Solomon R. Guggenheim Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Solomon Robert Guggenheim was born on 2nd February 1861. He was the founder of Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the city of New York, which made him famous. He was a known businessman and art collector of the days.

Early years

Solomon R. Guggenheim was born to Meyer and Barbara on 2nd February 1861 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Jews and had nine children. Solomon was from a wealthy family. They owned mining companies in the United States.

Education

Guggenheim schooled at Concordia Institute in the Zurich. That was in Switzerland.

Career

Solomon R. Guggenheim joined family business back in the United States. He owned among other businesses York Gold Company in Alaska.

He had a strong passion for Art. In the year 1890, he started art collection from different artists. Guggenheim shifted concentration from the business. He focused more on art collection in the year 1919. In the year 1926, he hired Hilla Rebay as his advisor.

Hilla and Guggenheim visited Wassily Kandinsky's studio in Germany in the year 1930. He purchased and added to his gallery Kandinsky's modern and contemporary arts. This included the composition 8 of the year 1923 among many others. 

He purchased from various artists: Rudolf Bauer, Robert Delaunay (Simultaneous windows of the year 1912), Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger (contrast of form of the year 1913) and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Arts from Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, and Joan Miro were among his collections.

Solomon R. Guggenheim had an apartment at the Plaza hotel, in the city of New York. He used this apartment to display his collection to the public in the year 1930. As a way of showing his appreciation for modern art, he opened the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in the year 1937. He used the Museum of Non-Objective Painting at 24 East 54th Street to display his collection. This was in the year 1939 under advisement from Rebay.

Guggenheim had a variety of artwork by the year 1948. The same year he built a more massive Museum to showcase his collections. Three years after his death the museum was named Solomon R Guggenheim Museum. Its official opening date was October 21st, 1959.

Personal life

In 1895, Solomon R. Guggenheim married Irene Rothschild. They had three children namely; Eleanor, Gertrude, and Barbara Guggenheim.

Death

On November 3rd, 1949, Guggenheim died at Long Island, New York.