For over a century, Lorinda Payson de Roulet’s family has played a powerful role in shaping American culture through visionary collecting and extraordinary philanthropy. A member of the Whitney family, including the inimitable Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and the daughter of Joan Whitney Payson, the pioneering co-founder of the New York Mets, Mrs de Roulet carried forward a legacy defined by passion, generosity and civic purpose.

Leading the collection of Mrs de Roulet is Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez), from 1876–77 — held in her family collection since 1929 and the most important Renoir to come to market in decades. Further works span Impressionism and American painting, from Edgar Degas, Marc Chagall, and Alfred Sisley to Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth, and will be presented across this season’s 20th and 21st Century Art auctions in New York.