Maud Murray Dale, 1875 – 1953

The Early Years

Agnes Maud Murray, better known as Maud Murray Dale, was a painter, art critic, writer, and editor. She was born on June 25, 1875, in Rochester, New York, to Frank L. Murray, a former drama editor for several newspapers, including New York Herald. In 1893, she began her studies at the Art Students League in New York under the guidance of James Carroll Beckwith, who believed that training abroad was essential for an artist's development. During her time at the League, she met Frederick M. Thompson, whom she married in 1898; the couple had one son.

True to her mentor's philosophy, Maud sought to further refine her artistic skills in Paris during the early 20th century. There, she worked with Théophile A. Steinlen, a prominent Art Nouveau painter and printmaker. Although little is known about Maud’s activities during those years, it is evident that she immersed herself in the French art world and took advantage of opportunities for painting excursions beyond Paris. At the 1910 American Woman’s Artist Association exhibition, for example, she showcased three landscapes of Étel, Brittany: Vieille Maison, Vieille Église, and Aux Champs. Maud also played an active role in the exhibition by serving on the Receiving Committee, likely assisting in planning the opening reception and related events. Her connection to 4 rue de Chevreuse appears to be limited to this exhibition, although the significance of the Association and the Girls’ Art Club within the French-American community would undoubtedly have drawn her to other activities.

Maud divorced Frederick in 1911, and just a few weeks later, she married Chester Dale who was not only a friend of Frederick but also eight years her junior. Dale, a self-made man with a classic rags-to-riches story, began his career as a runner for the New York Stock Exchange at the age of 15. By the age of 27, he had already amassed a considerable fortune:

In 1899 he joined the firm of F.J. Lisman & Company, specialists in railroad securities. “I decided that the only way to get ahead,” recalled Dale, “since I did not have too much capital, was to learn railroad  bonds better than anyone else.” A pioneer in public utilities, he advocated the sale of power and light and water securities long before they had become popular. He established his own company in 1903. He became a senior partner in W.C. Langley & Company, a banking firm financing public utilities, in 1910 (Thompson 109).

Chester eventually became associated as director of some of the following companies.: American Water Works & Electric, West Penn Power;  West Penn Electric; West Penn Railway; Montana, Wyoming & Southern Railroads. Known for his shrewd business acumen and ability to negotiate advantageous deals, he demonstrated a talent for strategic thinking and foresight, which allowed him to capitalize on opportunities and navigate complex market dynamics with remarkable success. 

Maud as Artist

For Maud, this second marriage would alter the course of her life. Her renown came not from the easel or the chisel but from her partnership with Chester in whom she infused a passion for collecting art, especially 19th-century French painting. Together, they would curate one of the richest and avant-garde private collections in 20th-century America.

Initially, however, Maud focused on developing her own creative talents, which she would later channel into the pursuit of collecting artworks.

When they first married, Chester and Maud lived at 132 East 19th Street, in the heart of an artistic community that included figures such as Cecilia Beaux, Albert Sterner, Henri Pène Dubois, William Glackens, and George Bellows – known as "the Block Beautiful."

At the time, Maud pursued a wide array of creative endeavors, including mural paintings in private homes, set designs, landscape paintings, interior decoration, and even motion-picture design. 

There are those who know Mrs. Dale only as the wife of a wealthy banker and as a successful hostess. There are others, a few, who know of the small room under the eaves at Southampton where the artist snatches moments even when the Long Island season is in full swing. “It was tucked away there for a maid or a son,” she laughs, “but I found it and made it mine. I couldn’t bear to be just the wife of a rich banker” (“The Woman of the Day,” 3).

Her own artistic contributions remain largely underexplored, likely because they were confined to the period before she began supporting her husband's art collection and writing extensively about French art. Following are a few of the exhibits mentioned in various news accounts:

