Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman in needlework, gold, silver, copper, and lead and an art collector.

[1] He eventually focused on modern art under the guidance of artist Baroness Hilla von Rebay, creating an important collection by the 1930s and opened his first museum in 1939.

[1] After attending public school in Philadelphia, Solomon went on to study German language and business in Switzerland at the Concordia Institute in Zürich.

In 1891, he turned around the Compañia de la Gran Fundición Nacional Mexicana (translation: Great National Foundry Company of Mexico).

[1][5]: 25, 36  Under Rebay's guidance, Guggenheim sought to include in the collection the most important examples of non-objective art available at the time, such as Kandinsky's Composition 8 (1923), Léger's Contrast of Forms (1913) and Robert Delaunay's Simultaneous Windows (2nd Motif, 1st Part) (1912).

[4][5]: 333  In 1948, the collection was greatly expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorf's estate of some 730 objects, notably German expressionist paintings.