Anne Schroder

Anne Layton Schroder died December 24, 2010 at UNC Hospitals after a brief illness. She was born August 6, 1954, in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a graduate of the Lovett School, Atlanta, Georgia and Smith College, Northampton, Mass., and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Art History from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Anne was an art historian specializing in 18th Century French Art and is recognized for her important publications on the life and work of the artist, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Her scholarly work brought her to museums and libraries throughout the United States and Europe, but especially to Paris, whose art and resources she knew and loved. Anne was Curator and Academic Program Coordinator at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and previously Curator of Exhibitions at the Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and Assistant Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Mass. While at the Duke University Museum of Art (now the Nasher Museum), Anne discovered a painting by an unknown artist in a Paris gallery, recommended its purchase by the museum, and after four years of research confirmed the anonymous work, “Clytemnestra Hearing the News of Iphigenia's Impending Sacrifice (1787),” was painted by a young François Gérard, one of the most important artists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Anne was president of Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture and Alumnae Admissions Coordinator of the Smith Club of the Triangle, Inc.
Anne was preceded in death by her father, Hughes Spalding Schroder, and is survived by her husband, Eric Douglas Vance, son, Spalding Clark Vance, mother, Frances Longino Schroder, brother, Daniel Hughes Spalding Schroder, and sisters, Gwin White, Elizabeth Schroder Boyle, and Mary Schroder. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Smith College Fund and directed to scholarship support. Gifts may be made on-line at https://www.smith.edu/future/giving/giftform.php, by calling (800) 241-2056, or by mailing a check to the Gift Accounting Unit, Smith College, 33 Elm Street, Northampton, MA 0106. A memorial service in Chapel Hill, NC is planned for Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 2:00 PM at Binkley Baptist Church, 1712 Willow Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514; phone (919) 942-6186. A graveside service will take place in Atlanta at a later date.