No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
In October 1968 the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London was under siege from students protesing against the continued American presence in Vietnam. In France the universities were in turmoil. The Washington Post for 6 October covered the Apollo Flight – the first step to the moon–, uprisings in Columbia university, Twiggy in person and a debate about when the Bikinians might return to their island. Nixon was edging his way towards the presidency in a year that had seen the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, a year in which Johnson decided not to stand for another term in order (allegedly) to devote himself to ending the Vietnam war, in which the Democratic convention took place in Chicago in the midst of violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
1 I would like to thank the Smithsonian Institution for their generosity in awarding me a visiting fellowship in 1988 which enabled me to undertake the research for this paper. I am also grateful to the staff of the Smithsonian and the National Portrait Gallery for their advice and help. Special thanks are due to Robert Stewart and Ellen Miles for their encouragement, and to Vivien Hart for hospitality, and for her helpful scholarly advice. Versions of this paper were read at the Congress of the Comité International d'Histoire de 1'Art in Strasbourg in 1989 and at the University of Sussex American Studies Research Seminar in 1992.
2 A quotation from de Crevecoeur, J., Letters from an American Farmer, 1782: “What then is the American, this new man?”Google Scholar
3 The New Yorker, 19 10 1968, “The Talk of the Town”, 50–51.Google Scholar
4 Ibid.
5 Hansard, quoted in Martin, G., “The Founding of the National Gallery in London” part 7, Connoisseur, 1974, 113.Google Scholar
6 The portrait cycle of illustrious men was a major theme in Italian art after the fourteenth century. See Starn, R., “Renaissance Heroes” in Rotberg, R. I. and Rabb, T. K., eds., Art and History: Images and their Meaning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).Google Scholar
7 Advertisement in the Pennsylvania Packet, 21 07–1 09 1788Google Scholar, quoted in Sellers, C. C., Mr. Peale's Museum: Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular Museum of Natural Science and Art (New York: Norton, 1980), 38Google Scholar; for a full account of Peale's museum see Miller, L. B., ed., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and his Family, Vol. 2, Parts 1 and 2 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988).Google Scholar
8 The heads of George and Martha Washington by Gilbert Stuart now hang on the staircase in the Portrait Gallery. Copy of a draft letter from G. P. A. Healy to Congress, Washington, 1 Jan. 1858, Healy Papers, Archives of American Art; V. L. Glasgow and Johnson, P. A., G. P. A. Healy: Famous Figures and Louisiana Patrons, The Louisiana State Museum, 12 1976–05 1977, 6Google Scholar; in 1950 while the White House was under repair, the presidential portraits were placed on show at the Smithsonian by courtesy of President and Mrs. Truman as part of an exhibition, Makers of History in Washington 1800–1950.Google Scholar
9 Pliny, the Elder, , The Natural History, XXIV, ii, 17Google Scholar, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on the History of Art, transl. Jex-Blake, K. (Chicago: Ares, 1976), 15.Google Scholar
10 See Pointon, M., Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming), Ch. 2 and postscript for a fuller discussion.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 Pliny, the Elder, , XXIV, ii, 17.Google Scholar
12 L. Carmichael, Secretary to the Smithsonian, to Dr. D. Finley, Director of the National Gallery, , 2 12 1954, with reference to a bill introduced into 6Ist Congress, Smithsonian Archive, Office of Secretary, 50.Google Scholar
13 The Smithsonian Institution has a non Federal entity and identity as well as taking on the appearance of a Federal agency through its acquisition of laws and Federal appropriations.
14 Charles Nagel, who in fact became the first Director of the American National Portrait Gallery, wrote to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Dillon Ripley, from St. Ermin's Hotel, London on 11 Aug. 1964 about Andrew Oliver whom he wanted to recruit as director, saying “he is right out of the top drawer and would give the NPG great cachet” (National Portrait Gallery Archive). Oliver was a lawyer and a member of the Commission for the National Portrait Gallery; he was an antiquarian and author of several scholarly books on American portraits.
15 James C. Bradley, oral history project, transcript, 62, Smithsonian Archive.
16 MrThompson, of New Jersey speaking during the passage of S1057 through the House of Representatives, 16 04 1962.Google Scholar
17 DrFinley, D., Chair of the Fine Arts Commission, quoted in the Washington Star, 3 06 1956.Google Scholar
18 DrCarmichael, L. to Cannon, Hon Clarence, Smithsonian Regent, 9 04 1963Google Scholar, quoting Dr. J. Boyd, editor of the papers of Thomas Jefferson, Smithsonian Archive, Office of the Secretary, 50, Box 118.
19 Res., S. J.132, 13 06 1935.Google Scholar
20 Res., S. J.99, 11 03 1937Google Scholar; Public Resolution 14, 24 03 1937Google Scholar; Public Resolution 95, 75th Congress, 17 05 1938Google Scholar; Public Law 723, 25 06 1938.Google Scholar
21 Guilbaut, S., How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, freedom, and the Cold War (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 26.Google Scholar
22 Confidential minute of an interview between Dr. Abbot, and MrMellon, , 8 01 1936, Smithsonian Archive, Record unit 46, Box 143.Google Scholar
23 See Finley, D. E., A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon founds the National Gallery at Washington (Washington: Smithsonian, 1973), 32Google Scholar; Walker, J., Self-portrait with Donors (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), 131.Google Scholar
24 Finley, D. to the Trustees of the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, 22 12 1953, Library of Congress, Finley papers, 36.Google Scholar
25 Unidentified newscutting, by Getlein, F., Washington Star, 1961; Smithsonian Archive, Record unit 50.Google Scholar
26 H. R. 794, 3 01 1956 and S. 3471, 19 03 1956.Google Scholar
27 5 June 1956, Smithsonian Archive, Record unit 50.
