Albert M. Bender

Maurice Albert Bender ( born June 18, 1866 in Dublin, † March 5, 1941 in San Francisco) was an Irish- American insurance brokerage, art collector, patron and philanthropist. He was regarded in his day as one of the most successful insurance business on the West Coast and came mainly as a promoter of the art world of San Francisco and the Bay Area artist colonies in appearance.

Life and work

Albert Bender was the only son of Philip Bender and Bender Augusta, nee Bremer. At age 16, he emigrated to San Francisco and began as a messenger boy in an insurance company to. He quickly developed a flair for the Insurance and began successfully to toggle itself and to speculate. Bender was considered as humane as generous; he invested his capital like in the " fine arts " and began to promote artists, which he quickly earned the nickname " Saint Albert of San Francisco ". Under this Nick he should have been even post reachable. Bender was the first choice and "institution" of cultural life on the West Coast. At Albert Bender's expansive circle of acquaintances included many well-known personalities of the Anglo-American art history such as Ansel Adams, Mary Hunter Austin, Ina Coolbrith, Imogen Cunningham, and Jack Butler Yeats. A special friendship association Bender with humanism - critical natural philosopher and poet Robinson Jeffers, he temporarily supported financially.

Albert Bender was a trustee of Mills College in Oakland, California in 1934 and received an honorary doctorate from the university. He also supported the California School of Fine Arts ( San Francisco Art Institute ). Bender was an enthusiastic collector of rare art and artist's books; he was a Chairman of the Book Club of California.

In honor of his mother Augusta Bender donated to the National Museum of Ireland 1931-1936 about 260 exhibits from its collection of Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist art. These include, among other rare artifacts of the Qing Dynasty, a dated to the 18th century lama robe from Beijing (Peking) and ukiyo-e woodblock prints from Japan.