János Scholz

Scholz was born in 1903 in Sopron, Hungary.{{cite news |last1=Pace |first1=Eric |title=Janos Scholz, 89, Cellist, Scholar And Morgan Library Benefactor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/06/obituaries/janos-scholz-89-cellist-scholar-and-morgan-library-benefactor.html |access-date=October 19, 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=June 6, 1993}}{{cite web |title=János Scholz (Biographical details) |url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=108164 |website=British Museum |access-date=October 19, 2018}} He graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

Scholz began playing the cello with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Graham |title=Photographs in the Janos Scholz Collection |journal=History of Photography |date=2003 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=197–200 |doi=10.1080/03087298.2003.10443276|s2cid=191376987 }} He joined the Roth Quartet in 1932. By 1933, he was a cellist in New York City. He became "one of the great cellists of the twentieth century." He also taught at Columbia University and New York University.

Scholz began his Italian Art collection in 1935 which grew to 1500 drawings. Representing drawings of both major and minor artists of Italy they are noted for the quality of individual works and the comprehensive nature. In 1973, he donated the works, including "drawings by Pisanello, Veronese, Titian, Guercino, and Piranesi",{{cite web |title=Scholz, János |url=http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=6839 |website=The Frick Collection |access-date=October 19, 2018}} to Morgan Library & Museum.

Scholz conducted seminars for New York University Institute of Fine Arts, Columbia University and the New School for Social Research providing rare first hand contact with works through his collection. Many exhibitions were organized in the U.S., Canada and Italy.{{Cite book|title=Venetian Drawings From The Collection Of Janos Scholz|last=Gingold|first=Diane J.|publisher=Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts|year=1976|location=Montgomery Alabama|pages=9–10}}{{Cite book|title=Drawings by Seventeenth Century Italian Masters from the Collection of Janos Scholz|last=Moir|first=Alfred|publisher=The Regents, University of California, santa Barbara|year=1974|location=Santa Barbara, California|pages=6–7}}

Scholz was married twice. His first wife was Anne Bigelow Rosen. His second wife, Helen Marshall Schelling, was the widow of conductor Ernest Schelling. They resided on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, New York City. Scholz had two sons with Anne Bigelow Rosen and one with Helen Marshall Schelling.

Scholz died on June 3, 1993, in New York City, at age 89.

Scholz assembled a large collection of Italian drawings, acquiring, in 1939, theatre-related drawings from Michael Mayr, and, in 1944, 1000 Italian drawings, including 49 Bibienas.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2224731|title=Italian master drawings, 1350-1800 from the Janos Scholz collection|date=1976|publisher=Dover Publications|others=János Scholz|isbn=0-486-23257-3|location=New York|oclc=2224731}}{{Cite book|last=Scholz|first=János|url=https://catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/3016554|title=Italian landscape drawings from the collection of Janos Scholz. [Exhibition] the Gallery, Department of Art, Duke University, Apr. 7 - May 12, 1965. Catalogue.|date=1965|oclc=41054519 }} In 1973 Scholz offered to bequeath his collection to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.{{Cite web|title=Collections Online János Scholz British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG45505|access-date=2022-01-28|website=www.britishmuseum.org}}

Scholz also donated more than 5,000 photographs to the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame{{Cite web|title=A Gift of Light: Photographs in the Janos Scholz Collection {{!}} Worcester Art Museum|url=https://www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/past/gift_of_light.html|access-date=2022-01-28|website=www.worcesterart.org}} as well as works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{Cite news|last=Pace|first=Eric|date=1993-06-06|title=Janos Scholz, 89, Cellist, Scholar And Morgan Library Benefactor|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/06/obituaries/janos-scholz-89-cellist-scholar-and-morgan-library-benefactor.html|access-date=2022-01-28|issn=0362-4331}}

In 2016 the Metropolitan Museum of Art reached a settlement with the family of Michael Berolzheimer, a Jewish art collector who had been persecuted by the Nazis, for a drawing of a stag that Scholz had gifted to the museum.{{Cite web|title=Settlement with Berolzheimer Heirs for Anamorphic Drawing of a Stag|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/-/media/files/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/provenance-research-project/settlement-with-berolzheimer-heirs-for-anamorphic-drawing-of-a-stag-on-mma-letterhead.pdf}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Scholz |first1=Janos |title=Connoisseurship and the Training of the Eye |journal=College Art Journal |date=Spring 1960 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=226–230 |doi=10.2307/773956|jstor=773956 |s2cid=110729074 }}
• Italian Master Drawings, 1350–1800, From The Janos Scholz Collection, Selected And Described by Janos Scholz{{Cite book|title=Italian Master Drawings, 1350-1800, From The Janos Scholz Collection, Selected And Described By Janos Scholz|last=Scholz|first=Janos|publisher=Dover Publications, Inc., New York|year=1976|location=New York, New York}}

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Category:1903 births

Category:1993 deaths

Category:People from Sopron

Category:People from the Upper East Side

Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States

Category:Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni

Category:American art collectors

Category:20th-century American cellists