James Deering

James Deering by John Singer Sargent Inscribed: to Mr James Deering from his friend John S. Sargent, Miami 1917

James Deering (1859 – 1925) was an industrialist and early developer of Miami, Florida and the builder of Villa Vizcaya, an Italian Renaissance-style estate in Miami facing Biscayne Bay, complete with sculpted gardens. He used it as a winter home from 1916 to the time of his death. (It is now open to the public as the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.)

Biography

Early Life and Development of Farming Technologies

James Deering was born in South Paris, Maine, the son of William Deering and his second wife, Clara Hammond Deering. William Deering, who had inherited a family woolen mill, invested in the western United States and financially supported the development of agricultural machinery to make this land more valuable. In 1873, he moved his family to Illinois and assumed control of a farm equipment manufacturer, renaming it the Deering Harvester Company. Deering Harvester enabled farmers to harvest an acre of grain in an hour—a substantial increase in productivity that made commercial agriculture in the West profitable. As more reapers were sold, Deering’s land investments grew in value, and, by the end of the nineteenth century, the Deerings became one of America’s wealthiest families.

James Deering’s older half-brother, Charles, graduated from the United States Naval Academy and studied art in Paris before entering the family business. James attended Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the Deering Harvester Company in 1880. By the turn of the century, James Deering owned homes on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and in nearby Evanston, as well as in New York City and at Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. His name appeared in social columns as an active partygoer, traveler and cultural ambassador, hosting visiting French dignitaries at his homes in New York and Chicago. Having never married, some believe he was a homosexual, though that has not been proven. For his work in promoting agricultural technology in France, James Deering received the Legion d’Honneur in 1906.

Business Dealings

In 1902, in a deal brokered by banker J.P. Morgan, the Deering Harvester Company merged with the McCormick Reaper Company and others to form International Harvester, the largest producer of agricultural machinery in the nation. James Deering became vice-president of the firm, charged with oversight of the Illinois manufacturing plants. As William Deering’s health weakened, the family began spending winters in St. Augustine, Florida. By 1910, however, William Deering purchased land and built a home in Coconut Grove, just south of Miami. In 1913, James Deering began to plan his own home in Miami. Deering’s greatest legacy is perhaps this winter home, which he called “Vizcaya.”

Vizcaya

James Deering built Villa Vizcaya between 1914 and 1922. The architect of record was F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. and the formal gardens were designed by Diego Suarez but, in fact, the mastermind of the project was its designer Paul Chalfin. Chalfin, a Harvard grad trained as a painter at The Ecole des Beaux-Arts, was working for decorator Elsie de Wolfe in 1911 when Deering approached de Wolfe for advice on the interiors of his Chicago home. De Wolfe (who later passed on the commission for Vizcaya as she considered Miami too far away and too provincial to be worthwhile) sent Chalfin to Chicago in her stead, and Chalfin insinuated himself with Deering as a sort of cultural majordomo. By 1913, Chalfin and Deering traveled in Europe to gather design inspiration and to purchase art and antiques. The culmination of their efforts, and the most lasting memorial to each man, is Vizcaya, the Miami estate they created between 1914 and 1922.

The main house at Vizcaya is distinguished for its Italian Renaissance-inspired architecture and its lavishly designed interiors, filled with European, Asian, and American artifacts spanning two millennia. The many statues which line the garden areas, and may be found all over the premise, are of a Greek style and upon closer examination actually appear to be pagan gods from the Greco-Roman era. Perhaps most curious of all is what appears to be a sacrificial altar made of a white marble, and carved with protruding goat faces on the corners of the altar, and with a cow skull between the heads of two lions on the front and back. Two pillars made of coral stand beside this altar which have symbols engraved that at first glance appears to be Celtic, but are more probably representative of the Oak Tree of Gernika; a symbol which represented freedom in the original Vizcaya/Basque province of Spain. This fascinating symbolism should be made note of upon a visit to the museum, as such extensive research and effort was put into the architecture of the grounds. Unlike many other house museums from this era, Vizcaya still possesses almost all of its original furnishings, offering an experience of great historic integrity. The gardens are notable for introducing a European design aesthetic to a subtropical context—a daring premise that resulted in early and ongoing experiments to identify appropriate plant specimens. While Vizcaya’s style evokes faraway places, local stone, soil and plants reflect Deering’s desire to showcase Miami and its natural beauty.