• 1923, she showed several paintings she had made in North Africa at the Ainslie Galleries on Fifth Ave: “The streets of Algiers, with their flat walls and green shutters, are naturally picturesque. And the artist has realized their possibilities in making a series of pleasing small paintings” (The Art News, 1923, n1). 
• 1924, according to the Paris times, it seems one of her paintings was hung in the Paris Salon and that she sold all the paintings she exhibited in a “one-man show” though no corroborative evidence has been found to confirm this (1925, 3).
• May 1925, it appears that she exhibited three designs for dance curtains at the Architectural League show held at the Metropolitan (Paris Times, 1925, p. 3), though no corroborative evidence has been found to confirm this.
• In October 1925, she exhibited 12 stage sets at the Galerie J. Allard in Paris, which were widely advertised and received praise for their striking palette and innovative techniques. There were 3 curtain designs, and 9 conceptions for ballet and plays (Shinkman 2). Even though it seems that Maud did not actively pursue a full-fledged artistic career, a French art critic’s appraisal is worth quoting:
• It is quite rare to see a woman venture into theater set design; it is equally rare for her to fail once she has dedicated herself to it. Women often display a disregard for conventional habits and a disdain for established norms, which almost always result in highly intriguing innovations. Such is the case with an American, Mrs. Maud Dale. The set design models she is exhibiting at Allard’s, 20 Rue des Capucines, bear no resemblance to the creations of even our most modern specialists. At first glance, the sharpness or harshness of her color schemes may unsettle. However, one soon realizes that these effects are intentional and that each set is conceived with a specific emotional state in mind, corresponding to what will unfold on stage. With the exception of a fantasy piece based on the legend of Bluebeard, all these sets are intended to frame dances that express the character of countries in the Orient and the Far East. Imagine the stage filled with hieratic figures, with rigid postures and slow gestures, who will be featured in these dances, and you will understand the sometimes barbaric harmony of the colors with the performances that will unfold in this setting. The harmony will reestablish itself before your eyes, and you will appreciate the ingenuity behind the design (translated from French, T.-S. 5).

Note: she published a small article on theater set decorations for the January 1926 Bulletin of the American Women’s Club of Paris (Camille 4).

• 1926, She exhibited watercolors at the New Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City. This exhibition was noted in the April 13, 1926, issue of Art News, which described her work as "charming" and "delicate," highlighting her skill in capturing the subtleties of her subjects. The exhibition featured a series of landscapes and floral studies (14)

Collecting Artworks

The majority of studies on the Dale collection focus primarily on Chester, while Maud is often relegated to the role of someone who “knew a great deal about art” and “aroused his interest in collecting pictures” (New York Evening Journal, November 14, 1932). Her substantial contributions to their collection and to the spread and appreciation of French art in the United States have not been fully acknowledged. 

Maud took an active role in introducing Chester to artists and gallerists, fostering connections that would prove influential in their lives. With her keen eye, she often guided Chester's attention toward nascent or established talent, and nourished his appreciation of the artworld. He was particularly captivated by the profound impact art could have on the public, with some exhibitions attracting as many as 60,000 visitors in a single month. All the while, she observed that during their gallery and studio visits, her husband consistently leaned toward purchasing or commissioning works from the artists she had introduced to him. Recognizing Chester's penchant for collecting (it seems he had a large collection of fire engines), Maud encouraged him to redirect his energy toward acquiring works of art, but with a more deliberate and purposeful strategy. She proposed that he explore the French school, advising him to concentrate on works from the "previous 150 years, with ancestors." She was especially interested in continuities—in situating a work within its historical context and connecting it to what preceded and followed it:

Every century has its “modern art.” The Nineteenth Century, in its first half, had its Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, now considered classical. They were the inspiration for the second half of the century to great masters like Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec. These again are the inspiration of the “modern art” of our days (cited in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 6E).

Intrigued by her suggestions, Chester sought a second opinion and discussed her ideas with his friend sculptor Alonzo Clark Robinson, who was visiting from Paris:

I told him of our many conversations and outlined to him what she had said. Robinson agreed. Whereas Maud did not have an acquisitive nature, I did, and when I saw something that was particularly fine and that appealed to me especially, I wanted to acquire it if it were possible. He replied that this was, that this trait was the mark of a collector. On the entire trip of two or three days, we talked of nothing but collecting and golf so that by the time I had returned home I had made up my mind to really go to town for collecting in a big way and that France was the real place and the market for the pictures I decided to buy, the 19th and 20th centuries (Memoirs, 1959 box 2 folder 8, slide 10).

From that point forward, he embarked on his art collecting endeavors, or as art critic Murdock Pemberton remarked, he “gave art a tumble” (181). Starting in 1926, he and Maud made regular, purposeful trips to Paris, immersing themselves in the Parisian art world. Maud played a crucial role in introducing Chester to influential figures, including artists, dealers, and gallery owners such as J. Allard, Étienne Bignou, Georges Petit, and Henri Barbazanges, who in turn introduced him to the renowned Drouot auction house… and Chester began buying:

Mrs. Dale had such an extraordinary knowledge of fine pictures that it used to annoy me to no end how right she was. She used to say to me Chester Dale if you want a fine example of an artist whether it was a Degas, a Renoir, or whoever. I learned to take her advice and did not think quite so much of the price and more of the picture (Memoirs, 1959, box 2, folder 8, slide 19).

