William Wilson Corcoran - Art

Art

In contrast to many contemporary art patrons, Corcoran was not exclusively interested in European works, and he assembled one of the first important collections of American art. By the mid-1850s his pictures and sculpture were overflowing his mansion on Lafayette Square and he hired the foremost architect of the day, James Renwick, to build a picture gallery in the Second Empire style on Pennsylvania Avenue. Before it was ready, however, the Civil War began, and Corcoran, a Southern sympathizer, left Washington for Paris, where his son-in-law, George Eustis Jr., was a representative of the Confederacy.

Architect James Renwick was commissioned in 1859 to a museum building to house William Wilson Corcoran’s growing art collection. Corcoran was a southern sympathizer and good friend of Robert E. Lee, and felt it opportune to leave for Europe during the Civil War. The half-finished building designed by Renwick was taken over by the U.S. Government and used as a supply depot. When the war was over, Corcoran returned to Washington; the building was finished in 1869 and the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened in 1874, but the structure was soon outgrown. A new building for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its nascent school of art (now the Corcoran College of Art + Design) was designed by American architect Ernest Flagg in the Beaux-Arts Style and completed in 1897, nine years after Corcoran’s death. The façade of the building reflects the “Neo-Grec,” an offshoot of the Beaux-Arts style that attempted to reflect the functions of the building by revealing detailed and decorative accents on the exterior. The Corcoran’s first home is now the Renwick Gallery, a Smithsonian museum.

Corcoran made many other important bequests to the people of Washington, among them the Louise Home for Women, several departments of the Columbian University (now the George Washington University), and the land and half the construction costs for what is now the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes. Corcoran was also the President of the Corporation of Columbian University. The bank he co-founded existed as Riggs Bank up until 2005, when it was taken over by PNC Bank. Early in 1883, Corcoran arranged to have the body of John Howard Payne returned to the United States, an expense he personally bore. Payne, actor, poet, and author of "Home! Sweet Home!" had been the United States Consul to the Bey of Tunis in 1852 and had died there. Payne had been good friends of Corcoran and his business partner, George W. Riggs in 1850, prior to Payne's second appointment as Consul to Tunis.

He has a street named after him in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in the District of Columbia between Q street and R street NW, one block away from Riggs Street. As well, the Corcoron neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN which is bounded by East Lake Street to the north, East 36th Street to the south, Hiawatha Avenue to the east, and Cedar Avenue to the west, is named for William Corcoran.

Renwick Gallery