Henry Walters and Bernard Berenson: Collector and Connoisseur

This collection of excerpts, primarily from Stanley Mazaroff's book, offers an overview of Henry Walters, an American collector and businessman, and his relationship with the art connoisseur Bernard Berenson. It describes Walters's significant 1902 purchase of the Massarenti collection, a large group of Italian paintings fraught with misattributions and copies. The text examines Walters's motivations for building his collection, his financial prowess as a railroad magnate, and his eventual engagement of Berenson to evaluate and catalogue his holdings, despite Walters's initial reluctance and Berenson's prior dismissal of the Massarenti collection. The sources also touch upon the prevalent issue of art forgeries and questionable attributions during this period and the complicated, sometimes deceitful, business relationship between collectors and dealers like Walters and Berenson, particularly highlighting Berenson's controversial partnership with Joseph Duveen. Finally, the materials touch on the legacy of Walters's collection, its eventual bequest to the city of Baltimore, and reflections on the challenges of art connoisseurship and collecting. You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms: https://linktr.ee/book_shelter Get the Book now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Henry-Walters-Bernard-Berenson-Connoisseur/dp/080189512X?&linkCode=ll1&tag=cvthunderx-20&linkId=d9f80a506c4c35cc3e1c40d68240a51d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl Produced by Podcai Studio: https://www.podcaistudio.com/