Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/538

 114 ART, DRAMA AND MUSIC. [ia».

ART, DRAMA AND MUSIC.

I. ART.

Gallery. - The mystery with which state aid is given to art in this country is increased this year by the fact that although no vote was taken for the purchase of pictures yet several additions by that channel were announced. The Clarke, the Lewis and the Walker Funds produce a certain sum ; but as no accounts of these or of any other funds and bequests are published by the trustees, it is possible that pictures may have been purchased out of these moneys or out of the undisclosed amount of the accumulations of the parliamentary grant in aid which is fixed at 5,000/. a year. This apparently did not suffice to cover the expenditure of the year, for in order to acquire the two Rembrandts of the Sammarez Gallery, "The Burgomaster" and " An Old Lady," an appeal had to be made for private assistance ; Mr. A. C. de Rothschild and Mr. J. P. Heseltine — two of the trustees — contributing 600/. each. Among the other additions to the gallery were the portrait of a young man attributed to Karl du Jardin, and a view of St. Paul's from the Thames by an English artist of the early part of the eighteenth century.

The National Gallery of British Art, better known as the Tate Oallery (Millbank), is administered by the same body of trustees as act for the collection in Trafalgar Square. The extensions and additions to the original gallery, completed through the munificence of Sir Henry Tate, were formally opened in November, and only a few days before his death. A well-lighted gallery for sculpture is one of the chief features of the new building.

The Wallace Oallery.— Further expenditure amounting to 1,200/. was authorised for adapting Hertford House to the purposes of exhibi- tion, making a total of 136,000/. The rearrangement of the collection and its catalogue were probably being pushed forward during the year, but at its close the gallery was still unopened to the public ; although it had been announced in Parliament that all structural alterations would be completed in July.

The National Portrait Gallery had, like other Art Galleries, to submit to the reduction of its annual grant for the purchase of portraits. Nevertheless with the modest sum allowed (750/.) the director managed to secure several interesting additions to the collection, which with the presentations and bequests added considerably to the personal interest of the gallery. An attempt to obtain an extra grant in order to purchase three portraits of artistic and historical value was met by a refusal on the part of the Treasury, coupled with the statement that " The Queen," " Charles I., w and " Queen Henrietta Maria," were not of sufficient im- portance to find a place in the collection. Incidentally the debate in