REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



45 



The advisory committee of the gallery took up the question of the 

 acceptability of these works, but it was later decided that the ques- 

 tion of acceptance could more appropriately await final consideration 

 until the dates of recall provided for by the bequest, namely, the five- 

 year period beginning ten years after the artist's death in each case. 



THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT COMMITTEE. 



A second agency of primary importance to the gallery and to 

 American history is found in the organization and activities of the 

 National Portrait Committee. In January, 1919, a number of patri- 

 otic citizens and patrons of art realized that if the United States 

 was to have a pictorial record of the World War it would be neces- 

 sary to take immediate steps. A number of the distinguished leaders 

 of America and of the Allied Nations were approached and their 

 consent secured for the painting of their portraits by prominent 

 American artists. With the indorsement of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution as custodian of the National Gallery of Art, the American 

 Federation of Arts, and the American Mission to Negotiate Peace, 

 then in session at Paris, the National Portrait Committee came into 

 being for the purpose of carrying out this idea and thus initiating 

 and establishing in Washington a National Portrait Gallery. The 

 members of the committee as organized are: Hon. Henry White, 

 chairman; Herbert L. Pratt, secretary and treasurer; Mrs. W. H. 

 Crocker, Robert W. deForest, Abram Garfield, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, 

 Arthur W. Meeker, J. Pierpont Morgan, Charles P. Taft, Charles D. 

 Walcott, and Henry C. Frick (deceased). 



That the gift of these paintings to the National Gallery might be 

 thoroughly national in character, it was decided that a group of 

 these portraits, financed by the art patrons of any city, would be in- 



