After illness incapacitated his older brother Samuel Kress, in 1946, Rush Kress (1877-1963) took over leadership of the family's cultural foundation. The younger Kress expanded the collection from its largely Italian focus, adding masterpieces by such painters as Dürer, Grünewald, El Greco, Rubens, Watteau, and Ingres. He also acquired one of the world's great assemblages of Renaissance bronzes -- some 1,300 statuettes, plaquettes, and medals amassed over the years by a discerning European scholar. In addition to its gifts to the Gallery, the Kress Foundation distributed selections of key works to eighteen city museums and twenty-three universities throughout the nation. Leopold Gould Seyffert depicted both Kress brothers seated in Italian Renaissance-style armchairs, symbolizing their artistic interests.
Overview
Inscription
lower left: Leopold Seyffert / 53
Provenance
Commissioned by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1961 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1956
- Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition: A Survey of the Years 1941-1956, Portraits, Inc., New York, 1956, no. 44, repro.
Bibliography
- 1961
- Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: XI, repro.
- 1970
- American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 98, repro.
- 1980
- American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 221, repro.
- 1991
- Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 183, repro.
- 1992
- American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 335, repro.
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