Fralin Catalog (6-21-23) - Flipbook - Page 13
Collecting
with the Fralins
I
first met Cynthia and Heywood Fralin in the early 1990s, when,
accompanied by their friends Kermit and Glenys Birchfield, they
came to the New York gallery in which I was working to view
American Impressionist paintings. At that time, the Fralins were
searching for American paintings for their sister-in-law Ann Fralin.
Later in the decade, Heywood, while representing the Horace G.
Fralin Charitable Trust, called upon me to assist in his mission to find
and acquire fine examples of American art for donation to the Art
Museum of Western Virginia (now the Taubman Museum of Art).
With the Trust’s generosity, the Museum developed the core of
its traditional American art collection, receiving major works by
William Bradford, Maria Oakey Dewing, Frederick Childe Hassam,
Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent, and others.
Along with the Museum’s director, Judy Larson, the four of us had
an incredible time going to galleries and auction houses, seeking
the works that would best fit the Museum’s purpose and collection
growth. We were at times joined by spectators in our pursuit. On one
visit to New York, a local Roanoke reporter came along to observe
our process of selecting acquisitions. At times, the Fralins’ Roanoke
friends, including the Birchfields, Chan and Kae Bolling, and Chick
and Barbara Pace, joined us as well. After a full day of looking at art,
we all enjoyed the myriad of evening gallery and auction cocktail
parties that frequented the auction weeks of May and December.
Debra Force
DEBRA FORCE FINE ART, INC.
This experience was infectious and led Cynthia and Heywood to
acquire art for themselves, formulating a collection of mid-19th to
mid-20th-century works, reflecting their passion for American art
to which this featured exhibition gives testimony. In this endeavor,
I have had the immense pleasure of assisting them in reaching their
goal. The thrust of the collection has evolved over the years as their
taste has developed and as gaps needed to be filled. Although the
initial focus was on the works of The Eight and Impressionism, the
Fralins widened their interest to include Regionalism, Illustration,
Western, and Modernism. The only non-American work in the
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