David Finley [Photograph inscribed to Donald D. Shepard]
Pittsburgh, PA: Ralph W. Johnson. Presumed one of multiple copies of image, unique National Gallery and Andrew Mellon association. Photograph. Format is 10 inches by 14 inches, with the image dimensions are 7 inches by 9.25 inches. Black and white photograph. Trinity Court Studio graphic at lower left below image. Ink mark on back. Inscribed by David Finley. Inscription reads To Donald D. Shepard with cordial regard David Finley. David Edward Finley Jr. (September 1, 1890 – February 1, 1977) was an American cultural leader during the middle third of the 20th century. He was the first director of the National Gallery of Art, the founding chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. During the Second World War, Finley led the Roberts Commission, which led the rescue of much of the threatened artworks of Europe. In 1921 Finley joined the legal staff of the United States Treasury Department where he came to the attention of Secretary Andrew W. Mellon. By 1927, Finley was writing most of Mellon's speeches, policy papers and correspondence and had begun to assist Mellon in his art collection. By the 1920s Mellon had become a major collector of paintings, principally Dutch, British and American and traveled regularly to England and the Continent was a particular admirer of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Ralph W. Johnston (alternatively also as RW Johnson), was a well known American photographer of high society as well as a respected craftsman in the recording of architecture. His Trinity Court Studio of Pittsburgh, opened in 1897, became widely publicized as being able to produce one of a kind albums dedicated to the lives his wealthy clients. Donald D. Shepard was the personal counsel of Andrew Mellon, the executor of his estate, and a trustee of the Mellon endowment. He helped draft the legislation that established the National Gallery of Art and was a key negotiator with the architects during the design and construction of the main building. In 1927, Mellon decided to found the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and made Finley his special assistant in that enterprise. Finley was particularly influential in Mellon's selection of art from the Italian Renaissance, which he began collecting in 1928 with a view to creating a collection worthy to be the nucleus of a great national gallery. When Mellon went to London as ambassador in 1932-1933, Finley went with him on Mellon's private payroll and continued to work on the planning for the National Gallery. Upon their return in 1933, Mellon was forced to spend most of the next three years defending himself, against politically motivated charges of tax fraud brought by the Roosevelt administration, while Finley continued to work on planning the National Gallery. In late 1936 Finley selected twenty-four Italian Renaissance paintings and eighteen sculptures from Lord Joseph Duveen, which Mellon bought to complete his collection. He offered it to the nation as the nucleus of the National Gallery, together with the gallery building and a large endowment. The total gift was valued at $80 million, which would translate to perhaps $10 billion in current dollars – the richest gift ever from an individual to a government. After Mellon's death in 1937, Finley spent the next thirty years realizing Mellon's plans for the National Gallery of Art and his dream of a National Portrait Gallery and went on to many accomplishments of his own. During the Second World War, Finley led a group of American art scholars and administrators who pressed the federal government to take steps to protect the priceless art works and monuments of Europe from destruction. Finley's skills in dealing with the government had been honed by thirty years in Washington and he got chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to champion their cause. Although wartime Washington had greater priorities than cultural protection in Europe, Finley persuaded the administration to appoint, in August 1943, the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, a blue ribbon panel of distinguished civilians led by Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts as chairman. Finley was named vice-chairman and actually ran what became known as the Roberts Commission for the rest of the war from the National Gallery. He cut through the military and civilian bureaucracy to elevate the protection of monuments and artworks to a high priority, subject only to military necessity. Acting in close concert with the War Department, which placed over two hundred Monuments and Fine Art Officers in the field, and similar Allied groups, the Roberts Commission oversaw the rescue of most of the threatened artworks of war-torn Europe. This activity was memorialized in the book and movie The Monuments Men. Condition: Good.
Keywords: David Finley, Donald D'arcy Shepard, Andrew Mellon, Ralph Johnston, R. W. Johnston, Photograph, National Gallery, RW Johnston, Donald Shepard, Donald D. Shepard
[Book #83187]
Price: $1,000.00