Frances Lasker Brody
Encyclopedia
Frances Lasker Brody, was an American arts advocate, collector and philanthropist
who influenced the development of Los Angeles' cultural life as a founding benefactor of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
and later as a guiding patron of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens.
Mrs. Brody, who died on November 18, 2009 at 93, was the wife of Sidney F. Brody, a real estate developer who died in 1983, and the stepdaughter of Mary Lasker
, a philanthropist and champion of medical research who died in 1994. The Brodys lived in a modernist house in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles that was designed by the architect A. Quincy Jones
and the decorator William Haines
to show off the couple’s collection.
Brody was born May 27, 1916, in Chicago to Flora and Albert Lasker, who built the advertising firm of Lord & Thomas. Lasker was legendary in the advertising world for campaigns that popularized Kleenex tissues, Lucky Strike cigarettes and Sunkist orange juice. She studied political science, English and history at Vassar College
, where she graduated in 1937.
After college, she worked briefly as a model and saleswoman at a swank dress shop near Chicago. During World War II, while serving in a volunteer ambulance corps, she met Sidney Brody, a decorated Army lieutenant colonel who flew missions in Europe. They were married in 1942.
After the war, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where he built a fortune as a developer of shopping centers. He died in 1983.
, she and Sidney began collecting art. Through her work with the UCLA Art Council, which was founded in the early 1950s, she fell in love with a Henry Moore
sculpture. "Sid put it under the Christmas tree. And well, by then I guess we were hooked," she told The Los Angeles Times in 1969.
With her late husband, Sidney, she played a major role in the launch of LACMA, which opened in 1965, and for many years was a force on the UCLA Art Council, which she helped found and served as president. Under her leadership, the council mounted an important exhibition on the works of Pablo Picasso
for his 80th birthday in 1961. She was the catalyst for a major Matisse retrospective at UCLA in 1966 that, with its unprecedented loans from the Matisse family, was what Los Angeles Times critic Henry J. Seldis called "one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever organized locally."
Brody was a member of the Huntington's board of overseers for 20 years, playing a crucial early role in the development of its Chinese garden.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s competed for four months for the auction with an original estimated value of $150 million. The Brody collection was a huge success, totaling $224.17 million.
Because Mrs. Brody was passionate about gardens, some of the sale’s proceeds are to go to the Huntington Library.
The Picasso, “Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust),” was the jewel of the collection and estimated to bring more than $80 million. The painting sold for a $95 million bid, with the sale charge, raised the full price to $106.48 million. Painted in rich blues, pinks and greens, it depicts the artist’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter asleep naked; above her, a bust of her head rests on a pedestal. The couple bought the painting from Paul Rosenberg, a New York dealer, who acquired it from Picasso in 1936. Picasso painted several canvases of Marie-Thérèse Walter that year, including “Le Rêve
,” (“The Dream”), which belongs to the casino owner Stephen A. Wynn.
A highlight of the collection was "Grande tête mince
" a bust by Giacometti conceived in 1954 was expected to sell for $25 million to $35 million. Alberto Giacometti's bronze "La main" cast in 1948, sold for $25 million. The bronze figure of a cat by Alberto Giacometti, cast in 1955, sold for $20.8 million.
Georges Braque’s “La Treille” set a world record for the painter at $10.16 million. A Marino Marini bronze of a rider, “Piccolo cavaliere” followed at $2.32 million, also more than the highest estimate. Picasso’s “Femme au chat assise dans un fauteuil,” painted in 1964, sold for $18 million.
masterpiece house in Holmby Hills in 1949 by architect A. Quincy Jones
and interior designer William Haines
. The house combined two fashionable contemporary styles: California mid-century Modernist architecture and sophisticated Hollywood Moderne décor. The house became a gathering spot for a cross-section of the city's elite, from old Los Angeles families such as the Chandlers to Hollywood icons Gary Cooper
and Joan Crawford
and also served as a showcase for a stunning art collection.
Shortly after the house was completed, the Brodys had an idea for how to put the perfect finishing touch to their courtyard. In 1952 they commissioned Matisse to execute a massive ceramic-tile wall mural, one of few the artist ever made, and in 1953 they traveled to France to review his preliminary maquette. The story of Frances’s polite resistance to Matisse’s first cut-out design and how she persuaded the artist to provide alternatives is now legend. The story ended happily, with Matisse creating a 12-by-11-foot ceramic-tile wall mural for their courtyard. It was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
.
The home was listed for sale in May 2010 for $24.95 million, the same week their art collection hit the auction block at Christie’s in New York. The 115000 square feet (10,683.8 m²) home at 360 S. Mapleton, is in the neighborhood of Holmby Hills, which is adjacent to Bel Air and Beverly Hills and sits on 2.3 acres (9,307.8 m²) and includes a tennis court and a pool with a guesthouse. It was designed with a modernist décor that includes a floating staircase and floor-to-ceiling glass windows that create an indoor-outdoor living space considered cutting edge at the time. The house is next door to the Playboy Mansion
.
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
who influenced the development of Los Angeles' cultural life as a founding benefactor of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
and later as a guiding patron of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens.
Mrs. Brody, who died on November 18, 2009 at 93, was the wife of Sidney F. Brody, a real estate developer who died in 1983, and the stepdaughter of Mary Lasker
Mary Lasker
Mary Woodard Lasker was an American health activist. She worked to raise funds for medical research, and founded the Lasker Foundation....
