Past Exhibition

Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Warm light pours onto white stone and brown brick buildings in a grassy landscape in this horizontal painting. Tiny people walk, stand, sit, and work across the turf, among the buildings, and over a bridge spanning a canal to our right. The people wear long-sleeved shirts, vests, britches, stockings, dresses, hats, and caps in shades of straw yellow, olive green, apple red, muted blue, brown, and bright white. Touches of peach paint suggest they are all pale skinned. The people closest to us are three men working along what might be the remains of a stone foundation in the lower left corner. One raises an instrument while another crouches nearby on the far side of the structure, and the third leans on our side, looking down at the grass. The land rises gently back to the end of a row of structures to our left. A thick-trunked tree with a sparse canopy is halfway between those structures and a building on our side of the bridge, in the center of the composition. That bone-white structure has engaged columns with capitals, a tiled roof, and a round, gazebo-like lantern or bell tower. A brick wall between more buildings line a lane beyond the tree and these structures, and rooflines pile up along the horizon, which comes halfway up the composition. People and children stand and sit on the grassy knoll or walk along the lane. The canal angles from the lower right corner of the canvas to the center of the horizon. The walls of the canal are built with thin layers of peach and tan-colored stone. Close to us, the wall on our side jogs to our left, creating an inlet or bay. A staircase cuts into the far wall to allow access to the water. Boats steered by men using long sticks carry people or supplies. A more elaborate covered boat, likely a ferry, pulls up to the base of the stairs. The stairs lead up to a plaza, which is lined with peanut-brown buildings with terracotta-brown roofs. People and dogs mill about the square and cross the bridge beyond the ferry. Some smoky-purple clouds drift into the scene from the left against an otherwise clear blue sky.
Canaletto, The Porta Portello, Padua, c. 1741/1742, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.53

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    Ground Floor, Central Gallery, Galleries G-7 through G-12
Warm light pours onto white stone and brown brick buildings in a grassy landscape in this horizontal painting. Tiny people walk, stand, sit, and work across the turf, among the buildings, and over a bridge spanning a canal to our right. The people wear long-sleeved shirts, vests, britches, stockings, dresses, hats, and caps in shades of straw yellow, olive green, apple red, muted blue, brown, and bright white. Touches of peach paint suggest they are all pale skinned. The people closest to us are three men working along what might be the remains of a stone foundation in the lower left corner. One raises an instrument while another crouches nearby on the far side of the structure, and the third leans on our side, looking down at the grass. The land rises gently back to the end of a row of structures to our left. A thick-trunked tree with a sparse canopy is halfway between those structures and a building on our side of the bridge, in the center of the composition. That bone-white structure has engaged columns with capitals, a tiled roof, and a round, gazebo-like lantern or bell tower. A brick wall between more buildings line a lane beyond the tree and these structures, and rooflines pile up along the horizon, which comes halfway up the composition. People and children stand and sit on the grassy knoll or walk along the lane. The canal angles from the lower right corner of the canvas to the center of the horizon. The walls of the canal are built with thin layers of peach and tan-colored stone. Close to us, the wall on our side jogs to our left, creating an inlet or bay. A staircase cuts into the far wall to allow access to the water. Boats steered by men using long sticks carry people or supplies. A more elaborate covered boat, likely a ferry, pulls up to the base of the stairs. The stairs lead up to a plaza, which is lined with peanut-brown buildings with terracotta-brown roofs. People and dogs mill about the square and cross the bridge beyond the ferry. Some smoky-purple clouds drift into the scene from the left against an otherwise clear blue sky.
Canaletto, The Porta Portello, Padua, c. 1741/1742, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.53

Overview: 101 paintings and 21 pieces of decorative art, tapestries, and sculpture were selected from Kress gifts to 21 museums. The exhibition was held in conjunction with a ceremony on Saturday night, December 9, presided over by Chief Justice Earl Warren, at which the Kress collection was given to the National Gallery and to 18 other museums. 3 additional institutions had received gifts previously. The recipients were in selected cities where the S.H. Kress and Company 5-10-25 Cent Stores were located. The only requirement was that each museum provide suitable display space; the Kress Foundation assumed all other responsibilities, such as restoration, framing, crating, shipping, and insurance. Guy Emerson and Mary M. Davis directed the art project for the foundation.

Book: Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings and Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection, by Charles Seymour Jr. London: Phaidon Press, 1961.

Checklist: Exhibition of Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1961.

Attendance: 51,535

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