Paul Joseph Sachs (1878-1965) was the grandson of Bavarian Jewish immigrants. He was educated in New York and later studied at Harvard, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in 1900. He inherited the fortune of his family, who ran the Goldman Sachs banking firm; he also became a partner in the firm in 1904 (Vernon, 2021). Sachs began collecting works of art in his youth. This led him to meet Edward Waldo Forbes, director of the Fogg Museum from 1909-1944. Through this relationship Sachs began donating pieces to the museum, which led to his appointment as deputy director of the Fogg Museum in 1915 (Duncan and McClellan, 2018). He also served as a professor at Wellesley College between 1916-1917. Finally, after his retirement in 1945 he donated over two thousand prints and five hundred drawings to the Fogg Museum (Mongan, 1965).
Bibliography
DUNCAN, Sally Anne y MCCLELLAN, Andrew (2018): Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard, Getty Research Institute, Los Ángeles.
MONGAN, Agnes (1965): Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts).