Arensberg, Walter, 1878-1954

Walter Conrad Arensberg (1878-1954) was an American author and Francis Bacon scholar.

Walter and his wife Louise (1879–1953) were among the most notable U.S.-based art collectors of the first half of the 20th century. While Walter was born into Pittsburgh steel wealth, it was the family fortune of his wife Louise, made in Massachusetts textile manufacturing, that would allow the couple to rise to prominence in the world of avant-garde art collecting, and place their homes, first in New York City, and then in Los Angeles, at the center of artistic and intellectual exchange. The Arensbergs were also among the first U.S. collectors to begin seriously collecting pre-Hispanic art, much of which they bought from Earl Stendahl. These purchases were made both before and after Stendahl relocated his gallery from Wilshire Boulevard to the Hollywood Hills property that adjoined the Arensberg estate (Stendahl would buy and transform the Arensberg home into his primary gallery after the couple’s passing). At the close of a complex, decade-long search for an institution with which to entrust their collection, the Arensbergs decided on the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A mural fragment from the Atetelco compound at Teotihuacan counts among the numerous pre-Hispanic objects in Philadelphia’s Arensberg Collection that were bought from the Stendahl Art Galleries.