Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-09-14
|C. A. P[ATT EXPIRES
| AT AGE Of Il YEARS
Designer of Freer Art Gal.
Iery Was Widely Known
Artist.

Charles Adams Plat, architect and
painter, who designed the Freer Art
Gallery here and the new wing of the
Corcoran Gallery Of Art, died Tuesday
night at his Summer home in Cornish,
N. H., in his list year. Mr.. Plat had
been ill for six weeks preceding his
death.
Mr.. Plat was a versatile artist who
won distinction first as a painter and
etcher and later as an architect and
landscape designer He was an init
mate friend of the famous sculptor,
Augustus Saint Gaudens, and at the
time of his death member OF many
leading artists societies. both In this
country and abroad.
Designed New Wing.
For many years Mr.. Platt was an
gerode. director Of the Corcoran Gal
lery When the famous paintings COL
lected by William A. Clark, Montana
copper magrate, came into possession
of the local gallery following Mr..
Clarks death in 1925, Mr. Platt was
commissioned to design new wing for
the gallery to house the additions.
The wing was constructed in March,
1925. from funds supplied by Mr.,
Clark's family. Mr.. Platt also served
On an advisory committee of art critics
formed to aid in selecting the paintings
to be hung here from the Clark col
lection.
One of Mr.. Platt's oil paintings,
Cornish Landscape" Summer scene
OF the countryside near his New Hamp-
shire home. is included in the perma-
nent collection of the Corcoran GAL
lery
During 1924 Mr. Platt made plans
for a National Gallery of Art in Wash
ington, which remains to be erected.
Designed Other Buildings.
Among the we'll known buildings for
which Mr.. Plat supplied designs were
the Addison Gallery of American Art
and other campus buildings at An
dover, the Lyman Allyn Musemum at
New London. Conn, together with
numerous commercial structures and
homes.
Mr.. Plat developed his talent for
architecture only after his younger
years were spent in the belief that his
bent was strictly for oil and water
colors painting and etching.
Most of his notable paintings were
executed during the eighties and nine
ties, several of them winning prizes in
Europe as we'll as in this country.
He turned his talents to building and
landscape designing to such effect that
he soon was a member of the ma
jority Of artistic organizations in the
United States, including the National
Academy of Design. the American
Academy Of Arts and Letters and the
American Institute of Architects, OF
which he was a fellow.
Native of New York.
A native of New York. Mr.. Platt's
ancestors had been Americans for gen.
eretions He studied art in Paris as
a young man and in later years be-
lieved implicitly in the value of study
abroad by young American student
artists.
In 1928, while vice president of the
American Academy in Rome, Mr.. Platt
was elected president of the academy,
succeeding the late William Rutherford
Mead He was a trustee and judge of
the foundation established by John
Armstrong Chaloner to send a promis-
ing American artist abroad for study
every two years.
AS early as 1894 Mr. Plat published
book, Italian Gardens" which was
the forerunner of deluge of this type
of work
MI. Platt was also a member of the
National Institute of Arts and Letters,
the Society Of American Artists, the
American Water Color Society. the New
York Etching Club and the London So
ciety of Painter Etchers.
In Boston during 1893. Mr.. Platt
married Eleanor Hardy. who, with four
sons. survive him. The sons are Will
liam. Charles. Roger and Godfrey
Platt. Mr. Platt lived at 131 East Sixty
sixth street. New York City. and had
Offices at 101 Park avenue.