2018 ANNUAL REPORT ART & EDUCATION W. Russell G. Byers Jr. BOARD OF TRUSTEES COMMITTEE Buffy Cafritz (as of September 30, 2018) Frederick W. Beinecke Calvin Cafritz Chairman Leo A. Daly III Earl A. Powell III Gregory W. Fazakerley Mitchell P. Rales Juliet C. Folger Sharon P. Rockefeller Marina Kellen French David M. Rubenstein Norma Lee Funger Andrew M. Saul Whitney Ganz Sarah M. Gewirz FINANCE COMMITTEE Lenore Greenberg Mitchell P. Rales Andrew S. Gundlach Chairman Jane M. Hamilton Steven T. Mnuchin Secretary of the Treasury Richard C. Hedreen Teresa Heinz Frederick W. Beinecke Sharon P. Rockefeller Frederick W. Beinecke Sharon P. Rockefeller Helen Lee Henderson Chairman President David M. Rubenstein Betsy K. Karel Andrew M. Saul Kasper Linda H. Kaufman Kyle J. Krause AUDIT COMMITTEE David W. Laughlin Andrew M. Saul Chairman Reid V. MacDonald Frederick W. Beinecke Nancy Marks Mitchell P. Rales Jacqueline B. Mars Sharon P. Rockefeller Constance J. Milstein David M. Rubenstein Scott Nathan Mitchell P. Rales David M. Rubenstein John G. Pappajohn Sally Engelhard Pingree TRUSTEES EMERITI William A. Prezant Julian Ganz, Jr. Diana C. Prince Alexander M. Laughlin Hilary Geary Ross David O. Maxwell Roger W. Sant Victoria P. Sant † Thomas A. Saunders III John Wilmerding Fern M. Schad Leonard L. Silverstein † EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Albert H. Small Frederick W. Beinecke Michelle Smith President Andrew M. Saul John G. Roberts Jr. Benjamin F. Stapleton III Chief Justice of the Earl A. Powell III United States Director Stephen G. Stein Franklin Kelly Luther M. Stovall Deputy Director and Alexa Davidson Suskin Chief Curator Diana Walker Darrell R. Willson William L Walton Administrator Walter L. Weisman William W. McClure Treasurer John R. West Nancy Robinson Breuer Dian Woodner Secretary and General Counsel Elizabeth Cropper Dean, Center for Advanced Study HONORARY TRUSTEES’ in the Visual Arts COUNCIL Michael R. Pompeo Steven T. Mnuchin (as of September 30, 2018) Secretary of State Secretary of the Treasury Edwin L. Cox TRUSTEES’ COUNCIL (as of September 30, 2018) Doris Fisher Benjamin R. Jacobs Julian Ganz, Jr. Jo Carole Lauder Alexander M. Laughlin Cochairs David O. Maxwell Adrienne Arsht Victoria P. Sant † Max N. Berry John Wilmerding Debra Black † Deceased David J. Skorton Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution WASHINGTON, DC FISCAL YEAR 2018 EARL A. POWELL III DIRECTOR, 1992–2019 In 1992, a veteran returned to the National Gallery of Art. Having Rusty is in a class by himself. During his tenure, more than 126 million served his country for fourteen years of active and reserve duty in visitors enjoyed the Gallery’s outstanding permanent collection and the United States Navy, Earl A. Powell III was a veteran in the truest hundreds of special exhibitions. The endowment more than quadrupled, sense of the word. Four years spent serving under former National while the federal appropriation grew by 319 percent. He and the board Gallery Director J. Carter Brown earned Rusty, as he is known to all, successfully matched a landmark challenge grant from The Andrew W. the distinction as a veteran of the National Gallery. His skills as a Mellon Foundation on the occasion of the Gallery’s 75th anniversary. He veteran museum director were honed during his twelve-year tenure as diligently worked with Congress to secure funds to renew the Gallery’s director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Now this veteran entire physical plant. Through his quiet determination, Rusty perfected returned home to serve his nation again. During his twenty-six-year what many recognize as the nation’s most successful public-private part- tenure he would become the longest-serving director in the Gallery’s nership. For this, and for so much more, we wish him fair winds and seventy-seven year history. By any measure of a gallery director, following seas. 2 SCULPTURE GARDEN EXHIBITIONS Rusty guided the Sculpture Garden from conception and funding to During Rusty’s tenure, the Gallery presented more than 250 special design and dedication, with large-scale modern sculptures installed exhibitions, ranging from small and scholarly to hugely popular, such in landscape settings. Since the Sculpture Garden opened in 1999, the as the 1995 blockbuster Vermeer exhibition. In 2012, the Gallery Gallery has welcomed more than twenty-two million visitors. Today hosted an exquisite exhibition, Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and- it is home to more than twenty awe-inspiring works of art, advancing Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu (1716–1800), which featured thirty the Gallery’s mission to make art accessible to the public. meticulously painted silk scrolls on loan from the Japanese Imperial Household. This show marked only the second time since 1889 that these treasures had been shown together in public. MASTER FACILITIES PLAN THE PERMANENT COLLECTION Rusty’s leadership resulted in the Master Facilities Plan (MFP) to address Rusty shepherded continued