Jean Ellis Hart Kislak

1931 - 2022

Jean Ellis Hart Kislak
November 25, 1931 - July 16, 2022
Miami, Florida - Prominent art collector Jean Ellis Hart Kislak, 90, died at home on July 16, 2022.
Professionally, Jean was a respected art consultant who possessed a keen eye for the aesthetic and savvy business acumen, which she used in guiding the creation of one of the country's most lauded corporate art collections. Personally, she was a champion of the arts and animal welfare. With her marriage to real estate innovator and philanthropist Jay I. Kislak, Jean forged a powerful and benevolent partnership that will live on in their generous gifts to the world.
The daughter of real estate developer Frank Ernst Hart and educator Isabelle Ellis Hart, Jean was born November 25, 1931, on Long Island, New York. Her parents divorced when she was young, and Jean grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where her mother was chairman of the economics department at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina.
After attending Queens College, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Peace College, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Jean moved to South Florida. In Miami, she met and married journalist and businessman Louis G. Johnson, of Atlanta, Georgia. Their daughter, Jennifer, was born in Miami, Florida. Following the Johnsons' divorce, Jean worked for a decade at Southeast Bank in Miami, where she helped establish the bank's contemporary art collection, which gained prominence as one of the nation's most distinguished corporate art collections.
Through mutual friends and a shared passion for art, Jean met Jay I. Kislak in Miami. They married in 1985 and explored the world for the next three decades. Their adventures took them from the North Pole to the South Pole and included every continent. During their travels, the Kislaks assembled remarkable and diverse collections of art, antiques, books and artifacts.
Jean's favorite compendia varied in focus and ranged from heirloom cookbooks to exquisite Bohemian (Czech) glassware to an extraordinary collection of art works, artifacts and documents related to the life of Emma, Lady Hamilton, the mistress of Britain's Admiral Horatio Nelson and muse of artist George Romney. The Emma Hamilton collection was featured in exhibitions at prestigious institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, and New York City's The Grolier Club. Following an acclaimed 2017 exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich, in London, England, Jean gifted the Emma Hamilton collection to the American Friends of Royal Museums Greenwich (England) to be shown in National Maritime Museum exhibitions in the United Kingdom for generations to come.
Through Jean's friendship with historian Flora Fraser, biographer of Lady Hamilton, Jean and Flora helped to create a memorial to Lady Hamilton in Calais, France. Jean was honorary vice president of England's The 1805 Club, which is dedicated to conserving memorials to Admiral Lord Nelson and other seafaring people of his era.
Jean was also a recognized aficionado of Ludwig Bemelmans' work. Her collection of printed books, manuscripts and art relating to Bemelmans and his creation, Madeline, was featured in a 2015 exhibition at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania. As the featured speaker at the opening, Jean captivated the audience with her insights and storytelling.
Committed to community service, Jean gave her time and support to a variety of cultural and nonprofit organization boards and was recognized by Who's Who in America. Many organizations benefited from her involvement, including the Florida Fine Arts Council, Florida Humanities Board, the Center for the Fine Arts (later known as Miami Art Museum and now as the Perez Art Museum Miami), the Lowe Museum and Beaux Arts at the University of Miami, the Theatre League of South Florida, and Miami-Dade County Zoological Society, among others. On the national level, Jean served on the board of the National Wildflower Association and on the Art and Architecture Committee at the Library of Congress. She received special recognition for her volunteer work on behalf of the Burn Center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and her contributions to the arts earned numerous accolades, including the Florida Governor's art award and honors from the Business Committee for Arts, WPBT Public Television, and the Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places program.
For many years, the Kislaks spent summers in Rockport, Maine. Jean was on the board of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, and as a board member for P.A.W.S. (Pets Are Worth Saving) Animal Adoption Center serving midcoast towns in Maine. Jean provided funding to create the Jean H. Kislak Community Dog Park in Rockport, Maine.
Jean also played an instrumental role In the Jay I. Kislak Foundation, an internationally respected institution dedicated to the cultures and history of the early Americas, and in The Kislak Family Foundation, which supports leadership and innovation in the fields of education, arts and humanities, animal welfare and environmental presentation. Alongside her husband, she was involved in establishing the Jay I. Kislak Collection as the centerpiece of a permanent exhibition at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., and in creating Kislak Centers at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Miami and Miami Dade College.
In the mid-1960s, The Miami Herald cited Jean as one of Miami's most beautiful women "within and without." Throughout her life, Jean's blend of beauty, intellect, grace and humor made her a leader and sought-after adviser in the realms of arts and culture, humanities and philanthropy.
She is survived by her daughter, Jennifer Johnson Rettig (Noel), of Sarasota, Florida. She was predeceased by her husband of 33 years, Jay I. Kislak.
At Jean's request, no funeral or memorial service will be held, and she will be interred at her family's gravesite in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Upper Montclair, New Jersey.