Arthur Jerome Eddy

Who was Arthur Jerome Eddy?

Arthur Jerome Eddy was an American lawyer, author, art collector, and art critic.

Arthur Jerome Eddy was a prominent member of the first generation of American Modern art collectors. His book Cubists and Post-Impressionism was the first American book promoting these new art movements and the work of Wassily Kandinsky. As opposed to the other early American collectors of modernist works, who were interested in French modernism almost exclusively, Eddy also collected the work of the German expressionists and Wassily Kandinsky. He is also known for his support of the Armory Show, purchasing work from the show in New York and Chicago and lecturing on the art during the Chicago show. In 1931, a portion of Eddy's collection was donated by his widow and son to the Art Institute of Chicago as the "Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection" which is an important core of the Museum's collection of Modern art.