Over time, he engaged in bidding wars and dealer negotiations, embracing the strategic side of collecting (according to Orfali, he acquired 164 works through auction houses). Pemberton claims that he applied the same techniques to purchasing art as he did to trading stocks:

Chester brought to his art buying the same analytical mind and technique that made him a leader in the organization of securities issues [...] He became familiar with the workings of the dealers, what created the market price for a painting, whether that price was fair or an inflated one. Today he has one of the best catalogue libraries in existence of art exhibitions, sales, and auctions, with annotated prices of all important paintings available for purchasers. And above all, he knew the emotional value of pictures (181).

Chester also recognized that he benefited from the economic downturn of the late 20s and the financial difficulties encountered by art dealers and collectors: 

“There were many available pictures at that time and I bought them right and left. That was the time it was possible to buy them that way. Had I not done so, I doubt I would ever have made the collection that I have [..] There I was, they had me on the hook and in retrospect it was a very strong tough hook from which even up to the last few months I have been unable to wiggle off, even if I had desired to.” (Memoirs, 1959, box 2 folder 8, slide 11).

He became the world’s greatest “picture sleuths” (The Art News, 1933, 9), and amassed an incredible collection in a short span of time.

Chester [...] realized that the art market was as much a jungle as the Curb had been when he began trading a quarter of a century earlier. In both places ‘you could get away with murder.” Meanwhile Maud Dale was learning to spot important paintings, and Chester’s problem was how to buy them. He analyzed the situation and found a solution few collectors have employed. He discovered that the common stock of the Gallerie Georges Petit, one of the best firms in Paris, was on sale on the Bourse. He bought sufficient shares to be able to demand a place on the board. He was then on the inside looking out, a position he liked. When there was a “ring,” and there usually was, he benefited; when bargains turned up, he had to be informed; when dealers formed their secret and ephemeral partnerships he was among the first to know. He joined the Sporting Club, where the dealers lunched and planned their coups. He learned to trust no one. “They’re all out to get you” was as true of the art market as it had been of the stock market. But it was a game. It was a challenge. Chester, in an interview with Geoffrey Heilman, spoke of his overwhelming desire always to win whether on the Market, at picture auctions, in sailboat races, at golf. “I’m not a good golfer,” he admitted, “but I’ll take anybody on. You win at golf on the putting green. I got so I could putt into the hole from anywhere on the green because that's the payoff.” In collecting pictures he found the “payoff” consisted in finding the masterpiece and buying it at a fair price. Chester was never a bargain hunter, but he drove hard bargains (Walker 166).

As noted earlier, Chester's skillful navigation of the art world was significantly bolstered by Maud's expertise, networks, discerning eye for quality, and fluency in French—a skill he lacked, as his interlocutors often struggled with English. A passage in his memoirs vividly highlights Maud’s remarkable ability to instantly recognize artworks worth acquiring:

There was an important sale at the American Art Association in 1932 which included some very fine pictures. Mrs. Dale and I went up to see them. Now on these look sees [sic] I have been very annoyed by the nonchalance of my wife. She knew paintings much better than I did, but after all I was spending the money and I wanted to look at them quite a bit myself. Mrs Dale would walk around the gallerie so fast, you would think you were at a six day bicycle race. At this exhibition Maub galloped around as usual, and said Chester Dale, if you are ever going to buy Boucher as the ancestor of Renoir, buy this one, it is superb quality, you will never again get the opportunity to buy again one as good. And then she was past the canvas before I had a chance to let her words sink in. I didn’t have the chance to see the name of the owner, in whose collection it had been, so I said, Maud don’t gallop around like that, Boucher is a very expensive artist, this would run into an awful lot of dough, let’s go back and look at it again. But the answer was I don’t need to see the picture again and it is one of the best Bouchers I have ever seen and if you want to have this artist represented in your collection, this is the one to buy. I knew very little about 18th century French school, but I knew they were very expensive. Their popularity was a little on the wane I thought. And they were on their way down, not up. I thought I had better explore this further, this was pretty close to the bottom of the depression (Memoirs, 1959, box 2, folder 9, slide 24).

After exploring different options with other colleagues, he came to realize that Maud was right and decided to purchase the Boucher she had singled out.

The Collection

Over a period of approximately ten years, Chester Dale amassed over 750 artworks (according to Orfila, the collection numbered 803 acquisitions), meticulously selected to align with the central theme of continuity proposed by his wife, highlighting: 

“[...] the resilience and unbroken continuity of the « classical » Western tradition. They acquired works that reinforced these ideals such as early paintings by impressionist artists and works created by avant-garde artists in the 1920s and 1930s [...] Among the paintings in the National Gallery that can be associated with this taste are Auguste Renoir’s 1867 Diana, his 1865 Mademoiselle Sicot, Andre Derain’s 1910 The Old Bridge, and Georges Braque’s 1926 Nude Woman Seated, with Flowers” (Orfila, n.p.)

Maud’s deep passion for French art, particularly Impressionism, guided their acquisitions, which included masterpieces by Cézanne, Degas, Matisse, Manet, Modigliani, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, and other luminaries. By the 1930s, their collection was valued at $6 million USD—equivalent to over $113 million today. The heart of the collection was assembled between 1926 and 1936, during which they acquired more than 650 works, including an impressive 21 pieces by Amedeo Modigliani:

Mr. and Mrs. Dale had the good fortune to be among the first to collect Modigliani's works, which allowed them to acquire several masterpieces. No one can fully study this tragic young painter, nor draw conclusions about his oeuvre, without having seen La Femme à la cigarette, La Bohémienne, Le Corsage vert, the Portrait de Mme Kisling, the Portrait de M. Deleu, and so on. Indeed, the extensive list of Modigliani works owned by the Dales showcases the very best of his talent (translated from French, Mc Bride, 58).

Maud Dale especially loved representations of people; she wrote that "portraits are the documents by which not only the individual but his epoch can be recreated" (Prabook n.p.). Unsurprisingly, the Dales often commissioned portraits of themselves.

Two of the most renowned examples can be found at The Met. The first, a portrait of Maud alone, was painted by the Dales’ New York neighbor, the American realist George Bellows. The other notable portrait, Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale Dine Out, was painted in 1924 by Guy Pène du Bois, an American artist of French heritage celebrated for his depictions of the glamorous society of his time, including scenes of cafés, theaters, and flappers of the 1920s. Chester Dale was reportedly so fond of this painting that he kept it until his death, eventually bequeathing it to The Met in 1962; remarkably, the painting had never been publicly exhibited until it entered the museum’s collection.

Other existing portraits of Maud by French artists included a 1923 painting by Jean-Gabriel Domergue, a 1931 bronze bust by Charles Despiau, and a 1935 portrait by Fernand Léger. All are held by the National Gallery of Art but, unfortunately, are not on public view.

The couple equally commissioned portraits of Chester, the first by Robert Reid, featuring Chester in a fur-lined, red tweed coat, with his Airedale, and the others by: George Bellows; Jean Lurçat; Miguel Covarrubias; and Salvador Dali.

Between 1918 and 1933, the couple moved to different locations in New York City, especially as their collecting efforts grew:

• 1918, 54 West 9th Street
• 1924, 103 East 75th Street
• 1925, Park Lane Hotel, 299 Park Avenue at 48th Street.
• 1927, the couple realized the need for larger accommodations in New York. With the opening of the Hotel Beverly at 125 East 50th Street Fiftieth Street, the Dales took over an entire upper floor—four apartments—enjoying the rare luxury of private balconies with panoramic views in all four directions. This spacious setup offered ample room to display their ever-expanding collection of artistic treasures, at least temporarily. A 1931 article in the journal Formes by American art critic Henry McBride aptly described the vast scale of the Dales' remarkable collection: It [the collection] is housed — and that is indeed the right word, as the collectors live with their works and have so far carefully avoided the atmosphere of a museum — it is housed in the heart of the city, on the eighteenth floor of a skyscraper. From the windows and terraces, one can gaze upon the financial capital of the modern world in all its astonishing beauty. As spacious as the apartments may be, the collection has long since outgrown them. In the last three rooms, the paintings seem to compete for wall space as if vying for an unattainable prize. Many works of global renown are here stacked in folders directly on the floor; to view them, one must place them one by one on easels, in favorable light […] They [the collectors] seem to suggest that the collection has now taken on a life and will of its own; its growth appears beyond their control (57).

