Hirshhorn Joseph Herman (11.08.1899, Mitau, Courland Governorate — 31.08.1981) — businessman, financier and art collector. The 12th child in a family of 13. Emigrated from Latvia to the USA at the age of six with his widowed mother. From the age of 14, worked in an office on Wall Street. In 1916, at the age of 17, became a stockbroker and earned 168,000 dollars. Being a perceptive investor, he sold his Wall Street holdings two months before the 1929 crash, earning 4 million dollars. Made his fortune in mining and the oil business. In the 1930s, concentrated on gold and uranium extraction in Canada, opening an office in Toronto in 1933. At that time, Toronto was hostile to outsiders — as H. said, park benches throughout the city bore signs reading “Not for dogs or Jews.” In 1950, H. and geologist Frank Joubin discovered uranium deposits called “Big Z” in north-eastern Ontario and founded the town of Elliot Lake. A street in that town bears H.'s name. By 1960, after selling the last uranium share, his income from the uranium business was over 100 million dollars. During his time in Canada, he was investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission, twice accused of violating Canadian laws on international exchange, deported for illegal stock manipulation (he later appealed and won the case, registering as an immigrant) and fined for the illegal export of cash from the country. From 1961 to 1976, he lived in a three-storey mansion in Round Hill in north-central Greenwich, Connecticut, on an estate of 89,000 sq m. Simultaneously with the start of his business career, H. began buying works of art. He assembled a collection of 19th–20th century paintings and sculptures. Dedicating himself to the study of art, he debated with dealers and critics and visited artists in their studios. He made purchase decisions quickly. His words: “If you need to look at something ten times before deciding to buy it, something is wrong with either you or the picture.” He decorated his mansion with paintings by Willem de Kooning, Raphael Soyer, Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, Louis de Brocquy and Thomas Eakins, and his lawn with sculptures by Rodin, Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, Calder and Moore. He allowed many charitable organisations to use his garden for fundraising. In 1966, he donated most of his collection — consisting of 6,000 paintings and sculptures and considered one of the largest private collections in the world — to the US government; to this donation he added an endowment of 2 million dollars. In 1966, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. established the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The museum opened in 1974. Before his death, H. bequeathed a further 6,000 works and 5 million dollars to the museum. He was married 4 times, his last wife being Olga Zatorsky-Cunningham. 6 children, two of them adopted.

[On the photograph — in the museum with Nelson Rockefeller, 9.12.1975.]

V. Shaldova