Over the course of forty years, Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos assembled a rare and valuable selection of works reflective of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles while living in London. Interested in artists who prized beauty and innovation in their work, the Kakoses opted to gradually collect pieces for their home that invited sustained looking and appreciation. Saint Vincent is deeply honored to receive this extensive collection supported by a $1 million endowment that underwrites its conservation and interpretation moving forward.
The Rusinko Kakos Collection points to an intergenerational, transnational network of artists who built upon the learnings of Impressionism. Through a constellation of friendships, parent-child relationships, marriages, professional associations, and academic connections, artists shared ideas, techniques, and inspirations that supported the development of their work. While these individuals engaged the same themes, subjects, and methods of working as their more famous counterparts, their names are not conjured within the common imagination. Consisting of eighty-eight paintings, much of the collection is comprised of artists who worked alongside those whose names are synonymous with Impressionism and the modernist styles that immediately followed but have largely been omitted from art historical surveys. Donated in 2022, this important bequest dramatically expands Saint Vincent’s holdings of nineteenth and twentieth century European art. Featuring works rarely seen by the public in decades, the collection is principally focused on the transformative years between the 1880s through the 1930s thereby linking the luminaries of the movement with their under-recognized contemporaries. Longtime philanthropists, the Kakoses have positively influenced the lives of countless individuals through their generous support of early childhood literacy, access to the arts, and major initiatives in higher education including scholarships and endowments at The Pennsylvania State University (State College, Pennsylvania), Manhattan College (Riverdale, New York), and Niagara University (Lewiston, New York). Dividing their time between Winter Park, Florida, and Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the Kakoses have contributed to local arts and culture organizations for decades. The bequest of their personal collection to Saint Vincent College engages a sustained interest in making art and education attainable. As a gift to the people of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the debut of the Rusinko Kakos Collection fittingly coincided with the 250th anniversary of Westmoreland County. Their collection expands access to a pivotal period of European painting largely unavailable regionally for public view outside the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh until now. “Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos are joining other distinguished donors who have contributed significantly to the cultural life of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by enriching our public art collections. It is especially appropriate that Pennsylvania museums should have such strong Impressionist holdings since a prominent member of the group, Mary Cassatt, was born in Allegheny City (now part of Pittsburgh) and trained in Philadelphia. Cassatt encouraged American businessmen and women to collect Impressionism and to leave their collections to museums for others to enjoy.” Jennifer A. Thompson, Ph.D. The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Curator of European Painting and Sculpture & Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection Philadelphia Museum of Art Highlights include a portrait by Sir George Clausen, The Novel (1879); two exceptional works by Victor Vignon, Haystacks and The Hamlet; and a Breton village scene by Victor Charreton, Breton Lacemakers (1922–1926). Among several examples by Post-Impressionist luminaries is a still life by Suzanne Valadon, Bouquet of Roses in a Shell (ca. 1919); a stunning portrait by Henri Lebasque of his daughter, Marthe Lebasque at Vézillon (1912); two garden-based works by Maximillien Luce, and four works by Georges d’Espagnat informed by Fauvist techniques. The collection boasts representative works by artists who helped introduce Impressionism to England including Arthur Hacker, A Quiet Cove, Girl Canoeing (1900); Stanhope Forbes, High Water – Gweek, Cornwall (1931); and Mark Fisher, Corner of the Orchard, Hatfield Heath (ca. 1920). Sharing an inexhaustible curiosity and inspired by extensive travel, the Kakoses maintained a core belief in the power of art to facilitate appreciation for diverse cultures and ideas. It is fitting, then, that the Rusinko Kakos Collection finds a home at Saint Vincent, whose liberal arts focus challenges students to consider the richness of the past, the concerns that animate artists, and the revelatory beauty of the world around them. |
Above: Victor Alfred Paul Vignon, French, 1847 – 1909, Haystacks (Les Meules de Foin), n.d., Oil on canvas, 20 x 17 ½ inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Henri Eugene Le Sidaner, French, 1862 – 1939, The Trianon at Versailles in the Snow, ca. 1916, Oil on panel, 5 5/8 x 7 7/8 inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Arthur Hacker, British, 1858 – 1919, A Quiet Cove, Girl Canoeing, 1900, Oil on panel, 15 ¾ x 13 inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Suzanne Valadon, French, 1865 – 1938, Bouquet of Roses in a Shell (Bouquet de Roses dans un Obus), ca. 1919, Oil on card, 12 x 9 ½ inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Pierre-Eugène Montézin, French, 1874 – 1946, The Lutin Near the Loing, ca. 1940, Oil on canvas, 28 ½ x 23 ½ inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Victor Charreton, French, 1864 – 1936, Breton Lacemakers (Les Dentellières Bretonnes), ca. 1922 – 1926, Oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 28 5/8 inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, British, 1870 – 1951, The Ford – Stratford Tony, ca. 1942-51, Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches, Saint Vincent Art & Heritage Collections, Gift of Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos. Photographs by Nathan J. Shaulis / Porter Loves.