“Sèvres Magnifique: French Porcelain from the Collection of Thomas B. Lemann” is now on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The journey the objects in the exhibit made into NOMA’s permanent collection spanned several decades. The pieces have been on display at the museum a few times, dating back to the 1980s, but always anonymously. Lemann died in 2023 at age 97, and the collection was donated to the museum.
His story, well-known to a certain vintage of local, is worth pondering as you enjoy his gift of the royal platters, etc., to his fellow citizens.
A New Orleans native, he served in World War II and was a Harvard Law graduate thereafter. There are YouTube videos of him reciting, late in life and in Greek, the poetry of Alcaeus and Homer.
“Often when we talk about Tommy Lemann, I always use a shortcut to describe maybe how his mind worked: He was a codebreaker during the Second World War,” said Mel Buchanan, NOMA’s RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts & Design. “He made his career as a lawyer (but) he lived a life of the mind, operating on a level that … most of us struggle just to keep up. He was a voracious reader, traveler, and deeply knowledgeable about all parts of history and art.”
Print and podcast coverage here and here. A few photos below.
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