Evening star., 1961-07-09
National Gallery Of Art to Honor
Kress Gift With Exhibition Here

blOIAg dAA d1 v uOIAa5AOl VI
richness and depth to insti-
ttltions located from Maine to
Hawaii, will be celebrated in
December with an exhibi-
tion at the National Gallery
Of Art. The exhibition will
consist of the choicest of the
paintings and sculptures
given over the last 20 years to
81 American art museums.
More than 5000 works of art
have been donated, at an
estimated value of over so
million dollars.
In addition, the Samuel H.
Kress Foundation has estab-
lished study collections at %
colleges and universities in
all parts of the Nation. Wash
ington's Howard University is
the recipient Of a study COL
lection and the National
Gallery of Art, scene of the
Decem ber exhibition, is
placed in a class by itself in
the official listing of Kress
benefactionS. The Gallery has
over 400 paintings and sculp-
lures in it's KresS collection,
the largest of any group.
The Kress gift to the Ma
tional, originally made in
1899, had another signifi-
canoe, too. The Gallery was
established in 1887 through
the donation of art and funds
by Andrew F. Mellon. For its
first two years the institu-
ton remained a one-man
show, with Mr.. Mellon the
man and his art the show.
With the initial KreSs gift, in
the words of the Gallery's
first director. David E. Finley,
the Gallery "at once became
what it was intended to be
"a Joint enterprise on the
part of the Federal Govern
ment and generous-minded
individuals, intent on giving
America the best obtainable
in the field of art"
The best obtainable" as
seen in the Kress Collection
of the National Gallery is
quite impressive and, as it
should be, instructive in the
history Of art, though that
history, in painting, stops in
the early 10th century with
David and Ingres; in Sculp-
ture, stops rather too late
with Carpeaux; and in gen.
eral has never heard of
America.
Originally, the Kress Col
lection was limited to italian
pictures and statues of the
great centuries and the Ital-
ian material still comprises
about half of the work on
view at the National. The
section begins with m inor
works by Giotto, Duccio and
their contemporaries and
successors. The italian part
of the collection is especially
strong in painters from the
north, from Venice. where
the curious, dreamlike quail
ity of the Sienese reached
maturity in the works of
Giorgione, of Lotto, of Tin
toretto, from Ferrara, where
even the portraits of Cosimo
Tura and Ercole Roberti can
evoke. the feeling of mesmer-
lied nightmare. The section
concludes with the 18th CEN
tury Venetians, Tiepolo,
Canaletto and Guardi.
The small Spanish section
begins early enough to un-
derline in art the political
connection between Spain
and Flanders and continues
through a formidable Goya
portrait, but the great
strength resides in. three Ell
Grecos, a Holy Family, a
Christ driving the m oney
changers from the temple,
and the writhing, ethereal
lied scene of LAGOON and
his sons wrestling with the
serpents.
The Flemish paintings go
up to Rubens and Van Dyck,
but again the high points
come earlier, in the portraits
by Petrus Christus and Dirck
Bouts and in the "Presenta-
ton" by Hans Memling.
German and Dutch paint
ing is also rather sketchily
represented, yet the selection
includes an agonized Cruel
fixion by Grunewald, por-
traits by Durer, Holbein and
Cranach and a Ruisdael
landscape.
1t is with the French that
the Kress Collection returns
to the full coverage it &C
cords the Italians. Early in
the group, you encounter
such remarkable panel
paintings as the Baptism of
Clovis" and Francois Clouet's
portrait of Diane de Poitiers
in the bath There follows a
generous representation from
the masters of the Splendid
Century," the 18th, including
classical and religious scenes
by Poussin, Landscapes by
Claude Lorrain and a cou-