The National Gallery: A Short History - Hardcover

Saumarez Smith, Charles

9780711230439: The National Gallery: A Short History

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0711230439 ISBN 13: 9780711230439

Publisher: Frances Lincoln, 2009

Charles Saumarez Smith was the director of the National Gallery from 2002 to 2007, a period in which he oversaw the purchase of Raphael's The Madonna of the Pinks for a record �22 million, raised in part by his successful campaign for public contributions. His insider's perspective gives him invaluable insight into the challenges faced by his predecessors as they managed the Gallery's collection from very modest origins to its status as a world-class institution and major tourist destination. This literate yet movingly personal book reveals the contentious issues that surround the way a national collection is acquired, preserved, restored, and displayed; the complex, competitive relationship between director, trustees, and government; architectural and aesthetic controversies; and the future of the Gallery in an increasingly uncertain and overly commercialized art marketplace.

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About the Author:

Charles Saumarez Smith CBE was director of the National Gallery from 2002 to 2007. The main success of his directorship was the purchase of Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks in 2004 for GBP 22 million, raised by a successful public appeal. He was formerly director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1994, and is currently Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts. Charles Saumarez Smith has written books on Castle Howard and 18th century interior design, and contributed biographies on Quentin Bell and Philip McCammon Core to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor at Queen Mary, University of London and an occasional panelist on the BBC's Newsnight Review.

Review:

"Saumerez Smith is particularly good on the architectural history and neatly sumarises each director's contribution. Detail is telling." Independent

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