The Yale Art Gallery has received a bequest of more than $8 million from the estate of Simeon Braguin, a designer, illustrator and artist who died in November of 1997 at the age of 90.

The artist's will directs that income from The Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund (named for the artist and his deceased wife, the former Janet Chatfield Taylor) be used "in a fashion which assists living American artists by the acquisition and display of their works by the Art Gallery."

In establishing his legacy gift, Braguin stated: "It is my hope that the Art Gallery will thereby continue and support the grand tradition of modern American art which started with the Ashcan School, Maurice Prendergast, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Stuart David and Milton Avery, through Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Kenzo Okado, Sandy Calder and David Smith. It is my further hope that the Art Gallery, in its acquisitions with the net income of the Fund, will be adventurous enough to discover new, unknown talent and prudent enough to avoid trendy and flashy works."

Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale Art Gallery, expressed the museum's gratitude for the bequest. "Unlike most of our benefactors, Simeon Braguin had no previous connection with Yale University, but since settling in Essex, Connecticut 30 years ago, he had developed a close relationship with two of my predecessors and the talented curators of our American and contemporary art departments," said Reynolds. "The terms of his will reflect his personal aesthetic judgments, yet give us welcome latitude in acquiring contemporary art."

Born in Ukraine in 1907, Braguin came with his family to the United States as a teenager. He studied with Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League and was befriended by the artist William Glackens. He achieved early success as a furniture and fabric designer, and later as a photographer. Braguin served in Italy, Austria and Yugoslavia during World War II and was particularly proud of his photographic work with the Office of Strategic
Services.

In the 1950s, he returned to painting ("starting at the beginning," he said) and had his first one-man show in 1971 at the Poindexter Gallery in New York. Since then his paintings and wire sculptures -- most notably his "Essex Harbor Series" and "Main Street Series" -- have been shown at numerous museums and galleries in New York and Connecticut.

He and his wife, a fashion editor at Vogue, were actively involved in the New York art world until they moved permanently to their summer home in Essex in 1968. There he founded the Tri-Town Youth Services, cofounded the North Main Street Association and pursued his avid interest in sailing. He continued to paint in his studio every day until a year before his death.