IX.

THE CORCORAN AND OTHER ART GALLERIES.

The Art Galleries of the city, properly speaking, are two in number; but those interested in statuary, pictures, and ceramics will find a great quantity of all these displayed at the Capitol, in various department buildings, on the walls of the new Library of Congress, and at the National Museum. Of first importance is the Corcoran col

lection:

The Corcoran Art Gallery has no connection with the Government, although its trustees are given a place in the Congressional Directory. It is wholly the result of the philanthropy of a wealthy citizen, William Wilson Corcoran, who died in 1893. "He early decided," it has been well said, "that at least onehalf of his money accumulations should be held for the welfare of men, and he kept his self-imposed obligation so liberally that his charities, private and public, exceed the amount of $5,000,000, and that he left no aspect of human

W. W. Corcoran.

life untouched by his beneficence.' The Corcoran Gallery was opened in 1869, in the noble building opposite the War Department. This has now been superseded by the splendid gallery on Seventeenth Street, at New York Avenue, facing the Executive grounds. The Corcoran donations, including the old lot and building, have been $1,600.000; and about $350,000 has been paid by the trustees for paintings, besides what has been given. A large number of casts of classic statues, famous basreliefs, and smaller carvings in this gallery, are not only beautiful in themselves, but of great value to students. This building has a length of 265 feet in Seventeenth Street, 140 feet in New York Avenue, and 120 feet in E Street. In architecture it is Neo-Greek, after the plans of Ernest Flagg of New York, and the external walls, above the granite basement, are of Georgia marble, white, pure, and brilliant. There are no windows on the second or gallery floor of the façade, all the light for the exhibition of the pictures coming from the skylight in the roof. The only ornaments of this front are about the doorway, which is elaborately carved, and under the eaves of the roof, where the names of the world's famous artists are inscribed in severely simple letters. Entering the front door, the visitor is confronted by a grand staircase, on the farther side of the great Statuary Hall, 170 feet long, which occupies the

Description

of Building.

ground floor. This is so lighted by openings through the gallery floor that, for the exhibition of casts in delicate lights, it can not be surpassed in any other gallery of the world. The second or gallery floor, where the principal pictures are hung, under the great glass roof, is supported by Doric columns of Indiana limestone, above which are Ionic columns supporting the roof. On this floor are also four gallery rooms, sixty-one feet by twenty-eight, and numerous small rooms for the exhibition of water-colors and objects of art. On the New York Avenue side is a semi-circular lecture hall, with a platform and rising floor to the side walls, which, with a good skylight, make this room an excellent one for private exhibitions. Attached to the gallery is an art school, using two welllighted rooms fronting to the north, with accommodations for a large number of pupils. It is the intention to give here annual art exhibitions of the work

of local and other American artists and students. Among the older and more prominent paintings in the Corcoran collection are the following: "The Tornado" by Thomas Cole, "The Watering-Place" by Adolphe Schreyer, Nedjma-Odalisque" by Gaston Casimir Saint Pierre, "Edge Paintings. of the Forest" by Asher Brown Durand, "The Vestal Tuccia" by Hector Le Roux, "Mercy's Dream" by Daniel Huntington, "Niagara Falls" by Frederick Edwin Church, "Cæsar Dead" by Jean Léon Gérôme, · On the Coast of New England" by William T. Richards, "The Helping Hand" by Emile Renouf, 'The Death of Moses" by Alexander Cabanel, 'Charlotte Corday in Prison" by Charles Louis Müller, "The Passing Regiment" by Edward Détaille, "Wood Gatherers" by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, The Forester at Home" by Ludwig Knaus, Virgin and Child" by Murillo, "Christ Bound by Van Dyck, "Landscape" by George Inness, "The Schism" by Jean George Vibert, "The Pond of the Great Oak" by Jules Dupré, A Hamlet of the Seine near Vernon" by Charles François Daubigny, "Landscape, with Cattle," by Emile Van Marcke, "Joan of Arc in Infancy" by Jean Jacques Henner, "The Banks of the Adige" by Martin Rico, "Twilight" by Thomas Alexander Harrison, "The Wedding Festival" by Eugene Louis Gabriel Isabey, The Approaching Storm" by Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Pena, Moonlight in Holland" by Jean Charles Cazin, Approaching Night" by Max Wey, Sunset in the Woods" by George Inness, "El Bravo Toro" by Aimé Nicholas Morot. Some noteworthy late additions are: The Landscape of Historical Bladensburg" (in 1887), the "First Railway in New York" by E. L. Henry, and Charles Gutherz' (Paris, 1894) great canvas of the Bering Sea Arbitration Court," which is accompanied by an explanation and key to the portraits. Recently added are: J. G. Brown's large and greatly admired canvas The Longshoreman's Noon Hour," which has the "Honorable Mention of the Paris Salon; "The Road to Concarneau" by W. L. Picknell, Eventide" by Robert C. Minor, a landscape by H. W. Ranger, and "The Adoration of the Shepherds" by Mengo,