growth of the Gallery’s collection the structural integrity and system performance of both the East and with the addition of beautiful and important acquisitions. Among West Buildings. He convinced Congress to invest in long-term construc- his first was Bernardo Bellotto’s Fortress of Königstein, followed tion projects to address a myriad of issues all designed to ensure the a few years later by one of his favorite works, Winslow Homer’s continued protection of the collection, improve the display of the art, Home, Sweet Home. For twenty-six years, Rusty would oversee and enhance the visitor’s experience. Based on the trust Rusty engen- the acquisition of more than 60,000 works, including master- dered with Congress, the MFP continues to this day. pieces such as The Jolly Flatboatmen by George Caleb Bingham in 2015, Head of a Woman (Fernande) by Pablo Picasso in 2002, and The Concert by Gerrit van Honthorst in 2013. EAST BUILDING VENEER AND RENOVATION THE CORCORAN COLLECTION Coupling federal funds with $30 million raised in private funds, Rusty and The accession of eight thousand Corcoran Collection works his team expanded the East Building gallery space by 12,250 square feet, represents the largest expansion of the permanent collection, allowing for the display of hundreds more works of art. These interior increasing the strength of the nineteenth-century America collec- improvements followed a massive project to rehabilitate the stone veneer tion. Installed alongside related works in the Gallery’s collection, on the exterior of the building. Rusty secured $82 million in federal funds Corcoran works such as Albert Bierstadt’s The Last of the over two years to remove, catalog, clean, repair, and reinstall more than Buffalo, Frederic Remington’s Off the Range (Coming Through 17,000 stone panels. Typical of Rusty’s practice, the projects were com- the Rye), and Frederic Edwin Church’s Niagara have made the pleted ahead of schedule and on budget. Gallery’s American collection one of the finest in the country. 3 PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD Early in this fiscal year, Earl A. Powell III announced plans for his We mourn the loss of several friends of the Gallery, including retirement from the National Gallery of Art. As Rusty’s long tenure former Trustees’ Council members Barney A. Ebsworth and Leonard as director draws to a close, we honor his legacy of distinguished Silverstein. Barney, a Collectors Committee member since 1992, was leadership. For more than a quarter century, he has led the Gallery a renowned art collector and art donor who gifted to the Gallery with a keen sense of purpose and established a secure footing for the several important early works of American modernism. Leonard was future. We are grateful for his superb stewardship and thank him for an ardent advocate for French art and culture and a dedicated patron his decades of dedicated service. of the arts. He funded many special exhibitions and, most recently, a Just as Rusty and his predecessors have, the new director will continue generous endowment for art conservation. We were also saddened to develop and strengthen the public-private partnership that sustains by the loss of Frederick H. Prince this year. He and his wife, Trustees’ this singular institution. This unique engagement between the federal Council member Diana Prince, are longtime supporters of education, government and the private sector, with private citizens providing exhibitions, and art acquisition at the Gallery. We mourn the passing support for acquisitions and key programs and Congress funding the of two other former Trustees’ Council members, Robert L. Kirk and daily operations of the museum, has enabled the Gallery to thrive Eugene V. Thaw. Gene and Clare Thaw generously donated art from in service to the citizens of the United States. The trustees and staff their own collection and supported exhibitions of works on paper. join me in expressing our sincere gratitude to the President and to the With sadness, we mark the passing of Victoria P. Sant, a treasured Congress for their generous, sustaining support of the Gallery. member of the Gallery family. She was elected a trustee in 2000 and I am thrilled to report that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s $30 served for fifteen years, skillfully and graciously leading the Board of million endowment challenge grant given in honor of the Gallery’s Trustees as its chair and then president. Vicki demonstrated a unique 75th anniversary has been completed ahead of schedule through the generosity of spirit, from her initial involvement as a docent in the extraordinary generosity of our loyal friends and patrons. In 2016, 1980s to the many gifts of art and funds that she and her husband, the Gallery pledged to raise $45 million in new endowment funds by Roger W. Sant, contributed to the Gallery over the past three decades, March 2021 to match the Mellon Foundation’s grant endowing core including their leadership gifts for the renovation and expansion of the programming.