Page 9 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

FOREWORD

J OSEPH E. WIDENER OCCASIONALLY ENTERTAINED Andrew W. Mellon, the founder of the National Gallery of Art,
home outside Philadelphia,
at Widener's
by the Widener
Lynnewood Hall. On these visits, surrounded
family's
discussed their respec-
superb assemblage of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts, the two philanthropists
tive ideas about a future museum in the nation's capital. At the National Gallery's dedication on 17 March 1941,
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thanked, by name, the Wideners as among "those other collectors of paint-
ings and sculpture who have already joined, or who propose to join" Mellon in establishing this institution for
"the freedom of the human spirit."
In the autumn of 1942, a year-and-a-half after the Gallery opened, the Widener works of art went on view.
Installed in a "museum within a museum" created expressly for their display were 176 Chinese porcelains and six
large carpets and small rugs. The porcelains, almost exclusively from the Qing dynasty, form a study collection of
late seventeenth- to early nineteenth-century shapes and glazes.
In 1972, the Widener decorative arts were complemented by an additional gift of sixty-three ceramics
from the family of the late Harry Garfield Steele, much of it comprising eighteenth-century Chinese porcelains.
While being studied for this volume of the Gallery's systematic catalogue, the Steele ceramics remained off view,
but they were integrated with the Widener porcelains in 1996.
The National Gallery wishes to acknowledge the scholars whose expertise have made this publication
possible. Josephine Hadley Knapp and Virginia Bower dealt principally with the monochrome porcelains.
Stephen Little wrote mainly on the polychrome porcelains and other ceramics. Robert Torchia was responsible
for updating and expanding the rug and carpet entries, originally drafted by the late Charles Grant Ellis. In their
acknowledgments, these authorities give credit to their fellow scholars who assisted them in research and con-
noisseurship. Although virtually every department of the Gallery has contributed to the realization of this sys-
tematic catalogue, particular thanks must go to Judy Ozone in the conservation laboratory. For the thorough and
conscientious work of numerous individuals, both outside and within the Gallery, we are most grateful.
Generous support for this volume was provided by The Starr Foundation, whose grant enabled the
Gallery to photograph in color each work included in the catalogue. As the result, this relatively little-known part
of the Gallery's collection is reproduced in color for the first time. Over the many years it has taken to achieve
this publication, the Foundation has been unwavering in its commitment, and we are truly grateful.

Earl A. Powell III
Director

F O R E W O R D IX