Lily de Jongh Downing

Lily de Jongh Downing is a partner in Downing Yudain LLC, an art advisory and dealership specializing in 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculpture, European Modernism, contemporary art, and decorative arts from the 18th through 20th centuries. With her husband and business partner, David Yudain, she advises private collectors and institutions on acquisitions, de-accessions, and gifts of art. She also operates The Barn @ Downing Yudain, a gallery in historic Long Ridge Village, Stamford, CT, which presents four to six contemporary exhibitions annually and hosts lectures, talks and readings for the community.

For more than 20 years, Lily was Director of the Gerald Peters Gallery in New York, where she curated major exhibitions devoted to American artists such Albert Bierstadt, Robert Henri, Georgia O’Keeffe and Max Weber. She also guided the gallery’s participation in leading art fairs, including the Winter Antiques Show and The Armory Show. Notably, she advised on the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection, later featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Cross Currents.

Lily began her career as an intern at the Whitney Museum of American Art, followed by roles at André Emmerich Gallery (New York) and The Cooley Gallery (Old Lyme, CT). She serves as a Trustee of the Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford, CT) and the Fleming Museum (University of Vermont) and is an Advisory Trustee of the Westerly (RI) Museum of American Impressionism.

Lily and David live in a restored 18th-century home in North Stamford with their three dogs and a cockatiel named Pip. Lily and David own four horses and are active in the equestrian community of Bedford and North Salem, NY. Beyond her work in the art world, Lily is an avid runner, gardener, artist, and tennis and paddle tennis player.