News
In Memoriam
Charles Andrew Ryskamp October 21, 1928 - March 26, 2010
Charles Ryskamp led an extraordinarily productive life that profoundly influenced several of the nation’s finest educational and cultural institutions. An eminent Princeton professor and scholar of English literature, the energetic director of two jewel-like New York City museums (the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1969 to 1987 and the Frick Collection from 1987 to 1997), and a steadfast member of several prestigious boards including long service on the Advisory Council of the Princeton University Art Museum, Ryskamp was a passionate, self-taught connoisseur and collector of drawings; a delightful gentleman of the world, friend, and raconteur; and a beloved teacher and mentor. He leaves both the academic and artistic worlds bereft at his death, which came on March 26, 2010.
Ryskamp’s specialty was the English eighteenth-century poet William Cowper, and his taste tended toward the small-scale intimacy manifested in both the poet’s hymns and verses dedicated to God and nature, and in drawings, particularly by artists of the Romantic movement. British art was the target of his early collecting of drawings, to complement the literature he studied, but he later included German, Danish, French, and Dutch drawings, too, ultimately building an extraordinary overview of the period 1700 to 1850, as well as drawings that fell outside of that focus but that he found irresistible. The recent exhibition of his collection at the Yale Center for British Art gave ample evidence of the scope of his interests, and of his passion for art to the very end of his life.
Arriving at Princeton University as an assistant professor in 1955 after studies at Yale and Cambridge Universities, Ryskamp combined teaching and research with service at Firestone Library as curator of English and American literature. His museum career developed out of the love of books and works on paper that had marked his life since childhood. Yet even as a museum director, he continued to teach a seminar at Princeton and to engage closely with students, texts, and ideas. His recent seminars at Yale were clearly a source of passion for him, and of inspiration for his last students.
On the Museum’s Advisory Council, Ryskamp showed an avid interest and encouragement of acquisitions in all areas of the collections. He made gifts to the Museum of numerous drawings, some paintings, and even a sculpture. He counted Museum staff members among his many Princeton friends, and kept up with Museum projects during weekend stays at his Princeton home. His larger-than-life presence was sorely missed at the Advisory Council meeting in May, as we remembered the Museum’s good fortune to have enjoyed his support, his enthusiasm, and his curiosity—including his infectious pleasure as highlights of the Museum’s new acquisitions were presented at Council meetings every year. We treasure the memory of his generosity, his fabled gracious nature, consummate good taste, and enthusiastic optimism—attributes that will be missed by his vast network of friends in the art world and beyond.
Ryskamp’s specialty was the English eighteenth-century poet William Cowper, and his taste tended toward the small-scale intimacy manifested in both the poet’s hymns and verses dedicated to God and nature, and in drawings, particularly by artists of the Romantic movement. British art was the target of his early collecting of drawings, to complement the literature he studied, but he later included German, Danish, French, and Dutch drawings, too, ultimately building an extraordinary overview of the period 1700 to 1850, as well as drawings that fell outside of that focus but that he found irresistible. The recent exhibition of his collection at the Yale Center for British Art gave ample evidence of the scope of his interests, and of his passion for art to the very end of his life.
Arriving at Princeton University as an assistant professor in 1955 after studies at Yale and Cambridge Universities, Ryskamp combined teaching and research with service at Firestone Library as curator of English and American literature. His museum career developed out of the love of books and works on paper that had marked his life since childhood. Yet even as a museum director, he continued to teach a seminar at Princeton and to engage closely with students, texts, and ideas. His recent seminars at Yale were clearly a source of passion for him, and of inspiration for his last students.
On the Museum’s Advisory Council, Ryskamp showed an avid interest and encouragement of acquisitions in all areas of the collections. He made gifts to the Museum of numerous drawings, some paintings, and even a sculpture. He counted Museum staff members among his many Princeton friends, and kept up with Museum projects during weekend stays at his Princeton home. His larger-than-life presence was sorely missed at the Advisory Council meeting in May, as we remembered the Museum’s good fortune to have enjoyed his support, his enthusiasm, and his curiosity—including his infectious pleasure as highlights of the Museum’s new acquisitions were presented at Council meetings every year. We treasure the memory of his generosity, his fabled gracious nature, consummate good taste, and enthusiastic optimism—attributes that will be missed by his vast network of friends in the art world and beyond.
