The Jane Lauman Trust
Jane Lauman (1919-2008)
Jane Lauman began her career working at the Jonathan Club at age 21 by assisting at the cigar stand in the Club lobby during the holiday season. She was loyal, dedicated and hard-working. During World War II, Jane was promoted to gift wrapping and candy sales, packaging boxes of candy to Club members serving overseas. Over her 65 years at the Jonathan Club, Jane worked mostly behind the scenes, serving in the accounting department (where she arrived early and brought doughnuts), and later as the Mailroom Supervisor, before retiring on June 27, 2005.
Jane was also frugal and lived modestly. She invested a portion of her salary each month in good quality securities. When she considered leaving a legacy to the Club, she sought the advice of Jonathan Club historian Bob Johnson. Her legal and investment advisors helped her prepare an estate plan (The Jane Lauman Trust) to support, on her passing, both the Club’s heritage and its then modest collection of California art.
The Jane Lauman Trust made a substantial disbursement to the Jonathan Art Foundation, as it employed its enthusiasm and expertise to survey the breadth and quality of all the existing artwork in the collections, identify artists who would enhance the core collection, strengthen its reputation in the art world, and emerge into the upper tier of collectors. Perhaps most importantly, the Jonathan Art Foundation began more effectively to pursue a focused, long term acquisition program, confident that the resources to do so would be available through Jane’s generosity.
Jane’s compassion and foresight resulted in some of the finest works in the JAF collection: the Guy Rose, Laguna Rocks; Hanson Puthuff, Winter's Gold; the Saratoga paintings by Theodore Wores; Jean Mannheim, Arch Beach, Laguna; the John Frost two-sided painting, Tahquitz Canyon; and April Morning, Santa Monica Canyon by Marion Wachtel. The Jonathan Art Foundation honors the legacy provided by this great lady.