EDGAR MUNHALL (1933–2016)
Edgar Munhall, an academic who was the first curator at the Frick Collection, where he worked for more than three decades, has died in Manhattan at the age of eighty-three, Sam Roberts of the New York Times reports.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1933, Munhall earned his bachelor’s degree in art history from Yale University in 1955. He received his master’s degree from New York University before returning to Yale for his Ph.D.
From 1959 to 1965, he served as assistant curator of prints and drawings at the Yale University Art Gallery and taught art history. He joined the Frick Collection as its first curator in 1965. Previously, the role of curator was the responsibility of the director of the institution, which was founded in 1935. During Munhall’s tenure at the museum, he worked under five directors. He was responsible for acquisitions, publications, conservation, lectures, and exhibitions.
The eighteenth-century scholar became known as the leading expert on the work of artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze. In 1976, he organized the first exhibition dedicated to the artist. Titled “Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725–1805,” the show traveled from the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Connecticut to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. In 1996, he organized “A Portraitist for the ’90s,” the Frick’s first exhibition devoted to Greuze, and in 2002 he curated the first show featuring the artist’s drawings at the institution, “Greuze the Draftsman.”
In 2002, Munhall was named an Officier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has authored numerous essays and books, including Catalogue des Dessins du Musėe Jenisch Vevey (2012), Oklahoma City Museum of Art: Selected Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection (2007), A Pair of Portraits by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (2006), The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue. Volume 9: Drawings, Prints, and Later Acquisitions (2003), and Greuze the Draftsman (2002).