• By the 1931, the Dales' ever-expanding art collection had outgrown their living space yet again. To address this, they rented two penthouses—occupying an entire floor— on the 35th floor of the newly constructed Carlyle Hotel at 35 East 76th Street. They creatively repurposed the extra bathrooms, installing built-in racks to store paintings, but even this solution soon proved insufficient.
• In 1933, Chester acquired an elegant limestone mansion at 20 East 79th Street, where Maud installs the collection, transforming the residence into a semi-public gallery, hosting tours for friends and art enthusiasts. While Maud remains at the Carlyle, Chester lives on site until 1942.

Exhibiting and Writing

In parallel with their collecting, Maud embarked on a series of initiatives in the late 1920s to introduce French art to the American public, collaborating with gallery owners, art dealers, publishers, and other private collectors.

In October 1928, she organized a loan exhibition titled Modern French Art From the Chester Dale Collection at the Wildenstein Galleries. For the benefit of the French Hospital of New York, it included 51 artworks by: George Braque; Auguste Chabaud; Jean-Louis Ferian; Jean Galdou;  Paul Cézane; Derain; Paul Gaugin (5); Vincent Van Gogh (2); Moise Kisling (1); Marie Laurencin (1); Marcel Leprin (1); André Lhote (1); Madeline Luka (1); Albert Marquet (1); Henri Matisse (4); Amedeo Modigliani (4); Roland Oudot (2); Pablo Picasso (2); and Henri Rousseau (2) (Loan Exhibition; Brooklyn Eagle, 1928).

The opening was a gala affair at Wildenstein's. Entrance: $1 for the benefit of the French HospitaL. New York's society flocked to acknowledge allegiance to the new trend. The catalog by Maud Dale was sold out In 3 days, and quotations from the introduction reverberated throughout the Nation's press. Americans by and large were delighted and proud: Europeans were chagrined at the migratory flight of masterpieces across the Atlantic. The reaction of the press gives a fascinating insight Into the climate of opinion during the late twenties.In spite of [...] hoots from conservative quarters, In general, praise for the Dale Collection was unstinted, particularly lor its consistently high level of quality. "Obviously." ran an editorial In Art News, 'the pictures have been selected on their own merits • • • and not because they were painted by famous men" (Fulton A2806).

At the end of 1928, from November 12 to December 8, French dealer and gallery owner Étienne Bignou organized an exhibition in partnership with Knoedler & Co. to benefit the French Hospital of New York. Bignou, a key figure in the Dales' art acquisitions in Paris (through whom, according to Art Historian Jorgelia Orfila, Chester Dale acquired 54 works), had established his Paris gallery in 1927, although he had been active in the art world since 1919. He later expanded his operations by opening a gallery in New York, which he managed from 1934 to 1949. For the exhibition catalog, A Century of French Painting, Bignou wrote the foreword, while Maud Dale contributed the preface and descriptions of the works. The catalog also featured 52 reproductions of paintings sourced from diverse private collections across Europe and the United States.

In 1929, Maud Dale contributed the inaugural monograph to the Knopf series on modern art. Titled Before Manet to Modigliani, it was her first book on the Dale Collection:

As I have said this was Mrs dale’s first book on art and she was determined to make it a very handsome volume. She had a thorough knowledge of book-binding, type, the general make-up of a book, the architecture of it. And I think it is one of the handsomest I have ever seen among art books. She made the selection of the paper, the type, the margins, the design of the cover, and all this went into the making of an exceedingly attractive book, to say nothing of the text, which has been quoted a great number of times in papers, and magazines, both here and abroad. I do not remember how many months it took her to write and attend to the numerous details of editing the text, but she certainly did work extremely hard and made a tremendous effort (Memoirs, 1959, box 2, folder 9, slide 49).

When the book was published, Maud discovered that her name had not been credited as the author. Ever resourceful, Chester contacted Alfred Knopf and arranged for her to personally sign each of the 500 copies at the end of the text—a solution that Knopf readily agreed to implement.

That same year, she published Modigliani, also with Knopf; the work stands out as one of the earliest written studies on the artist

In 1930, Maud Dale published Picasso, the fourth monograph in the Knopf Modern Art Series. The book featured 62 illustrations, six pages of biographical text, and an insightful appreciation of Picasso’s artistic achievements and various merits. Chester Dale identified it as "not only the best of the three books but also one of the best art book I have ever read" (Memoirs 1959, box 2, folder 9, slide 52).

