328 MUSEUMS 



suitable for permanent exhibition in a good position, from 

 less important portraits, which nevertheless must be 

 acquired and preserved as public records. From time to 

 time special groups of the reserved or unexhibited por- 

 traits might be put for six months in one of the public 

 rooms thus providing a change and variety of interest 

 for the general public. 



The same plan might be adopted with regard to the 

 pictures in the National Gallery though no doubt a large 

 number of splendid pictures would be permanently placed 

 in the exhibition rooms. Three things should be remem- 

 bered in regard to the disposal of these pictures : Firstly, 

 that not one in a hundred among them was intended by 

 the painter to be hung in a gallery closely side by side 

 with other pictures ; secondly, that no picture should be 

 exhibited in a public gallery unless it is worthy of the best 

 lighting and surroundings ; thirdly, that it is reasonable 

 that the expert and the student should be asked to take 

 some special trouble in order to see special pictures not 

 on public exhibition, and that " the man in the street " 

 who says that he likes to walk in and see all his pictures 

 at any time and without any trouble, will value his collec- 

 tion more when he can only see some of it on special 

 occasions. 



The heavy and sometimes fragile character of the 

 " frames " affixed to large pictures has been made an 

 objection to the proposal that they should be fixed to 

 screens moved by electric gear. I cannot venture to dis- 

 cuss the subject of picture-frames here. I am aware that 

 it is a very serious and important subject, and that a great 

 deal of the effect of a picture depends on its being 

 bordered by a frame of sufficient size and dignity and one 

 which is really and artistically fitted to allow the finer 

 qualities of the picture to become apparent. How often 

 is such a frame seen ? Who is there who has an adequate 



