APPENDIX 2. REPORT ON THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the following report on the affairs of the National Gallery of Art for the year ending June 30, 1921. ORGANIZATION AND HISTORY OF THE GALLERY. The National Gallery of Art, which is the legal depository of all objects of art belonging to the Nation, has heretofore been administered in connection with the United States National Museum. By the action of the Sixty-sixth Congress in providing " for the administration of the National Gallery of Art by the Smithsonian Institution, including compensation of necessary employees and necessary incidental expenses," its connection with the Museum was severed and it became the seventh administrative branch under the Institution on July 1, 1920. A full account of the inception of the art activities of the Institution and of the early struggles of the incipient Gallery of Art, prepared by the late Assistant Secretary of the Institution, Dr. Richard Rathbun, is given in Bulletin 70 of the United States National Museum (edition of 1916), and a brief résumé may be given here as a suitable introduction to the first annual report of the gallery under the new régime, and at the same time emphasizing the imperfectly recognized fact that art was placed on an equal footing with science in the foundation of the Institution. The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846 by a fund provided by James Smithson and was organized under the control of a board of regents. By act of the Congress of the United States approved August 10, 1846, establishing the Smithsonian Institution, it was provided: That, so soon as the Board of Regents shall have selected the said site [for a building], they shall cause to be erected a suitable building, of plain and durable materials and structure, without unnecessary ornament, and of sufficient size, and with suitable rooms or halls, for the reception and arrangement, upon a liberal scale, of objects of natural history, including a geological and mineralogical cabinet; also a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the necessary lecture rooms, etc. Immediately upon the organization of the Board of Regents, in September, 1846, a committee from its membership was appointed to digest a plan for carrying out the provisions of this act. The committee's report, submitted on January 25, 1847, contained the following recommendations on the subject of the fine arts: The gallery of art, your committee think, should include both paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural designs; and it is desirable to have in connection with it one or more studios, in which young artists might copy without interruption, being admitted under such regulations as the board may prescribe. Your committee also think that as the collection of paintings and sculpture will probably accumulate slowly, the room destined for a gallery of art might properly and usefully meanwhile be occupied during the session of Congress as an exhibition room for the works of artists generally; and the extent and general usefulness of such an exhibition might probably be increased, if an arrangement could be effected with the Academy of Design, the Arts Union, the Artists' Fund Society, and other associations of similar character, so as to concentrate at the Metropolis, for a certain portion of each winter, the best results of talent in the fine arts. The Smithsonian Building was completed in 1855, and served for a period of eight years to accommodate the collections of all classes. Serious discouragement of the art interests in the Institution resulted from the disastrous fire, which in 1865 burned out the second story of the building, destroying its contents, including portions of the art collections. The remaining works were removed, the paintings and statuary to the Corcoran Gallery and the engravings to the Library of Congress. Many years later they were in large part returned to the Institution, and but little of importance transpired until 1906, when a collection of paintings and other art works was bequeathed to the Corcoran Gallery of Art by Harriet Lane Johnston, mistress of the White House during President Buchanan's administration, subject to the condition that should a national gallery be established in Washington they should become the property of that gallery. This led to an inquiry regarding the status of the Institution as a national gallery, and the question was referred to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, which rendered the decision that the Institution is the duly constituted National Gallery of Art. The text of the decision is as follows: It is, therefore, on this eleventh day of July, in the year 1906, by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, sitting in Equity, and by the authority thereof, adjudged, ordered, and decreed, That there has been established by the United States of America in the City of Washington a National Art Gallery, within the scope and meaning of that part of the codicil bearing date April 21, 1902, made by the said Harriet Lane Johnston to her Last Will and Testament, in the proceedings in this case mentioned, wherein she gave and bequeathed the pictures, miniatures, and other articles to the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and in the event of the Government establishing in the City of Washington a National Art Gallery, then that the said pictures and other articles above mentioned should be delivered to the said National Art Gallery and become its property; and that the said National Art Gallery is the National Art Gallery established by the United States of America at, and in connection with, the Smithsonian Institution, located in the District of Columbia, and described in the Act of Congress entitled an Act to establish the "Smithsonian Institution" for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, approved August 10, 1846 (9 Stat. L., 103; Title LXXIII, sec. 5579, R. S., U. S.), and the subsequent acts of Congress amendatory thereof; and it is further adjudged, ordered, and decreed that the United States of America is entitled to demand and receive from the surviving Executors of the said Harriet