in 1934, Gertrude received $150,000 under the terms of Alice's will.

Following her death, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's will was submitted for probate to the Surrogate's Court of New York County in May 1942. Although contemporary newspapers estimated the value of her estate at $25 to $50 million, an interim accounting of her estate submitted to the court by her executors in 1943 put the value of the estate at $10,590,492. The majority of Gertrude's estate was left to charity and her three children; bequests in her will included: $2,500,000 outright to the Whitney Museum; Approximately $1,000,000 of real estate she owned in Long Island, Manhattan and Newport to be divided equally between her three children; $50,000 to her friend Juliana Force, who was the founding director of the Whitney Museum; $15,000 to her former maid Marie Pfitzer; $10,000 to her Chauffeur Fred Stone $50,000 to the Newport Hospital; and, A diamond bracelet each to her nieces Catheleen Vanderbilt Lowman and Gloria Vanderbilt; The residuary estate was placed in a Trust for charitable purposes, with her three children appointed as Trustees. Gertrude did not exercise a power of appointment provided to her over a $5,000,000 trust fund which she enjoyed the income from under the terms of her father's will, and the Trust vested in equal shares between her children.

In the 1982 television miniseries Little Gloria... Happy at Last, Whitney was portrayed by actress Angela Lansbury, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. In 1999, Gertrude Whitney's granddaughter, Flora Miller Biddle, published a family memoir entitled The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made. She was also the subject of B. H. Friedman's 1978 Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney: A Biography.