, a philanthropist and champion of medical research who died in 1994. The Brodys lived in a modernist house in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles that was designed by the architect A. Quincy Jones
A. Quincy Jones
Archibald Quincy Jones, FAIA was a prolific Los Angeles-based architect and educator known for innovative buildings in the modernist style and for urban planning that pioneered the use of greenbelts and green design.-Childhood and early career:...
and the decorator William Haines
William Haines
Charles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality...
to show off the couple’s collection.
Brody was born May 27, 1916, in Chicago to Flora and Albert Lasker, who built the advertising firm of Lord & Thomas. Lasker was legendary in the advertising world for campaigns that popularized Kleenex tissues, Lucky Strike cigarettes and Sunkist orange juice. She studied political science, English and history at Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, where she graduated in 1937.
After college, she worked briefly as a model and saleswoman at a swank dress shop near Chicago. During World War II, while serving in a volunteer ambulance corps, she met Sidney Brody, a decorated Army lieutenant colonel who flew missions in Europe. They were married in 1942.
After the war, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where he built a fortune as a developer of shopping centers. He died in 1983.
Art Collection and Auction
At the suggestion of Brody's father and stepmother, medical philanthropist Mary LaskerMary Lasker
Mary Woodard Lasker was an American health activist. She worked to raise funds for medical research, and founded the Lasker Foundation....
, she and Sidney began collecting art. Through her work with the UCLA Art Council, which was founded in the early 1950s, she fell in love with a Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
sculpture. "Sid put it under the Christmas tree. And well, by then I guess we were hooked," she told The Los Angeles Times in 1969.
With her late husband, Sidney, she played a major role in the launch of LACMA, which opened in 1965, and for many years was a force on the UCLA Art Council, which she helped found and served as president. Under her leadership, the council mounted an important exhibition on the works of Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
for his 80th birthday in 1961. She was the catalyst for a major Matisse retrospective at UCLA in 1966 that, with its unprecedented loans from the Matisse family, was what Los Angeles Times critic Henry J. Seldis called "one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever organized locally."
Brody was a member of the Huntington's board of overseers for 20 years, playing a crucial early role in the development of its Chinese garden.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s competed for four months for the auction with an original estimated value of $150 million. The Brody collection was a huge success, totaling $224.17 million.
Because Mrs. Brody was passionate about gardens, some of the sale’s proceeds are to go to the Huntington Library.
The Picasso, “Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust),” was the jewel of the collection and estimated to bring more than $80 million. The painting sold for a $95 million bid, with the sale charge, raised the full price to $106.48 million. Painted in rich blues, pinks and greens, it depicts the artist’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter asleep naked; above her, a bust of her head rests on a pedestal. The couple bought the painting from Paul Rosenberg, a New York dealer, who acquired it from Picasso in 1936. Picasso painted several canvases of Marie-Thérèse Walter that year, including “Le Rêve
Le Rêve (painting)
Le Rêve is a 1932 oil painting by Pablo Picasso, then 50 years old, portraying his 24-year-old mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. It is said to have been painted in one afternoon, on 24 January 1932...
,” (“The Dream”), which belongs to the casino owner Stephen A. Wynn.
A highlight of the collection was "Grande tête mince
Grande tête mince
Grande tête mince is a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. The work was conceived in 1954 and cast the following year. Auctioned in 2010, Grande tête mince became one of the most valuable sculptures ever sold when it fetched $53.3 million....
" a bust by Giacometti conceived in 1954 was expected to sell for $25 million to $35 million. Alberto Giacometti's bronze "La main" cast in 1948, sold for $25 million. The bronze figure of a cat by Alberto Giacometti, cast in 1955, sold for $20.8 million.
Georges Braque’s “La Treille” set a world record for the painter at $10.16 million. A Marino Marini bronze of a rider, “Piccolo cavaliere” followed at $2.32 million, also more than the highest estimate. Picasso’s “Femme au chat assise dans un fauteuil,” painted in 1964, sold for $18 million.
House
The couple commissioned a modernistModernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
masterpiece house in Holmby Hills in 1949 by architect A. Quincy Jones
A. Quincy Jones
Archibald Quincy Jones, FAIA was a prolific Los Angeles-based architect and educator known for innovative buildings in the modernist style and for urban planning that pioneered the use of greenbelts and green design.-Childhood and early career:...
and interior designer William Haines
William Haines
Charles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality...
. The house combined two fashionable contemporary styles: California mid-century Modernist architecture and sophisticated Hollywood Moderne décor. The house became a gathering spot for a cross-section of the city's elite, from old Los Angeles families such as the Chandlers to Hollywood icons Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
and Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
and also served as a showcase for a stunning art collection.
Shortly after the house was completed, the Brodys had an idea for how to put the perfect finishing touch to their courtyard. In 1952 they commissioned Matisse to execute a massive ceramic-tile wall mural, one of few the artist ever made, and in 1953 they traveled to France to review his preliminary maquette. The story of Frances’s polite resistance to Matisse’s first cut-out design and how she persuaded the artist to provide alternatives is now legend. The story ended happily, with Matisse creating a 12-by-11-foot ceramic-tile wall mural for their courtyard. It was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
.
The home was listed for sale in May 2010 for $24.95 million, the same week their art collection hit the auction block at Christie’s in New York. The 115000 square feet (10,683.8 m²) home at 360 S. Mapleton, is in the neighborhood of Holmby Hills, which is adjacent to Bel Air and Beverly Hills and sits on 2.3 acres (9,307.8 m²) and includes a tennis court and a pool with a guesthouse. It was designed with a modernist décor that includes a floating staircase and floor-to-ceiling glass windows that create an indoor-outdoor living space considered cutting edge at the time. The house is next door to the Playboy Mansion
Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
.