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National Geographic : 1967 Mar
Contents
The National Gallery After a Quarter Century of the Bollingen and Kress Foundations and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, more than a dozen books by distinguished critics and historians have been, or will shortly be, published under the imprint of the National Gallery. But the reputation of any museum depends on its own staff. In 26 years our various cura tors have published several hundred books and articles elucidating works of art in our collection or related subjects. One series, deal ing with specific schools of painting, has sold almost a million copies. Do You Own an Undiscovered Treasure? Because our principal aim in publishing is to provide those joys to the eye that music conveys to the ear, we concentrate on color reproductions of the paintings we exhibit. To date, our Publications Department has sold more than 3,250,000 such reproductions in an 11-by-14-inch format at a price that has re mained constant since the opening of the Gal lery-a modest 25 cents each. Not long ago, a man in Wisconsin sent us a check inscribed, "For treatment of a sick cow." He had re-endorsed it and forwarded it to buy reproductions of paintings that, he said, "I liked when I visited the Gallery." Anyone who finds a dusty painting in his attic or buys a grimy figurine in an antique shop invariably wonders if, just by chance, he has a masterpiece. As a free subsidiary service, the National Gallery will resolve the doubts of anyone on this score by examining the ob ject and giving an opinion on authenticity, date, and possible authorship. Once a week, from September to July, hope ful owners converge on the Gallery to place their treasures before H. Lester Cooke, Jr., Music takes over on Sunday nights. From September to June the National Gallery Orchestra, smaller groups, or soloists per form amid the foliage of the East Garden Court. As many as 1,000 people attend the free concerts. Music Director Richard Bales (center) often presents contemporary Ameri can works and has introduced here three of his own compositions-The American Revo lution, The Confederacy, and The Union. Gallery grows its own flowers in a small greenhouse on the grounds. Azaleas for the Rotunda and East and West Garden Courts flourish under the care of Robert G. Miller, one of six staff gardeners. who presides over what he terms a "casualty ward for outyatients in the world of art." In the curtained corner of an office-Dr. Cooke calls it his "wishing tent"-he receives all comers with all sorts of art. Armed with camera, ultraviolet lamp, magnifying glass, and a fund of expert knowledge, he winnows paintings, sculptures, and prints. Occasionally, but not often, a genuine find turns up in the wishing tent. At a session last year a couple appeared with a painting that had been stored for decades in a Boston attic. The previous summer they had brought it to Washington atop an automobile. The painting depicted a bucolic scene and bore the signature "E. Boudin." It passed every test, one by one, as to style, brushwork, age. Finally, an ultraviolet examination as certained that the signature was not a later addition. The painting proved to be a genuine work of the French 19th-century artist Eugene Boudin. While the Gallery never assigns a value to works thus authenticated, the couple could draw comfort from the knowl edge that similar Boudins have commanded five-digit prices. They did not, incidentally, carry the painting home on the top of the car. KODACHROME BY EMORYKRISTOF© N.G .S . 369
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