24. Edward Forbes Auction Sales Catalog

Edward Waldo Forbes (1873-1969) was the director of the Fogg Art Museum from 1909 to 1944, overseeing among many other projects the construction of the new museum building in 1927. He and Paul Sachs, the Assistant Director, did much to build the museum’s art and library collections. Their personal collections ultimately came to Harvard as well.

This 1914 publication is a sample of one of many auction sales catalogs Forbes donated to the Fine Arts Library, annotated not only with prices realized but what was likely his address in Berlin during this trip. The suite of Holbein prints from the Dance of Death series that he purchased from this sale is now part of the Harvard Art Museums’ collection; one of these is reproduced here.