Property from The Estate of William Kelly Simpson

Eminent Egyptologist, scholar and visionary collector, William Kelly Simpson amassed an extraordinary collection of paintings, works on paper, antiquities and porcelain that speak to his connoisseurship and his abiding love of the arts. Mr. Simpson was a distinguished professor and curator, spending forty-six years in academia where he produced a large amount of scholarship in his field, helping to position Yale as one of the foremost centers for Egyptology, and leading the Department of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Professor Simpson’s name was synonymous with preservation and the protection of the past. He brought these ideals to his work with the UNESCO campaign to rescue Nubian monuments, excavations at the Giza Pyramids and the famed Pennsylvania-Yale Expeditions that recorded New Kingdom tombs and Meroitic cemeteries.

Professor Simpson’s curatorial eye and scholarship extended beyond his love of the antique to American Art, European decorative arts, Mughal miniatures, and most notably his collection of iconic works by Nabis painters Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. Mr. Simpson and his wife, a granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller Jr., acquired many of these works together, including works acquired by decent from the collection of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art.

On June 2, Stair will offer a curated selection of works from the Estate of William Kelly Simpson in our 20th Century, Modern & Conteporary Fine Art auction. Included are works on paper by Carl Sprinchorn, Auguste Herbin, John Piper, David Hockney and Robert Motherwell, and sculpture by Luciano Minguzzi and Edward Higgins. A selection of furniture and decorative arts will be included in the June 22 Art & Design auction and in future auctions to take place in the fall.

Lot 48 – LUCIANO MINGUZZI (1911-2004): BOZZETTO PER SEI PERSONAGGI,
Lot 32 – CARL SPRINCHORN (1887-1971): TRAFFIC POLICEMAN

Lot 41 – SANDRO CHIA (b. 1946): UNTITLED
Lot 25 –  LOUIS MARCOUSSIS (1883-1941): COMPOSITION