Richard C. Muhlberger

Richard C. Muhlberger

1938 – 2019

SPRINGFIELD – Richard C. Muhlberger, 81, died Saturday night in a local nursing home.  Richard was born in New Jersey and raised in California.  He attended California Concordia College, where he was active in a circle of San Francisco Bay Area artists, clergymen and others who promoted the revival of religious art.  A year at Saint Augustine’s Benedictine Monastery, deepened his life-long interest in religious art.  He received his bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University and master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University.  He headed the education departments of the Worcester Art Museum and the Detroit Institute of Art before becoming director of the Museum of Fine Arts and the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, a dual post he held for twelve years.  He served the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for two years as Vice Director and briefly worked for the Knoxville Museum of Art in Tennessee.  He has also served as the  guest curator for the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City.  Richard has written sixteen books on art and artists since 1990.  The first three were on the subject of religion and art.  Eleven were produced in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including “What Makes a Monet a Monet”,  part of a popular series that was published in Brazil, China and Great Britain as well as the Untied States with over a half a million copies in print.  He taught the history of art and architecture at Western New England College and annually presented a series of 30 lectures on various art topics at the Springfield Art Museums.  While writing and lecturing on a variety  of art topics, Richard enjoyed returning to the subject in which he is the leading authority, Dutch bird paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries.  His current projects are a scholarly work about the great 17th century Dutch bird painter, Melchior de’ Hondecoeter, a children’s book about the two lions who guard the New York Public Library and a mystery novel that takes place in the Cathedral town of Chartres, France.  Richard was predeceased by his older brother David, younger sister Janet and is survived by his brother Paul.  He also leaves his partner and caregiver of the last 54 years J. W. Brock.  A memorial service will be  held Saturday, April 6th in the Christ Church Cathedral, Chestnut Street Springfield at 11:00am.  The West Springfield Curran-Jones Funeral Home is handling all arrangements.