Corcoran Gallery of Art Donation

Landscape painting with Ruins of Egmond Castle at Egmond aan den Hoef

Last November, the Booth Family Center for Special Collections received an important donation of some eighty-five artworks from the collection of the former Corcoran Gallery of Art, founded in Washington, D.C. in 1869. As Washington residents will recall, the Corcoran Gallery in the landmark building on 17th Street facing the south lawn of the White House officially closed its doors to the public in 2014. At that time, the Corcoran arranged for George Washington University to absorb its art school, building and endowment, and the National Gallery of Art (NGA) was given first pick of its historic collections. The original collection amounted to 19,493 objects valued at $1 billion. The remaining 10,862 objects not selected by the NGA were distributed to twenty-two institutions in the area including Georgetown, American, and Howard Universities, and eight branches of the Smithsonian.

The Library's art curators first began discussions with the Corcoran's General Counsel, David Julyan, in May of 2016. They were given the opportunity to place "dibs" on artworks from the Corcoran's list of offerings along with the other institutions being considered for the massive art transfer. Curators LuLen Walker and Christen Runge flagged objects that either fit well with works already in GU's collection, or filled a gap in an area where the collection was under-represented. After a visit to the art warehouse in Landover, Maryland to view paintings in storage, they submitted a prioritized list of desiderata in February of 2017 along with an outline regarding the proposed use of the collection. After a lengthy process with the team of Corcoran advisors, Mr. Julyan informed Booth of their decision to give 85 works to Georgetown, and the gift was formally accepted in May of 2018. It took several more months for the artworks to be physically distributed, finally arriving at the Library at the end of November 2018.

The artworks vary widely from Dutch Old Master landscapes to a portfolio of screenprints by Josef Albers, and photographs by American documentary, aerial and street photographers Harry Callahan, Marilyn Bridges and Garry Winogrand. Soon after the gift was received, the three Dutch paintings, by Meindert Hobbema, Adriaen van Ostade and Jacob van Ruisdael, were hung by art specialists from Crozier Fine Art in the Booth corridors where they may be seen in a secure and protected environment. Other paintings, including a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Bethune, are available for placement in appropriate locations on campus.

The curators look forward to sharing the collection with the Georgetown Community upon request and hope to collaborate with faculty in the Art and Museum Studies department. Since the Corcoran transferred its object files along with the artworks, there is rich material for students interested in art history, curatorial practice and collections management, among other disciplines. A list of works donated by the Corcoran can be found in the Art Collection database. Feel free to reach out to either Ms. Walker or Ms. Runge if you'd like to know more about the collection. The Library is very grateful to the Corcoran Trust for electing to transfer these remarkable treasures to Georgetown for its teaching and research mission, where they will be available to students, researchers and the public for generations to come.