A Donation to Support the Humanities
Rob and Anne Krebs’ transformative donation of their Italianate home and art collection to Lake Forest College was more than a decade in the making. Through their visionary gift, they ensured that Lake Forest’s humanities community has a dedicated space. “It’s like going to an overseas campus, except students only have to travel about six blocks rather than fly to Europe,” Robert Krebs said.
Creating a Center for the Humanities aligns with their goals for the home they designed and carefully furnished to accurately represent the Renaissance era. Immersing yourself in the humanities “makes you curious, makes you want to explore, and makes you appreciate [what others have created],” Robert said. “The humanities are a good foundation to build your life on. This home is a visual representation of that.”
While the Center’s impressive collection emphasizes art, architecture, and furniture, the entire location is an attraction in and of itself. “We never started out thinking we were going to, in essence, build a museum. But then it turned out we actually did,” Robert Krebs said. “We thought it should be preserved,” Anne Krebs said of their gift to the College.
The Krebs collection
Lake Forest College Trustee Rob Krebs and his wife Anne spent many years visiting Europe, especially Italy, a country that has continually inspired their interest in art collecting. They amassed a stunning collection of medieval and early modern objects, reflecting a wide range of different media and origins. In addition to the focus on early modern European and Asian objects, the collection has a secondary focus on modern paintings, especially landscapes.
European objects from the late Middle Ages and the early modern period constitute the core of the Krebs Center collection. These include paintings, sculpture, furniture, tapestry, and metalwork. Paintings from the Italian Renaissance and slightly later periods adorn many of the public rooms of the house, with the Madonna and Child (or Holy Family) a dominant theme. Greek and Russian icons constitute another area of focus. In addition, sculptural objects continue the religious theme in works made of marble, bronze, clay and other materials; many of these represent figures from the ancient world: gods, goddesses, and heroes. Renaissance and early modern furniture—chairs, tables, chests, etc.—fill the living spaces as well.
Anne and Rob first began their collecting activity with American landscape paintings of the 20th century, and these works are represented in the collection. Because they previously lived in the Western half of the US, many of these paintings by American landscape artists record views of the West. In the house's bedrooms, a visitor will encounter vistas of Venice or Tuscany alongside images of American landscapes of rivers, farms, and forests. The collection also includes works from Asia, including statues of the Buddha, ceramics from Japan, and several works from Turkey, among others.
How an Italian Villa in Lake Forest Became a Humanities Center for College Students
This article in the Classic Chicago Magazine details the history and construction of this classic Italianate villa nestled in Lake Forest.
Development begins on Krebs Center for the Humanities
With renewed focus on the broad humanist tradition that can benefit today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders, Lake Forest College has begun developing the new Krebs Center for the Humanities, naming current Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty Davis Schneiderman as the Center’s founding executive director.