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photographs
This year the Gallery acquired a remarkable 408 photographs,
largely through gifts, but also with funds provided
by donors. Foremost among these was the addition of 169
photographs by the distinguished American photographer
Robert Adams, acquired with funds from the Pepita
Milmore Memorial Fund and the Ahmanson Foundation,
as well as a gift from Robert and Kerstin Adams. These
photographs, which span Adams’ entire career from the
1960s to the present, were carefully selected by the photographer
to complement his works already in the collection
and to represent his most important accomplishments. A
passionate observer of this country’s changing landscape,
Adams made this group available to the Gallery because he
believes “these photographs can tell Americans something
they might want to know about their country” and because
he wants them in the nation’s capital.
Other notable purchases include William Bell’s Looking
South into the Grand Cañon, Colorado River, Sheavwitz
Crossing, 1872, acquired with the Eugene L. and Marie-
Louise Garbáty Fund and thirty exceptional photographs
made in Burma in 1855 by the nineteenth-century British
photographer Captain Linnaeus Tripe, made possible
through donations from Edward J. Lenkin, Diana and
Mallory Walker, and Stephen G. Stein. Commissioned by
the Governor General of India Lord Dalhousie to provide
information about the architecture, defenses, and landscape
of Burma, Tripe succeeded in creating some of the
most aesthetically and technically masterful photographs
of the nineteenth century.
Several important twentieth-century photographs
were acquired with funds from the Alfred H. Moses
and Fern M. Schad Fund, including an exceptional
daguerreotype by Chuck Close, Kara, 2007, of his friend
and fellow artist Kara Walker; a joyous cyanotype by
Christian Marclay, Allover (A Gospel Reunion), 2009; seven
ambrotypes by Myra Greene, Untitled, 2006–2007; nine
works from Moyra Davey’s 1990 Copperhead series; and
Idris Khan’s Houses of Parliament, 2012. Other notable
twentieth-century photographs were acquired with the
Charina Fund, including three photographs by Emmet
Gowin of his wife, Edith. The Collectors Committee made
possible the acquisition of Robert Heinecken’s Untitled
Newswomen, Suite B, 1984.
Among the most notable gifts were sixty-seven photographs
by Milton Rogovin, made between the 1950s and
the early 2000s, donated by Dr. J. Patrick and Patricia
A. Kennedy. These gifts complement earlier donations
of Rogovin’s photographs, allowing the Gallery to represent
several of his series in much greater depth. Other
significant donations include Gary S. Davis’ gift of forty
photographs by Allen Ginsberg, made from 1953 to 1987,
which complement his earlier gifts of the poet’s photo-
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
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Robert Adams, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Pepita Milmore
Memorial Fund and Gift of Robert and Kerstin Adams
graphs, as well as Susan and Peter MacGill’s donation of
twenty-four photographs by Richard Benson—the first
by the artist to enter the collection—of the Robert Gould
Shaw Memorial, 1973. In addition, the Robert and Joyce
Menschel Family Foundation donated fifteen photographs
by Berenice Abbott, made between 1935 and 1938, and
Heather and Tony Podesta donated several contemporary
photographs, including two works by James Casebere
from 1991 to 2003, three by Francesca Woodman from
1976 to 1978, four by Nikki Lee from 1998 to 2001, and
five by Ann Hamilton from 1984 to 1987.
Sculptures
The Gallery acquired its first sculptures by the renowned
Danish neoclassical artist Bertel Thorvaldsen. The early
nineteenth-century busts portray three daughters of
Richard Bingham, second earl of Lucan, who was among
Thorvaldsen’s most important patrons. The busts had
been in the Bingham family for nearly a century, adding
to their significance. Thorvaldsen’s genius in balancing
the animate and inanimate is shown at its zenith in his
portrayal of the young women’s features, which are chiseled
into marble as perfect as porcelain. Thorvaldsen’s
style inspired many American nineteenth-century
sculptors, including Thomas Crawford, who worked in
Thorvaldsen’s studio in Rome and later created the figure