Audrey Jones Beck (March 27, 1924 – August 22, 2003) was an American art collector and philanthropist who donated her personal art collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection included impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, and the museum named its Audrey Jones Beck Building in her honor.
Life
Audrey Jones Beck was born in Houston, Texas, on March 27, 1924. She was the granddaughter of Houston entrepreneur Jesse H. Jones. Audrey attended The Kinkaid School, in Houston, Mount Vernon Seminary and College in Washington D.C., and the University of Texas at Austin. She met Ensign John Beck in 1941, and they were married eight months later at Christ Church Cathedral (Houston). She lived in Washington, D.C., with her grandparents for part of her childhood, where Jesse Jones served as United States secretary of commerce and head of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. "She spent a lot of time with the Roosevelts at the White House," said Steven Fenberg, of the Houston Endowment Inc. "Will Rogers was her grandfather's best friend."
According to Beck, she first encountered impressionism when she visited Europe as a 16-year-old, and that while she "paid homage to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo [...] the imaginative and colorful Impressionist paintings came as a total surprise." She noted the relative scarcity of impressionist art in American museums during those years, and called the paintings the "epitome of artistic freedom" and a "visual delight". The first painting she acquired was a landscape with figures by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, purchased in Paris in 1938 at the age of 16. But she was drawn to impressionism and gave the Fragonard to a friend, and began to focus on French painting from 1870 and 1930.
In 1960 she joined the board of Houston Endowment, a charitable foundation founded by her grandparents, where she was involved with causes such as annual scholarship programs and animal welfare. The Houston Humane Society's Audrey Jones Beck Adoption Center was named in her honor. Beck was a founding trustees of the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Ballet, and a trustee of the Houston Symphony Society. However, Houston did not have a strong tradition of philanthropy in the visual arts at that time and there were few examples for her to follow. "The earliest wealthy people here just didn't collect painting and sculpture." said Peter Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). Before she began donating paintings to the museum, the collection was displayed in her home where she and her husband John, made it available to students of Rice University and the University of Houston. Braque, Derain, Modigliani, and others were exhibited in the living room and around the house. The Becks were very generous about letting people in to study and enjoy the collection. In the fall of 1973 John Beck died and his passing ended her interest in having the collection in her home.
Beck was a civic-minded native of Houston and a lifelong student of art history. She had wealth, knowledge, sophistication and wit, but she was never really a socialite. In fact, she was known to be an intensely private person, shunning notoriety, photographers, and publicity. "When she gave money, she did not want to be recognized," said Jack S. Blanton. "It brought great joy to her life, getting to know about art, buying art, and giving art." said Isabelle Wilson, chairman of the MFAH board. Beck "was probably one of Houston's most remarkable and unknown citizens," said Steven Fenberg, of the Houston Endowment Inc. As a board member of The Houston Endowment, she donated $20 million of the $85 million for a new building on the museum's campus. However, when the building opened in 2000, many people were surprised that she even attended the opening events. "I think she was the best-kept secret in Houston," said Alfred C. Glassell, former MFAH board chairman.