James Rorimer
| James Rorimer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Joseph Rorimer September 7, 1905 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | May 11, 1966 (aged 60) New York, NY |
| Spouse(s) | Katherine Serrell (m. 1942; 2 children) |
James Joseph Rorimer (September 7, 1905 – May 11, 1966), was an American museum curator and former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was a primary force behind the creation of the Cloisters, a branch of the museum dedicated to the art and architecture of Medieval Europe. During World War II, Rorimer served in the U.S. Army's Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section, a.k.a. the "Monuments Men," protecting cultural sites and recovering stolen art work.
Rorimer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 7, 1905, the son of Edith (née Joseph) and Louis Rorimer. His family was Jewish, and their surname had originally been "Rohrheimer". He attended high school at the University School in Cleveland. He spent 1920–1922 studying at the Ecole Gory in Paris before returning to complete his studies in the United States at Harvard University. At Harvard he studied under the museologist Paul J. Sachs and the art historian Walter Cooke.
In 1927 Rorimer graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude, with a degree in fine arts. He was immediately hired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, beginning a career with the Met that would last his entire adult life. From his initial position as an assistant in the Decorative Arts department he quickly rose through the ranks to become Curator of Medieval Art in 1934. Having worked closely with the previous curator, his mentor Joseph Breck, Rorimer used his new role to continue Breck's most important project: the planning and construction of the Cloisters, the new medieval extension to the Met.
In 1938 the Cloisters opened and Rorimer was named its curator, a position which brought with it new duties as fundraiser and developer for the new collection. Among the pieces purchased by Rorimer for the Cloisters are many of the collection's modern-day "signature works", including the Unicorn Tapestries.
In 1942 Rorimer married Katherine Serrell. They had two children, Anne and Louis.
Rorimer's career at the Met was interrupted by the United States' entry into World War II, and he signed up as an infantryman in the United States Army in 1943. He was soon appointed to a job more suited to his specialized skills, as an officer of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section (MFAA) in Normandy and Paris, and, later, in Germany.
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