By 1922, the 180-acre (0.73 km²) estate included a lagoon dotted with manmade islands, to the south of Vizcaya’s manicured gardens, and a village, on the west side of South Miami Avenue, with fields for grazing livestock and growing produce. Deering built the village with the intent of making Vizcaya virtually self-sufficient. This idea evoked the spirit of European precedents while compensating for the limited services and commodities available in early twentieth-century Miami. The village’s buildings housed staff quarters, an automobile garage, workshops, and an array of barns for domesticated animals. Fortunately, the village survives, and its splendid collection of buildings is [2006] in the process of being restored for public enjoyment.

Deering’s motivations for building such a lavish estate are somewhat mysterious. By the time the Main House was completed, Deering’s health had begun to fail, although he did manage to entertain notable guests, including silent film stars Lillian Gish and Marion Davies. Deering was generally described in his later years as a reticent man with impeccably proper manners leavened by a sense of humor. It would be tempting to characterize him on the basis of Vizcaya as a Gatsby-esque figure, if not for the fact that the estate did not become a locus of large wild parties. By 1923, the gardens were opened to the public on Sundays and Deering reportedly watched the crowds from the shadows of his private balcony, anxious to know the numbers who had attended but unwilling to make contact or to take credit for his hospitality in person. In some personal letters, he expressed the hope that his nieces and nephews would enjoy the estate, and built tennis courts, a bowling alley, a billiard room and a swimming pool to encourage them to visit.

Death and Legacy

In September 1925, Deering (who had long suffered from pernicious anemia) died onboard the steamship Paris en route to the United States. Among the beneficiaries of his philanthropic legacy were Chicago’s Wesley Hospital (an institution founded by his father), to which he contributed over one million dollars; the Visiting Nurse Association and Children’s Hospital of Chicago, each of which received half a million dollars in his will; and the Art Institute of Chicago, to which he bequeathed several significant paintings, including Edouard Manet’s "Mocking of Christ" and three paintings of Rinaldo and Armida, painted by Giambattista Tiepolo based on scenes from Torquato Tasso’s 16th-century epic Gerusalemme liberata. Among James Deering’s closest friends were painter Gari Melchers and his wife Corinne. Through his half-brother, Charles (a highly intriguing character and important collector and patron of the arts in his own right), he also enjoyed friendships with painters Anders Zorn and John Singer Sargent. The latter visited Vizcaya in March 1917 and produced a series of watercolors of the estate, as well as portrait of its owner. Following Charles Deering’s death in 1927, Vizcaya passed to James Deering’s nieces, Marion Deering McCormick (Mrs. Chauncey McCormick) and Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson. In 1952, Miami-Dade County acquired Vizcaya and its art collections from the heirs and established the estate as a public museum. (Charles Deering’s nearby estate, minus its artworks and furnishings, is also owned and operated by Miami-Dade County, and is open to the public as The Deering Estate at Cutler). James Deering’s estate, now known as Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, is an accredited museum and National Historic Landmark, owned and operated by Miami-Dade County. The museum’s mission is “to preserve Vizcaya to engage our community and its visitors in learning through the arts, history, and the environment.”

References

• Witold Rybczynski and Laurie Olin, authors, Steven Brooke, photographer. Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).
• Laurie Ossman (text) and Bill Sumner (photographs). Visions of Vizcaya (Miami: Vizcaya Museum and Gardens/Miami-Dade County, 2006).
• Kathryn C. Harwood. Lives of Vizcaya Miami: Banyan Books, 1985.