The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection
at the Dallas Museum of Art

In 1985 the Dallas Museum of Art received a one-of-a-kind gift of more than 1,400 works—impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, and decorative arts objects, including furniture, picture frames, decorated fans, textiles, ceramics, metal work and silver—authorized by Wendy Reves in honor of her late husband, Emery Reves.

To house the remarkable collection, the Dallas Museum of Art opened a 16,500-square-foot wing designed by the Museum’s architect, Edward Larrabee Barnes. The new wing re-creates five rooms from Villa La Pausa, the home shared by Wendy and Emery Reves in the south of France that was originally built by Coco Chanel. The rooms include the library, dining room, salon, bedroom, and hall, as well as a patio built around a central courtyard. When the Reves Collection came to Dallas, Art & Antiques magazine called it “the most intriguing acquisition story in the history of art museums.”

The paintings, sculptures, and works on paper in the Reves Collection present a stunning array of objects by impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist masters including Auguste Rodin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Honoré Daumier, Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Edgar Degas.

The extensive decorative arts holdings of the Reves Collection include more than 300 fine pieces of Chinese export porcelain; European furniture dating from the Renaissance through the Victorian period, including a rare French cabinet-on-stand attributed to Pierre Gole; important carpets from Spain, Portugal, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and India, as well as 17th-century silk ecclesiastical vestments; European iron and bronze work, ranging from locks and antique keys to door knockers and strong boxes, some dating back to the late Gothic era; a collection of rare 17th- and 18th-century frames from France, Spain, Italy, and Flanders; French fans primarily from the 18th century; and more than 150 silver objects including 17th- and 18th-century English serving pieces, candlesticks, and flatware, with many of the wares set out as they would actually be used. The Reves Collection also includes fine examples of English, Spanish, and Venetian antique glass, a gallery of Winston Churchill memorabilia, and a library of rare books.

About Wendy and Emery Reves
Emery Reves, Hungarian by birth, was a journalist, a publisher, and an advocate of world peace. He died in 1981.

Wendy Reves, from Marshall, Texas, was a gracious hostess, a collector, and a patron of the arts. Before her marriage, she was a successful model in New York and Paris. She died in 2007.

The couple met in 1946 and finally settled down in the Villa La Pausa in 1954. They were married in Thonex, Switzerland, in 1964.

The Villa La Pausa
The Villa La Pausa was originally built for Coco Chanel and was home to Wendy and her late husband, Emery, since the early 1950s. Sir Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, the Duke of Windsor, Konrad Adenauer, Somerset Maugham, and Graham Sutherland were among those who enjoyed the warmth and vitality of the couple’s household.

Images:
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Lise Sewing, 1866–68, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.59

Vincent van Gogh, Sheaves of Wheat, 1890, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.80

Maurice de Vlaminck, Bougival, c. 1905, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.82

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Apples on a Sideboard, 1902–06, watercolor on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.12

Cabinet on a stand, probably Pierre Gole, Paris, France, c. 1660–80, wood, tortoiseshell, and gilt bronze,
Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R. 573.a–c

Pair of candelabra (two of four), John Hugh Le Sage and Augustus Le Sage (branches), London, England, 1747 and 1771 (branches), silver, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection,
1985.R.540, 541.a–b

“St. Peter’s Basilica” fan, Italy, c. 1785–90, skin, gouache, bone, silver, and gilt, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.519

Vase, Jingdezhen, China, c. 1700, enameled porcelain, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.1089