APPENDIX 2 

 KEPOET OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the affairs 

 of the National Gallery' of Art for the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1928: 



The urgent need of a national gallery building has been a chief 

 concern of the gallery staff and of the commission during the year. 

 The poverty of space for the installation of collections already in 

 hand and for the encouragement of gifts and bequests of art works, 

 the sources of our present riches, ha,s interfered seriously with prog- 

 ress in any direction. It is to be hoped that this condition may soon 

 be remedied. Upward of a year ago it was announced in the public 

 press that, under certain suggested conditions, private funds would 

 become available for the erection of a building. There i,s naturally 

 less inclination in Congress to consider grants for art while the pros- 

 pect of private munihcence for this purpose is thus definitely fore- 

 shadowed. Moreover, the project of a great group of buildings, 

 manifesth^^ necessary to the public welfare and requiring vast ex- 

 penditure of the public fund,s, took shape about this time and is now 

 being carried forward with commendable vigor. It is thus apparent 

 that for the present the realization of the gallery's hopes seems de- 

 pendent on the generous response of public-spirited citizens to a 

 manifest need. Undue delay in the struggle for national art appears 

 as a great misfortune, .since we are compelled to remain inactive 

 during a period of exceptional art activity and art production and 

 distribution, and in which the art treasures of the Old World are in 

 a state of unparalleled flux. 



THE GALLERY COMMISSION 



The art collections of the Institution, which accumulated slowl}'' 

 during the last quarter of a century, and largely within the depart- 

 ment of anthropology of the National Museum, had, in 1920, grown 

 so in bulk that the Regents of the Institution found it advisable to 

 establish the National Gallery as a separate bureau of the Institution, 

 and a commission was appointed to consider its interests and promote 

 its welfare. This commission comprises 16 members — 5 public men 

 interested in the fine arts, 5 experts in the fine arts, and 5 artists, the 

 52 



