Lot Essay
Esther Slater Kerrigan (1892-1951) was one of the most well-known female collectors of her time. She had two marriages: her first husband was undersecretary of state Sumner Welles and her second was Joseph E. Kerrigan. The Kerrigan family owned the townhouse at 53 East 77th street in New York, the site of the current Dalva Brothers gallery. During her lifetime, Esther Slater Kerrigan amassed a diverse and fascinating collection of Old Master and nineteenth-century paintings, as well as European furniture and works of art. In 1942 her collection, including paintings by Degas, de Hooch, El Greco, Delacroix, and Romney, was sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York. Other pieces from her collection can now be found in the Yale University Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Kimbell Art Museum.