Lane Johnston, the Complainants named in the bill of complaint in this case, all of the above-mentioned pictures, articles of sculpture, engravings, miniatures, and other articles, the same to be and become a part of the said National Art Gallery so established by the United States of America at, and in connection with, the said Smithsonian Institution. WENDELL P. STAFFORD, Justice. The collection was therefore assigned to its care. Since that time the national collections have increased rapidly, chiefly, however, through gifts and bequests of art works by patriotic citizens. It is a noteworthy fact that until the beginning of the year 1920-21 no appropriation had been made for the gallery or for the purchase of art works, and no provision for the employment of a salaried curator or other employees of the gallery, all works of art being associated with the department of anthropology of the National Museum. It happened thus that the organization of the gallery as a separate unit of the Institution did not require any radical change in the personnel of the gallery, the curator of the department of anthropology, who had previously cared for the art collections, becoming director, and the recorder of that department becoming the recorder of the gallery. THE HENRY WARD RANGER FUND. Fortunately, a liberal private fund has recently become available for the increase of the collections. The will of the late Henry Ward Ranger provides the sum of $200,000, the interest of which is to be devoted to the purchase of works of art for the National Gallery, the carrying out of the bequest being intrusted to the National Academy of Design. The provision is as follows: All pictures so purchased are to be given by the Council to art institutions in America, or to any library or other institutions in America maintaining a gallery open to the public, all such gifts to be upon the express condition that the National Gallery at Washington, administered by the Smithsonian Institute, shall have the option and right, without cost, to take, reclaim, and own any picture for their collection, provided they exercise such option and right at any cime during the five-year period beginning ten years after the artist's death and ending fifteen years after his death; and, if such option and right is not exercised during such period, the picture shall remain and be the property of the institution to which it was first given. The purchases so far made by the council of the academy are as follows: The advisory committee of the gallery took up the question of the acceptability of these works, but it was later decided that the question of acceptance could more appropriately await final consideration until the dates of recall provided for by the bequest, namely, the fiveyear period beginning ten years after the artist's death in each case. THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT COMMITTEE. A second agency of primary importance to the gallery and to American history is found in the organization and activities of the National Portrait Committee. In January, 1919, a number of patriotic citizens and patrons of art realized that if the United States was to have a pictorial record of the World War it would be necessary to take immediate steps. A number of the distinguished leaders of America and of the Allied Nations were approached and their consent secured for the painting of their portraits by prominent American artists. With the indorsement of the Smithsonian Institution as custodian of the National Gallery of Art, the American Federation of Arts, and the American Mission to Negotiate Peace, then in session at Paris, the National Portrait Committee came into being for the purpose of carrying out this idea and thus initiating and establishing in Washington a National Portrait Gallery. The members of the committee as organized are: Hon. Henry White, chairman; Herbert L. Pratt, secretary and treasurer; Mrs. W. H. Crocker, Robert W. de Forest, Abram Garfield, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Arthur W. Meeker, J. Pierpont Morgan, Charles P. Taft, Charles D. Walcott, and Henry C. Frick (deceased). That the gift of these paintings to the National Gallery might be thoroughly national in character, it was decided that a group of these portraits, financed by the art patrons of any city, would be in scribed as presented to the National Gallery by that city and that a representative of that city should become an honorary member of the National Portrait Committee. It was further decided that a tablet or other permanent record in the National Portrait Gallery should bear the names of the National Portrait Committee, including the chairmen of all local committees; and that there should be a record of the names of each subscriber to the purchase fund. Twenty portraits completed under this arrangement were exhibited in the National Gallery during the month of May, 1921; and these, with such others as may be subsequently completed, will be shown in a number of cities throughout the United States before being permanently installed in Washington. The exhibition is being circulated under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts. The portraits available for exhibition at the close of the year are as follows: By Cecilia Beaux: Admiral, Sir David Beatty. By Joseph De Camp: Premier, Sir Robert Laird Borden. General, Sir Arthur William Currie. By Charles Hopkinson: Premier Joan J. C. Bratiano. Premier Nikola Pashich. Prince Kimmochi Saionji. By John C. Johansen: Field-Marshal, Sir Douglas Haig. Marshal Joseph Joffre. Gen. Amando Diaz. Premier Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. Signing of the Peace Treaty, June 28, 1919. By Edmund C. Tarbell: Marshal Ferdinand Foch. Gen. Georges Leman. Woodrow Wilson. By Douglas Volk: His Majesty Albert I of Belgium. Premier David Lloyd George. Gen. John Joseph Pershing. By Irving R. Wiles: Admiral William Snowden Sims. The portraits to be added, according to the plans of the committee, are: By Jean McLane: Her Majesty Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians. Premier William Morris Hughes. Premier Eleutherios K. Venizelos. By Edmund C. Tarbell: Herbert Clark Hoover. |