Throughout the 30s, she wrote short prefaces to about twenty books and brochures as well as articles in newspapers, periodicals, and exhibition catalogs. Two examples are:

• Amedeo Modigliani, 1884-1920: Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings, November, Demotte, 1931—33 pages with a foreword by Maud Dale. Catalog for the exhibition held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, November 1931.
• In the spring of 1933 Maud helped organize the "Boldini (1845-1931)" loan exhibition of 34 portraits at Wildenstein & Co. – a benefit for the Child Welfare Committee of the Social Services of Bellevue Hospital. She contributed a small introduction to Boldini's portraiture, in which she hailed these portraits as "the phantoms of a lost and fabulous past that is gone forever" (12).

The Dale Collection and Museums

As their wealth grew and their reputation as collectors expanded, the Dales became increasingly engaged in the evolving world of American museums.

Around 1930, Chester joined the board of directors of the French Institute in New York. Shortly afterward, he oversaw the refurbishment of the Institute building’s third floor to host exhibitions. It officially opened as The Museum of French Art on January 20, 1931, with Maud serving as chair of the exhibitions committee.

She immediately initiated a series of innovatively-themed exhibitions, featuring loans from the Dales’ own collection as well as works sourced from across the U.S. and abroad. Her idea was to demonstrate the influences that shaped the rise of one or more painters. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Portraits of Women Loan Exhibition: Romanticism to Surrealism" opened on January 20, setting the tone for the three exhibitions to follow that same year: "Picasso-Braque-Léger" opened on February 22; "Degas and His Tradition" opened on March 17; and "Renoir and His Tradition" opened on November 24. In 1932, Maud organized her final two exhibitions at the Museum of French Art: "Fantin-Latour," which opened on January 12, and "Derain-Vlaminck Comparative Exhibition," which opened on February 23:

There is general agreement that these shows were distinguished, the catalogues admirably compiled, and the introductions by Maud Dale remarkably informative. The Dales bore all expenses. Chester had made a condition that “the pictures of no one picture dealer or collector who is known to deal in pictures may be shown exclusively. The trustees of the museum decided to show the collection of prints owned by Mrs. George Davidson, contrary to Chester’s wishes. Maud claimed that this violated the stipulation, but in her letter of resignation she did not say that Mrs. Davidson dealt in pictures. In a somewhat acrimonious correspondence Mrs. Davidson’s status as a dealer remains obscure. But in any case the Dales withdrew permanently from the Museum of French Art (Walker 172).

In recognition of her contributions, the French government awarded Maud the Cross of the Legion of Honor on March 5, 1931 (“Pont des Arts”, 2). A brief write-up in Le Figaro detailed the significance of this distinction, stating that she “has tirelessly contributed for years in the most effective way to the promotion and dissemination of French painting in the United States” (translated from French, “Nomination” 3).

For his part, Chester increasingly lent works from their collection to galleries and museums, allowing broader public access to their impressive acquisitions:

• January 1930, loan exhibition on “Nature Morte” from Chardin to the Abstract, at Wildenstein
• January 1930, he contributed to the Museum of Modern Art’s “Painting in Paris”—a show of 100 works.
• May 1931, he contributed paintings to the Department of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Institute—important French painters and their immediate descendants: art in conversation.

After retiring from his professional activities in 1935, Chester began to divest himself of numerous artworks. In 1944 and 1946, he anonymously sold approximately one-fourth of his collection via auctions at the Parke-Bernet Galleries and the Plaza Art Galleries.

Beginning in the 1940s, Chester began collaborating even more closely with various museums on the East Coast and in Chicago: "As Maud’s health declined, Chester began to pay heed to the opinion of the museum officials with whom he interacted" (Orfila, n.p.). He served as a trustee for several prominent institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago (1943–1952), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1943–1956), and the National Gallery of Art (1943–1962), where he became president in 1955. In 1952, he also joined the board of trustees at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

As long as Chester was alive, the Chester Dale Collection was never committed to any institution; but as hope springs eternal in museum breasts, there were several directors who felt at one time or another that they were destined to be the “Proud Possessors.” They too thought, as did Chester himself occasionally, that “permanent loan” meant “irrevocable gift” (Walker 172).