28 Transcript for release 7 March 1957, Smithsonian Archive, Record unit 50.
29 This is the theme of Guilbaut, How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art.
30 There was much talk at the opening about the National Portrait Gallery being 100 years too late, of photography having negated its purpose etc., e.g. Forgey, Benjamin, Washington Star, 6 10 1968.Google Scholar
31 Stewart, R. G., reported in The Washington Post, 29 09 1966.Google Scholar
32 Guilbaut, , 143.Google Scholar
33 I have been unable to see the official documentation of this condition but it is frequently mentioned, e.g. by Nagel, Charles, interviewed by Russell Lynes in Harpers Magazine, 06 1966, 28.Google Scholar
34 Borglum, Cyntzon, The Delineator, 06 1921.Google Scholar
35 The National Art Committee Exhibition of War Portraits, National Gallery of Art under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 5–22 05 1921, unpaginated; only four of the portraits are now in the National Portrait Gallery because of the policy of accepting only American sitters. The artists were: Cecelia Beaux, Joseph du Camp, Charles Hopkinson, John C. Johansen, Jean McLane, Edmund Tarbell, Douglas Volk and Irving Wiles.Google Scholar
36 Antiques Magazine, 07 1984, 150.Google Scholar
37 The American Magazine of Art, XII, 03 1921, no. 3, 88.Google Scholar
38 Flambeau, Viktor, The Washington Herald, 15 07 1923, 5.Google Scholar
39 For a discussion of the portrait element in Anglo-Saxon military painting, see Hichberger, J. W. M., Images of the Army: the Military in British Art 1815–1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988), Ch. 1Google Scholar; Purdy, V. C. and Reed, D. J., in their Foreword to Presidential Portraits (Washington: National Portrait Gallery, 1968), state “In selecting the portraits, the staff has undertaken to represent the Presidents with likeness [sic] taken while they were in office or in some instances, as with military heroes, at the peak of their professional careers.”Google Scholar
40 Memorandum for the files, David E. Finley, Finley Papers, Library of Congress, Box 37.
41 Guilbaut, , 63.Google Scholar
42 Oehser, P. H., The Smithsonian Institution, 2nd edn. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1985), 101.Google Scholar
43 Ibid., 103.
44 Brown, J. N. to Anderson, Hon Clinton P., 20 02 1961, Smithsonian Archive, Record Unit 50.Google Scholar
45 Oehser, , 103.Google Scholar
46 Conversation with James Hutchins, historian at the Museum of American History, who persuaded Brown to drop the idea and was allegedly left to dispose of the stuff. The Board had not been repealed by Congress but it currently has no Chair.
47 release, Joint, Humphrey, Senator Hubert H. and Congressman Rhodes, George M., 3 02 1960, Smithsonian Archive, Record unit 50.Google Scholar
48 S 1057, sec. 2(b).
49 Senate report on S 1057, 26 07 1961 … 8.Google Scholar
50 Passage of S 1057, 16 04 1962 … 13.Google Scholar
51 Garvan, A. N. B., National Portrait Gallery: Background Studies, Part II, MS., Smithsonian Office of the Secretary, 50, Box 117.Google Scholar
52 New York Times, 31 01 1969Google Scholar. See also Washington Post I Jan. 1967.
53 The correspondence between Hurd, Nagel and Ripley is held in the National Portrait Gallery archive; see also correspondence between Nagel, and MrsJohnson, , 17 01 1967, Smithsonian Institution Archive, Office of the Secretary, Record Unit 99, Box 69.Google Scholar
54 National Portrait Gallery Press releases, 28 09 1966, National Portrait Gallery Library.Google Scholar
55 Charles Nagel, first director of the Portrait Gallery to Dillon Ripley, Secretary to the Smithsonian Institution, 7 Dec. 1966, National Portrait Gallery Archive.
56 In a letter that mentions the need to involve the State Department: Dillon Ripley to Charles Nagel, 27 Jan. 1967, Portrait Gallery Archive.
57 Sir John Rothenstein had also been approached by Charles Nagel (letter of 11 Dec. 1967, Portrait Gallery archive). Matters were not advanced by various blunders on the American side like the misspelling of Lord Rosebery's name and the sending of important communications by surface mail. By the time the Gallery opened, the Earl had died and Lord Primrose had inherited the painting. Through his generosity, it has remained on loan to the National Portrait Gallery. Charles Nagel wrote to thank Earl Mountbatten on 7 June 1968 shortly before the opening: Portrait Gallery Archive.
58 Ripley, D. to Bruce, David, 2 02 1969, Portrait Gallery Archive.Google Scholar
59 Ripley, D. to Steiner, O., Secretary to the George Washington Memorial Foundation, 20 02 1969, Portrait Gallery Archive.Google Scholar
60 Richard, Paul, “A National Family Album”, Washington Post, 6 10 1968, KI.Google Scholar