Watercolors by Paul Cezanne from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pearlman. Introduction by Edward H. Dwight. 1965 set of nine color reprints in a gray folder published by the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Museum of Modern Art, Utica, New York.

This was a gift for actress Virginia Valli Farrell (also wife of actor and Palm Springs Mayor Mr. Charles Farrell). The collection is signed by Mr. Henry Pearlman, owner of the original collection.

Information on the collection here: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/story/transforming-nature-watercolors-cézanne-and-modern

The mission of the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, created in 1955 to serve as custodian of the collection, is to broaden the public reach of art and deepen their personal experience of it, while conserving the original works for future audiences, says Foundation President Daniel Edelman. The Pearlmans were always generous in lending to museums, especially those where diverse audiences who might not get to see such art would have the opportunity. “They felt a moral obligation to better peoples’ lives through the collection,” says Betsy Rosasco, Research Curator of European Painting and Sculpture.

On long-term loan to PUAM since 1976, the collection has not been viewed in its entirety since the 1970s. With more than 70 masterworks, it is considered one of the most distinguished private collections of early modern art in the U.S. Some of the works, such as Cezanne’s suite of 16 watercolors, are light sensitive and rarely ever on view (they were last exhibited at PUAM in the early 2000s).

Cézanne and the Modern centers around the post-Impressionist “Father” of modern painting, whose works compose half the exhibition, and offers insight into the development of modern art as well as the history of art collecting in the United States in the 20th century.

Henry Pearlman’s (1895-1974) is a tale of rags to riches, a self-made businessman from Park Slope, Brooklyn, who sought to make artwork accessible to the public. The son of Russian immigrants – his father worked as a foreman in a printing factory — Pearlman founded the Eastern Cold Storage Insulation Corporation, which made vital contributions to marine shipbuilding during World War II. Later, he founded the Styro Sales Company, distributors of such products as Styrofoam.

Virginia Valli was an American stage and film actress whose motion picture career started in the silent film era and lasted until the beginning of the sound film era of the 1930s. In 1931, she married her second husband, actor Charles Farrell. They moved to Palm Springs, where she was a social fixture for many years. She suffered a stroke in 1966, and died two years later, aged 73, in Palm Springs. She was buried in the Welwood Murray Cemetery of that city.