By Dirk Langeveld

STAMFORD — A painting recovered after it was stolen by the Nazis, sculptural studies by the architect of Mount Rushmore, and other prominent portraits are on display at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center in celebration of the museum’s 90th anniversary.

Likeness & Legacy: Portraits from the Permanent Collection features paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures collected over the seven-decade period that followed the museum’s acquisition of a permanent home. The exhibition is on view through May 25th. 

The museum states that many of the portraits were donated by Stamford residents, and that the artworks highlight people who have helped influence both the region and the nation. 

“For 90 years, The Stamford Museum & Nature Center has been a place where the community sees itself reflected,” said Bill Brucker, the museum’s executive director. “This exhibition honors not only the depth of our collection, but the generations of supporters, artists and visitors who have shaped us into the cultural cornerstone we are today.”

“Portraiture has a unique ability to connect us across time,” said Roanne Wilcox, curator of collections and exhibitions at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center. “What makes Likeness & Legacy especially powerful is its range—from small-scale works to commanding sculptures—and the diversity of stories each piece holds. These works invite us to consider not just how people looked, but how they wished to be seen and remembered.”

Notable works

One of the key works featured in the exhibition is Portrait of J.P. Wolff, painted by John Singer Sargent around 1890. The painting was part of the collection of famous Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, whose collection included some 1,400 works primarily from Dutch Old Masters.

During World War II, Goudstikker was forced to flee his home in the Netherlands in 1940 and leave his collection behind. Most of the pieces were seized by the Nazis as part of their campaign of plundering artwork from occupied countries. Goudstikker tragically died during his escape in an accident aboard the ship taking him to England.

Portrait of J.P. Wolff was one of the few pieces in Goudstikker’s collection that the Dutch government was able to restore to his widow soon after the war. She sold it in the early 1950s, and it entered the Stamford Museum & Nature Center collection in 1955. 

The museum discovered its connection to Goudstikker in 2007 and informed the late art dealer’s heirs, who had been seeking to track down and recover the lost artwork. Since it was sold by Goudstikker’s widow, the museum owns the piece outright.

The exhibition also features sculptural studies of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt by Gutzon Borglum, best known as the sculptor who designed Mount Rushmore. Borglum lived in Stamford in the early 20th century, maintaining a home and studio there as well as a second studio in New York City. Lincoln’s son described Borglum’s bust as the closest likeness of his father that had ever been created.

Other works include portraits by Austrian Modernist artist Afroyim Soshana of her friend, the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, as well as a more intimate depiction of four-year-old Maud E. Smith. Several of the featured portraits have gone through conservation and are on display for the first time in decades.

From a “cabinet of curiosities” to an estate

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center was first established in 1936. In this first iteration, it was essentially a “cabinet of curiosities” in the Stamford Trust Building. After outgrowing this location, it moved to the carriage house in Courtland Park in 1946, but was forced to move again due to the construction of the Connecticut Turnpike.

Friends of the museum facilitated the purchase of the Bendel Mansion, the summer home of New York retailer Henri Bendel, and the museum moved to this location in 1955. The mansion is now home to the museum’s art galleries and collection of more than 20,000 objects. The 118-acre grounds feature additional attractions, including an educational farm, otter pond, and planetarium and astronomy center.

Alongside Likeness & Legacy, the museum is featuring What’s it like for you to be an American?

The Photography of Robert Kalman. This exhibition, presented in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, features photographic portraits paired with handwritten reflections on the American experience.

For more information on the Stamford Museum & Nature Center exhibitions, click here.

Expanded coverage of Fairfield County cultural events is made possible with support from the Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts.

Dirk Langeveld

^{_{Dirk Langeveld has worked as a news reporter, content marketing specialist, and freelance writer. He is the author of “The Artful Dodger: The 20-Year Pursuit of World War I Draft Dodger Grover Cleveland Bergdoll” and has contributed to several books on Connecticut history.}}