Collections: Art/Music Ephemera

Dan’s home is a salon style gallery of art and violin memorabilia, and is open for friendly viewing by appointment. Equally interested in preserving the historic and nurturing the living, he regularly throws “Art Parties” to raise money for charities.

An avid collector even as a kid (baseball cards, stamps, bottles), in grad school, Dan discovered eBay. At this time in his life, he was obsessed with historical violinists, and eBay proved to be an endless resource for building up credit card debt. Over the course of a decade, he built one of the largest collections of violinist memorabilia in the world (over 2,000 pieces) and an interesting accumulation of LPs, 78s, and mutes. He’s given presentations with his collection at universities and some of his collection was featured on a documentary for Czech Television, created by violinist Pavel Sporcl. The collection includes programs, photos, autographs, ads, handbills, posters, and trading cards of everybody from Joachim, Sarasate, and Wieniawski to Midori, Perlman, and Repin, with an entire scrapbook dedicated to just Heifetz.

Dan began collecting original works of art in 2011 when he purchased a Renoir etching from Christopher Clark Gallery in San Francisco. Soon thereafter, he became obsessed with scouring the French auction houses for works by all the artists who participated in the Impressionist exhibits of the 1870s and 1880s. He found that etchings by the famous artists, and the oils, watercolors, and drawings by the unknown artists, were all affordable. Thus, the amassing began… Shortly after that, he learned that Camille Pissarro had many descendants who were/are fine artists, so they all found their way into his home, too.

A few years later, he discovered Art Span Open Studios in San Francisco. His obsession then began to encompass new works by living local artists; these people are so much more fun than musicians. Then came the commissioning. He commissioned Paul Gibson to paint his portrait, Cynthia Alvarez to paint his cat, and Mark Stivers to feature him in cartoons.

The art collection now holds well over 100 original works. Notable artists include Maximilien Luce, Robert Antoine Pinchon, Albert Marie Lebourg, Jean-Francois Raffaelli, Karl Schmidt, Jean-Louis Forain, Maurice Louvrier, Carl Sammons, Armand Guillaumin, Federico Zandomeneghi, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and eight of his descendants, ancient statues from Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Americas, and a unique photo by Ansel Adams that has never reproduced.

Karl Schmidt