Atherton M. Curtis (April 3, 1863 – October 8, 1943) was an American art collector and a writer from Brooklyn, New York City, who settled permanently in Paris, France, in 1903.

[3] This provided Curtis with considerable income initially in the form of trust, followed by inheritance allowing him to invest heavily in the arts.

By 1894 he had exhibited his private collection of drawings, watercolors and lithographs by Auguste Raffet, an illustrator in the French Army at the gallery of the Irish art dealer, Frederick Keppel in New York City.

However, by 1904 he had decided to settle there permanently and arranged to have his cases of prints transported to France where he set up residence in Paris, 17 rue Notre-Dame des Champs.

Curtis collected during his life an extensive selection of prints, both in number (more than ten thousand works of art), representing a variety of eras, techniques and geographic origins.

In order to assemble such an important collection, he often benefited from the advice of Paul Prouté (1887–1981), whose gallery was saved from the recession by the friendly and financial support of Curtis, as a major American collector of prints in the city.

[15] Many of his articles were about illustrators and masters of lithography, such as Adolphe Appian, Amédée Joyau (1872–1913), Charles Meryon, Evert van Muyden, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Auguste Raffet, Théophile Steinlen and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

His personal collection included works from the late artists; Richard Parkes Bonington,[16] Hiroshige, Hokusai and Eugene Isabey.

Following Gay's death in 1937, his widow donated some 200 works of Dutch, Italian, English and French paintings, drawings and illustrations to the Louvre indicating something of the collection's importance.

He had a retreat in Bourron-Marlotte, a town that was frequented by several impressionist painters, including Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne.

Both deaths were notified to the Swiss Embassy who provided a consular service for American citizens at that time by a French friend, Marguerite, the wife of SOE agent, Mario Prassinos.

[33] This included etchings from the 1500 to the 1800s and handbooks of graphics by Albrecht Dürer, Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt, Martin Schongauer, as well as copperplate engravings, and woodcuts from the same period from both Dutch, Italian and French schools.

The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries of Chicago hold over 2000 items relating to Curtis, including catalogues of his collection, books, publications as well as personal correspondence.