V 
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY 
cate apple-green that might have come 
from a Seoul pottery of today. All 
these exquisite art objects with the 
early and later Japanese faience, with 
large screens, kakemonos, makemonos, 
made up of a bewildering ensemble of 
rarities and that they are but a hint of 
the treasures kept on storage below, is 
not the least significant thing about the 
collection. Then too that there is a 
field curator already at work in China 
looking to additions in the Oriental 
field is also a promise that, rich as the 
collection is today, it is likely to rapidly 
increase in numbers as well as in value 
as the years go by. 
As for the public, however, much 
of the meaning of the Freer Oriental 
objects will go over their heads, even 
though the most heedless will be im¬ 
pressed with the art of the Far East 
seen against the grey walls of the 
various exhibition rooms, the delightful 
harmony of the floor of dark Belgium 
marble and the stonework and the 
accessories, which keep everything in a 
quiet key, for all the exhibition rooms, 
whether for the Whistler and the special 
American group or the Asiatic pieces 
have the same general tone and no 
effort has been made to give an Oriental 
character to those that display the 
Oriental treasures. This physical and 
architectural phase of the gallery is 
admirable, but, naturally, the whole 
question of the usefulness of the gallery 
as a public bequest entirely turns on 
the attitude of the direction toward the 
visitor and, more particularly, toward 
the student. In these days, as has been 
recognized particularly by the museums 
now “ in being ’ ’ in the West, a warm and 
cordial sympathy for the uninformed as 
well as for the specialists who wish to 
work is the indispensable keynote of 
success. A chilly indifference to those 
who may be easily turned into enthu¬ 
siasts and intelligent appreciators of 
what is beautiful is fatal to the success 
of any museum, no matter how mar¬ 
velous the collections are, and above 
all, an attitude called by the French 
“precieuse,” as if those in charge were 
aloof from ordinary human relation¬ 
ships, some hints of which marked the 
opening week at the gallery, is not 
compatible with the kind of thing that 
Mr. Freer announced that he wanted 
to accomplish through his gift. Nor is 
the equally precieuse attitude which has 
meticulously refrained from placing the 
name of Freer on the building (though 
Paragraph 7 of the Deed of Gift spe¬ 
cifically declares “The collections and 
building shall always bear the name 
of the said first party (Charles L. Freer) 
in some moderate and appropriate 
form”) in any sense a defensible or 
dignified way of honoring Mr. Freer 
through an almost extreme affectation 
of modesty which defeats its own pur¬ 
pose. The directors of the gallery may 
know that Mr. Freer gave it, specialists 
may be aware of it, but, following most 
excellent Roman and Renaissance and 
European and American practice, it 
would seem to be well to make it im¬ 
possible that the public in passing 
should not realize that the simple 
Florentine fagade, so Italian under the 
blue sky of Washington, is the “Freer 
Gallery of Art.” * 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
. ' , as t *-he case > the building has not yet been turned over “officially” to the Smithsonian Institution, the directors of the 
Smithsonian have an opportunity to make such suggestions as to the final outward decoration of the building as will meet the dictates 
ol common sense, fulfill the deed of gift and give a true service to the public. 
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