Kay Kimbell

Kay Kimbell (1886-1964) was born in Whitewright, Texas. As a young boy, he went to work at a grain mill located in Sherman, Texas. He rose from office boy to the owner of the mill, which eventually became known as the Kimbell Milling Company. Kimbell eventually became the head of a food service corporation that included flour, feed, and vegetable oil mills, grocery stores, and an insurance company. He and his wife Velma began collecing art, which became a passion for them. Kimbell especially liked to purchase works by artists from the Renaissance, eighteenth and nineteenth century American painters, and French impressionists. By the 1930s, the Kimbells or their agents routinely travelled to Europe in order to purchase paintings. They eventually moved from Sherman to Fort Worth, Texas so that Kimbell could be closer to the management offices of his expanding business enterprises. In 1935, the Kimbells established the Kimbell Art Foundation in Fort Worth which laid the groundwork for the modern Kimbell Museum of Art, one of the nation's major art museums.