36 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1942 



ordinator of Inter-American Affairs and will be presented to the 

 Governments of the South American Republics by the Department 

 of State of the United States of America. Portrait busts in bronze, 

 also by Jo Davidson, of President FrankMn Delano Roosevelt and 

 Vice President Henry A. Wallace, were shown at this time. 



CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT 



The curatorial work for the year consisted in the rearrangement 

 of the permanent collection necessitated by additional gifts and by 

 various precautions that were required by the outbreak of the war; 

 in the installation of 17 temporary exhibitions; in various lectures 

 on the collection and related fields in conjunction with the work of 

 the educational department; and in further cataloging of the paint- 

 ings and sculpture. During the year the preliminary Catalog of 

 the Permanent Collection and the Book of Illustrations were brought 

 up to date and reprinted; two catalogs containing a historical sur- 

 vey, notes, and bibliography of the French paintings loaned from 

 the Chester Dale collection were compiled, and a new general in- 

 formation pamphlet was prepared. 



In the course of the year, 209 works of art were submitted to the 

 acquisitions committee with written recommendations regarding 

 their acceptability for the collection of the National Gallery of Art; 

 40 private collections were visited in Washington and other cities 

 in connection with offers to the Gallery of gifts or loans ; 152 works 

 of art were brought to the Gallery and submitted to the staff for 

 expert opinion; and 44 letters were written in answer to inquiries 

 involving research in the history of art. 



RESTORATION AND REPAIR OF WORKS OF ART 



During the year, as authorized by the Board and with the approval 

 of the Director and Chief Curator, Stephen Pichetto, consultant re- 

 storer to the Gallery, has undertaken such restoration and repair of 

 paintings and sculpture in the collection as has been found to be 

 necessaiy. All of this work was carried on in the restorer's rooms 

 in the Gallerj^ except in three cases, once when unusually delicate 

 and complicated restoration was required, and twice when the pic- 

 tures had to be relined to prevent damage in shipment from New 

 York. These three paintings were restored in Mr. Pichetto's studios 

 in New York. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 



As indicated in the following summary, public response to the 

 program of educational activities of the Gallery has constantly in- 

 creased month by month until the total attendance recorded for 



