American art collector and patron. At the beginning of the 20th century, she was one of the leading collectors of modern art in New York. born in Boston as a daughter of textile merchant Cornelius Newton Bliss and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Plummer. Since childhood, her family and friends called her Lillie P. Bliss. Of her three siblings, only her brother, Cornelius, Jr., reached adulthood. When she was two years old, her family moved to New York City. Lillie did not go to school but was taught by private tutors. Her father held the office of United States Secretary of the Interior under President William McKinley from 1897 to 1899. As his wife was often ill and indisposed, his daughter frequently accompanied him to official events in Washington, DC. during this time. At receptions at the home of her parents, artistically inclined Lillie met actors like Walter Hampden, Ruth Draper and Ethel Barrymore. In her youth, her main artistic interests were of both classical and contemporary music. In her thirties, she began to promote financially young pianists and opera singers. She also supported the string quartet led by Franz Kneisel and promoted the Juilliard Foundation devoted to musical training. Among her friends were the music critic Richard Aldrich and the musician Charles Martin Loeffler. One of her earliest encounters with modern art were exhibition visits at the Union League Club of New York. Her father was a member of this club and its president from 1902 to 1906. The club exhibited regularly works of living artists. For example, thirty-four paintings by Claude Monet were shown there in 1891. After her father's death in 1911, Bliss, who never married, lived with her mother in an apartment on 37th Street in Manhattan. After the death of Arthur B. Davies in October 1928, several exhibitions were held to preserve his memory; Bliss borrowed many works of art for them. In the auction of his art collection, Bliss and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller were among the buyers and both developed a plan to form an institution devoted to organize exhibitions of modern art in New York. The steadfast refusal of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to exhibit art of the late 19th century and works by contemporary artists played a decisive role. At the end of May 1929, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller invited Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan for lunch in order to discuss the establishment of a museum of modern art. Another invited guest was art collector A. Conger Goodyear, who had previously served as a board member of the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, and who also participated in the meeting. Goodyear agreed to chair this circle as president, Bliss became his deputy and Rockefeller was given the role of treasurer. The first exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art opened in rented spaces in the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan. Bliss contributed some paintings from her collection to the first exhibition, entitled Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh,. Although Lillie was weakened by cancer the last months of her life, she participated actively in the formation of the Museum of Modern Art until shortly before her death. For example, March 2, 1931, she visited the exhibition Toulouse-Lautrec/Redon to which she had contributed three works by Odilon Redon and her paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. On March 12, 1931 Lillie died in New York. Two months after her death, the Museum of Modern Art presented in its 12th exhibition Works by 24 Artists from the Collection of Lillie P. Bliss, in memory of the Museum co-founder. In her will, Lillie P. Bliss endowed charities like the New York Hospital or the New York Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor, (an organization for relief for the poor), with financial contributions. She bequeathed part of her art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including works by Arthur B. Davies and Claude Monet's painting The Rocky Cliffs at Étretat. To the surprise of her friends from the Museum of Modern Art, she donated most of her art collection, 150 works of art, to this institution. The museum, was at first thought of only for exhibition purposes and without its own permanent collection, was thus given the foundation of a proper permanent collection. The conditions attached to this legacy in the testament included a secure financial basis to be provided by the museum within three years. This condition should permanently secure the collection. One clause stipulated in her will proved to be proactive and helpful for the future museum collection: her collection of works of art could be sold or exchanged for other works of art. Only three pictures, the two Cézanne paintings Still Life with Apples and Still Life with Ginger Container, Sugar and Oranges and the Laundress by Daumier were excluded from this stipulation. These works should never be sold, only to be given to the Metropolitan Museum if not suitable for the Museum of Modern Art. The two Cézanne paintings are still in the Museum of Modern Art, the Daumier painting was transferred to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in 1947.