According to the Finding Aid to the Chester and Maud Dale Papers at the National Gallery of Art, Chester made extended loans to the following museums:

• 1941, loans seven American paintings for the opening of the National Gallery of Art on March 17. In November, twenty-five additional 19th century French paintings from the Chester Dale Collection are on display. 
• 1942, in February, he loans an additional group of 16th–18th century European paintings and numerous 19th century French works to the National Gallery. 
• 1943, he donates several American portraits and notable 16th–18th century European paintings, including Saint Jerome by El Greco and The Bath of Venus by François Boucher to the National Gallery. These are his first gifts to the museum. In the spring, He sends fifty-two 20th century French paintings on indefinite loan to the Art Institute of Chicago. Later in the year he loans some forty works to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
• 1944, he donates George Bellows' Both Members of This Club to the National Gallery of Art. 
• 1951, in the fall, he recalls paintings from long-term loan at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and transfers them to the National Gallery of Art.
• 1952, in the spring Chester recalls his 20th century paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago and sends most to the National Gallery of Art.

Many of these loans turned into bequests:

From the opening of the National Gallery of Art in 1941 and until his death, Chester Dale donated a total of 270 paintings, 7 sculptures, 22 graphic works, 1,200 catalogs and more than 1,500 books. He bestowed valuable works by artists such as: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Claude Monet, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, among other relevant artists. His bequest is one of the seven founding collections of the National Gallery of Art, together with the collections given by the other six great patrons: Andrew William Mellon, Samuel Henry Kress, Lessing Rosenwald, Joseph E. Widener, Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Paul Mellon (“Chester Dale: Great Patron Series”).

The Later Years

In the early 1940s, Maud's health began to decline sharply. Living mainly at the Carlyle and in their Southampton residence, she gradually became reclusive, withdrawing almost entirely from the art scene as she struggled with arteriosclerosis and glaucoma.

Maud Murray Dale passed away from a heart attack in 1953 in Southampton, nearly a decade before Chester.

Just a year after her death, Chester married Mary Towar Bullard, New York socialite who had been their secretary for 25 years, working on cataloguing the Dale art collection. The two resided at Hotel Plaza in Manhattan, where Chester had moved in 1942, surrounding himself with 84 artworks he had selected to keep (Thompson, 110):

Chester’s desire for companionship was insatiable. He would have been intolerably lonely had he not been fortunate enough to marry again when he was seventy one years old. Mary Dale was for him the perfect companion. For years she had been the curator of the Chester Dale Collection and, living with these works of art, had, like Chester, developed taste and discrimination. Maud Dale until her death had constantly guided her husband, and without her stimulus one might have supposed his collecting would end. This was not the case. In a market immeasurably more competitive than it was in the twenties and thirties, Chester and Mary made some of the most important additions to the Dale Collection, paintings like Toulouse-Lautrec’s A Corner of the Moulin de la Galette , van Gogh’s Girl in White , Picasso’s Pedro Manach among others. [...] If Maud Dale had not interested Chester in art, one wonders how he would have expressed this emotional side of his nature. Perhaps it might have been repressed with distressing consequences. But luck was with him, and he was unbelievably fortunate in both his marriages.Certainly in Mary Dale he found the affection, understanding, and companionship he desperately wanted (Walker 175-177).

Conclusion

Maud's deep knowledge of and passion for art, paired with Chester Dale's considerable wealth and sharp business acumen, transformed them into prominent art collectors. She provided the inspiration and vision, while he, as the astute negotiator, recognized that art could be one of his most rewarding investments:

“His interest in art was a patient tolerance for anything that excited his attractive wife. Maud had the discerning eye and expertise to select the paintings, while Chester took charge of negotiating their purchase, finding as much satisfaction in securing a shrewd deal as in the beauty of the artworks themselves (“Chester Dale has Spent $6,000,000 for French Paintings,” (Life Magazine 29).

While Chester provided the financial backing, it was Maud who served as the true art specialist behind their collection:

How did he become artistically so astute? The explanation, Chester would readily admit, was his first wife, Maud Dale. He once said, “Maud was like Lisman. She taught me values. Maud didn’t care who owned a picture. She loved the paintings. I did all the buying.” [...] Maud Dale was a painter [...] Unlike her husband she was not possessive. [...] It was delightfully rare and refreshing to find a collector interested in works of art belonging to someone else. Maud Dale’s values were never distorted by ownership (Walker 162).

The papers of Maud and Chester Dale can be found in two repositories: The National Gallery of Art Archives and the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. An analysis of their archives can be found on Éditions Rue d’Ulm.

Sources