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Prayer," by Guarnario, always brings a smile to the face of visitors.

The Barye Bronzes are especially notable as the largest collection extant of the fine animal figures and other works of this talented French modeler; they number about 100. The small model of the statue to Frederick the Bronzes and Great, and the numerous electrotypic reproductions of unique metallic Replicas. objects of art preserved in European museums, are other things that

the intelligent visitor will dwell upon among the wealth of beautiful things presented to his view in this art museum.

Tayloe Collection.

The Tayloe Collection is a bequest from the family of Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, whose richly furnished home is still standing on Lafayette Square. It consists of some two hundred or more objects of art, ornament, and curious interest, including marbles by Powers, Thorwaldsen, Greenough, and Canova; portraits by Gilbert Stuart, Huntington, and foreign artists, and many other paintings; a large number of bronze objects and pieces of furniture, including Washington's card table and other pieces that belonged to eminent men, and a large series of porcelain, glass, ivory, and other objects, which are both historically and artistically interesting. A special catalogue for this collection is sold at 5 cents.

Waggaman
Gallery.

The Waggaman Gallery ought surely to be examined by all culti vated travelers. It is at No. 3300 O Street, Georgetown, and is easily reached by either the F Street or Pennsylvania Avenue street cars. This gallery is the private acquisition of Mr. E. Waggaman, and contains a large

number of fine paintings, the specialty being Dutch water-colors, where the Holland ish style and choice of subjects are well exhibited. The most striking and valuable part of the collection, however, is undoubtedly that representing Japanese work in pottery, stone, and metal. The series of tea jars, antique porcelains, and modern wares, showing rare glazes and the most highly prized colors, is extensive and well chosen; and a wonderful array of bronzes and artistic work in other metals in the form of swords, sword-guards, bells, utensils of various forms and capacities, and decorative compositions, excites the enthusiasm of connoisseurs in this department. The gems of this suever, are the articles collection has few which the translucarved jade, if not States, are certainly large number of wood stands of exother curiosities of workmanship, make Visitors are adof each week during March, and April, o'clock, by paying admission toward a The Halls of the given to a permaancient architecture to 1318 New York

perb cabinet, howof jade, in which this superiors; among cent plaques of unique in the United unsurpassed. A ivory carvings, teakquisite design, and oriental art and this gallery notable. mitted on Thursdays January, February, between 11 and 4 50 cents for each charitable fund. Ancients is the title nent exhibition of and art at Nos. 1312 Avenue. Open 9 to 10 P. M.; admis50 cents. The prois Mr. F. W. Smith of ton, who has in view National Galleries

of History and Art." Leasing, by the financial coöperation of Mr. S. Walker Woodward of Washington, a large plot of ground, he has reared upon it a building for the concrete exhibition of the life and art of ancient peoples.

"The trouble with most museums," Mr. Smith asserts, "is that they deal with dead things exclusively when they deal with antiquities at all. A room full of mummies is, doubtless, interesting in its way, but I do not believe the student of ancient history gets so good a background for his studies from such an exhibition as from one in which he is actually introduced into the midst of the domestic, social, and religious life of the people of whom he has read their surroundings, in other words, before they became mummies. We gather in museums an endless variety of fragmentary relics, and we call that a contribution to popular education. But how much more can we do toward educating the people if we can show them, through their eyes, just what use was made of each of these relics while it was still in touch with the life of its period, the part it played in the daily activities of its owner, and the influence it presumptively had on his career."

The ancient nationalities illustrated are Egyptian, Assyrian, Græco-Roman, and Saracenic peoples.

The Egyptian Portal is a reproduction of the section of the Hypostyle Hall of Karnak in exact size of the original; columns 70 feet high and 12 feet in diameter. It is