David E. Finley [Photograph inscribed to Donald D. Shepard]
Washington DC: Harris & Ewing, 1931. Presumed one of multiple copies of image, unique National Gallery and Andrew Mellon association. Photograph. Format is outer dimensions are 9.5 inches by 11.5 inches, inner are 7 inches by 9 inches for the matt, with the image dimensions somewhat larger, but obscured by backing. Black and white photograph. Matt has noticeable stains and soiling but image not marred. Inscribed by David E. Finley. Inscription reads To Donald D. Shepard with warm regards & his friend. David E. Finley February 28, 1931. 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. Harris & Ewing Inc. was a photographic studio in Washington, D.C., owned and run by George W. Harris and Martha Ewing. In the late 1930s Harris & Ewing was the largest photographic studio in the United States. 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, David E. Finley, Donald D'arcy Shepard, Andrew Mellon, Photograph, National Gallery, Donald Shepard, Donald D. Shepard, Harris & Ewing, George W. Harris, George Harris, Martha Ewing
[Book #83190]
Price: $1,000.00