Past Exhibition

The Chester Dale Bequest

A pale-skinned man leans forward so his arms rest on the desk in front of us as he looks out with piercing blue eyes in this horizontal portrait painting. He rests his head in his left hand, to our right, with the first two fingers extended along his temple. His blond hair is carefully combed, and he has arched eyebrows, bags under his eyes, a wide nose, and a bristle mustache over his square, cleft chin. He wears a navy-blue suit jacket over a white button-down and dark tie. The jacket has a white pocket square and a red flower on one lapel. The man wears a red pinky ring on the hand by his face. The other arm is extended so that hand, which holds a cigarette, hangs beyond the edge of the tabletop. We look slightly down onto the desk where a pair of glasses rests on an open book, which shows a self portrait by Van Gogh. A pamphlet partially tucked under one corner of the book would read, in full, “FRENCH PAINTING from the CHESTER DALE COLLECTION.” The man sits in a high-backed chair with cushion mottled with amethyst purple and topaz blue. Close behind him, a shelf to our right holds a copper-green mask and a figurine. Pale green paneling and drawers fill the left two-thirds of the background. The painting is inscribed at the top left, “To my very dear friend Chester Dale Diego Rivera. August 1945.” Brushstrokes are visible in some areas, especially in the background and chair.
Diego Rivera, Chester Dale, 1945, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.62

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    Main Floor, Galleries 86 through 91
A pale-skinned man leans forward so his arms rest on the desk in front of us as he looks out with piercing blue eyes in this horizontal portrait painting. He rests his head in his left hand, to our right, with the first two fingers extended along his temple. His blond hair is carefully combed, and he has arched eyebrows, bags under his eyes, a wide nose, and a bristle mustache over his square, cleft chin. He wears a navy-blue suit jacket over a white button-down and dark tie. The jacket has a white pocket square and a red flower on one lapel. The man wears a red pinky ring on the hand by his face. The other arm is extended so that hand, which holds a cigarette, hangs beyond the edge of the tabletop. We look slightly down onto the desk where a pair of glasses rests on an open book, which shows a self portrait by Van Gogh. A pamphlet partially tucked under one corner of the book would read, in full, “FRENCH PAINTING from the CHESTER DALE COLLECTION.” The man sits in a high-backed chair with cushion mottled with amethyst purple and topaz blue. Close behind him, a shelf to our right holds a copper-green mask and a figurine. Pale green paneling and drawers fill the left two-thirds of the background. The painting is inscribed at the top left, “To my very dear friend Chester Dale Diego Rivera. August 1945.” Brushstrokes are visible in some areas, especially in the background and chair.
Diego Rivera, Chester Dale, 1945, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.62

Overview: This exhibition presented Chester Dale's bequest to the Gallery. 88 paintings from Dale's apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York, which had not been seen before in Washington, joined the 152 paintings that had been on loan to the Gallery, principally French works of the 19th and 20th centuries. 6 new galleries were finished on the Main Floor to make room for the additional acquisitions. Chester Dale died on December 16, 1962, leaving the Gallery a bequest that included 240 paintings, 7 sculptures, 22 graphics, 1,560 books, 1,232 sales catalogues, scrapbooks, and files, and $500,000 to endow 3 fellowships. Previous gifts of 34 paintings brought the Chester Dale collection to 303 works of art by 116 artists.

Catalog: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings and Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1965.
Twentieth Century Paintings and Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1965. [Revised edition of the 1952 and 1960 publications.]
Paintings Other Than French in the Chester Dale Collection. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1965.

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