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Jeanne Chisholm founded the Chisholm Gallery with her husband, the late Hugh Jeremy Chisholm, a well-known and eccentric businessman and polo player, in 1978. Now located in historic and beautiful Pine Plains, New York, the gallery first opened in the grandstand of the Palm Beach Polo & Country Club. It was an immediate success and quickly acquired the largest collection of polo art for sale in the world.

Since its inception the gallery has had a considerable impact in the world of sporting art. Indeed, the world’s top design houses have turned to Jeanne Chisholm to answer their sporting art needs. These have included Cartier, which asked her to curate their celebrated exhibit POLO – USA: A Retrospective History of Polo in America, which showed first in Palm Beach and later traveled to New York, and Polo Ralph Lauren, who approached Jeanne for artifacts and paintings to decorate their flagship store, the historic Rhinelander Mansion on New York’s Madison Avenue.

Jeanne’s work with museums has included the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, in Aiken, South Carolina, which enlisted Jeanne to curate an exhibit commemorating 100 years of polo history, the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York, and most significantly the National Polo Museum and Hall of Fame. Jeanne served as Coordinating Director for the latter, an idea fostered by Jeremy Chisholm in the 1970s. The Chisholm Gallery, further, was invited to participate in the first-ever sporting art exhibit at the prestigious London Colnaghi Gallery.

Much of the Chisholm Gallery’s success derives from the strong vision instilled in it from the outset, an understanding that the pieces it seeks are art first, and that quality is of the utmost concern.

As Jeremy Chisholm said in a 1980 article on the gallery: “The gallery is the result of an ongoing search for unusual sporting art. The notion that sporting pictures transform a house into a men’s club or worse is only true if they lack quality and/or originality. The same hackneyed old fox hunting prints bore everyone. What we attempt to show are works which are rare by virtue of their quality and originality and will hang comfortably anywhere.”

The same is true of the works housed by the gallery today. Jeanne has traveled the globe, seeking out truly unique works of only the highest quality. The gallery offers items for a variety of tastes, from originals by well-known and highly desirable artists, to pristine collectibles, decorative pieces and even the works of promising up and coming artists on the verge of breaking into the art world’s major arenas.

Jeanne Chisholm

After reviewing the charter for the New York State Council on the Arts, drafted by Nelson D. Rockefeller, in her post as Assistant Chief of Staff for Governor Hugh Carey, Jeanne Suydam left in 1975 to start the Suydam Gallery in a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Her inspiration was the great work of Betty Parsons, the “den mother” of Abstract Expressionism who championed the work of numerous young artists including New York School standouts Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Clifford Still, Barnett Newman, Hans Hoffman, and Ad Reinhardt.

Jeanne’s interest in sporting art was fostered at a young age, having been raised in an equestrian environment. This interest became a passion upon meeting and marrying Hugh Jeremy Chisholm, former Wall Street banker, rancher, and avid polo player. The two started the Chisholm Gallery at the Palm Beach Polo & Country Club at the invitation of founder William Ylvisaker.

Jeanne and her work have been featured in numerous publications including Architectural Digest, Town and Country, The New York Times, The Washington Post, W, Women’s Wear Daily, US, Quest, Avenue Magazine, Polo Magazine, Equine Visions, Palm Beach Life, the Palm Beach Daily News, and Sidelines, as well as publications local to her new Pine Plains location including the Country and Abroad, Chronogram, and the Taconic Press. Works from her gallery have served as the illustrations for numerous books including A Glorious Victory, A Glorious Defeat: Buck’s Club and the International Polo Matches of 1921 by Nigel à Brassard, and The World of Polo Past & Present by J.N.P. Watson.

Jeanne chose to move her gallery from Palm Beach after the realization of the National Polo Museum and Hall of Fame, an idea first promoted by her late husband in the 1970s. Jeanne served as the Coordinating Director of the museum, and having brought the idea to fruition, felt the desire for change. What could answer that desire more fully than the changing of the seasons?

So it was the four seasons that drew the Chisholm Gallery to New York’s Hudson Valley, along with the close proximity to New York City, Saratoga Springs, the Berkshires, and unparalleled access to the arts, neighboring polo clubs and northern horse shows.

Contact:

Jeanne Chisholm
Chisholm Gallery
P.O. Box 1383
Millbrook, NY 12545
tel: 845.373.8370
Email: info@chisholmgallery.com