Forgotten Treasures Will Have a Chance To Shine in New Exhibit Honoring 125 Anniversary of Parrish Art Museum

For years, works of art from the personal collection of Samuel L. Parrish have been sitting in a basement and various other storage facilities in Southampton Village-owned buildings, essentially gathering dust.

The pieces — a mixture of sculptures, statues and paintings — are not worth much when it comes to monetary value, and some of the paintings are essentially fakes. But they still have enormous cultural value and significance, because of who Parrish was and the important role he has played in the arts history in the village.

A few dedicated individuals believe that now is the time to give the collection, and its owner, their due.

The Southampton History Museum will host an opening reception on Saturday, March 18, from 4 to 6 p.m., for a new exhibit titled “Gilded Icons: Forgotten Treasures in the Samuel L. Parrish Art Collection.” The Reverend W. Patrick Edwards, who curated the exhibit, will give a talk starting at 5 p.m.

The exhibit will run for the rest of the calendar year, Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a $10 admission fee for adults. It is free for history museum members and children.

Samuel L. Parrish (1849-1932) was a prosperous New York City attorney who summered in Southampton. He was born into a wealthy Quaker family in Philadelphia and attended Harvard, where he developed an interest in Italian art. After graduating, Parrish went to Italy for a year studying Classical and Renaissance art.

In 1877, he opened a successful law practice in New York City. He visited friends and family in Southampton during the summer season and traveled to Italy regularly. While there, he decided to open an art museum in Southampton. To furnish his new museum, he bought paintings in Europe, both real and fake, and copies of Classical sculpture.

He soon retired and purchased the Rogers Mansion, then on Main Street in Southampton, to be his summer home. He built his museum across the street where he displayed his newly acquired collection. It opened 125 years ago, in 1898.

A committed philanthropist, Parrish donated land and money for Southampton Hospital, funded the first paving of Southampton’s Main Street, bought a historic church then remodeled it into a public gymnasium, and was a founder of the Rogers Memorial Library. He supported the Shinnecock Summer School of Art led by American Impressionist William Merritt Chase.

Parrish died in 1932, leaving his museum and his collection to the Village of Southampton, but it soon foundered. In 1952, Rebecca Littlejohn, a civic-minded resident, became president of the Parrish Museum board. She began the overwhelming task of reviving the museum by painting it white.

Littlejohn decided the Parrish collection is out of step with modern art movements and began showing American artists who lived and worked on the South Fork. Over the years, most of Parrish’s artwork was sold, damaged or lost.

With the help of Southampton History Museum Executive Director Tom Edmonds, 17 pieces from the collection — which includes about 80 pieces total — were selected for the exhibit, moved out of storage from the Southampton Arts Center on Jobs Lane, which is the former home of the Parrish Art Museum, which has been in Water Mill since 2012.

Edmonds asked the Southampton Village Board on February 9 to move the pieces from the Southampton Arts Center to the Rogers Mansion for the exhibit. He acknowledged that while the pieces are not worth much in terms of monetary value, they are priceless for other reasons.

“We still have a piece of Sam Parrish’s heart, which was art,” Edmonds said. “And we’d like to show it off.”