Pinkney L. Near
| Pinkney Near | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1927 New York City |
| Died | August 29, 1990 Hartford, Connecticut |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | Johns Hopkins University, Harvard |
| Occupation | Museum curator, art historian, author |
| Employer | Virginia Museum of Fine Arts |
| Spouse(s) | Henrietta Lloyd Near |
Pinkney Near (1927 - 1990) was curator of the Cincinnati Museum of Art and afterward curator of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for thirty years. He was responsible for the VMFA's acquisition of many treasured works of art, including arranging for the museum to purchase from John Lee Pratt the Francisco Goya portrait of General Nicolas Guye and from the collection of Count Karol Lanckoroński of Vienna, Austria, a rare marble sarcophagus dating to the 2nd century B.C. The Guye portrait was long believed to be the most valuable single work of art in the VMFA's collection. The Goya portrait of General Guye is on view prominently in the posthumously created Pinkney Near Gallery at the VMFA.
Pinkney Near was born in New York City and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1944 he graduated from St. Paul's School, and in 1950 he became the first art history graduate of Johns Hopkins University. He earned his Master's degree from Harvard in 1951, and he studied French Romanesque sculpture in Paris for three years on a Fulbright scholarship. He remained in Europe an additional year for research on a Sachs fellowship. He married the former Henrietta Lloyd. Every summer Near, a specialist in European art, and his artist wife Henrietta Lloyd Near, a former colleague at the VMFA, traveled to Europe to acquire art for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Among the cities they visited were Barcelona, London, Rome, and Venice. They were sometimes accompanied by philanthropists Sydney and Frances Lewis, donors of major collections to the museum.
...
Wikipedia