A Guide to the Tate Gallery [antikvár]

OUTLINE HISTORY Building The originál Gallery was built at the expense of Sir Henry Tate, who had offered his collection of British pictures to the nation. It was opened in 1897 on a site provided by the Government and formerly occupied by a prison. In 1908 Sir Joseph Duveen the elder built a new wing to house the Turner Bequest. The acquisition in 1917 of a collection of Modern Foreign pictures bequeathed by Sir Hugh Lane decided Sir Joseph Duveen the younger, afterwards Lord Duveen of Millbank, to build a further extension. When he added the Sculpture Gallery in 1937, more than three-quarters of the site had been covered with buildings owed entirely to priváté generosity. Collections Originally a branch of the National Gallery, for Modern British Art, and expanded in 1919 to include earlier British painting, the Tate is now the most representative collection of British painting from the sixteenth century to the present day; it contains many paintings transferred from the National Gallery and alsó the bulk of the Turner Bequest. In addition to these transfers and the direct purchases, the Gallery houses works purchased under the terms of the bequest made by Sir Francis Chantrey, the sculptor, the works by G. F. Watts presented by the artist, part of the modern foreign works purchased out of the fund generously provided by Mr. Sámuel Courtauld, and many gifts from the National Art-Collections Fund, the Contemporary Art Society, and numerous priváté individuals. There was no Government Grant until 1946, when a grant of .L2,000 was given. The annual grant was increased to L7,500 in 1954 and to L40,000 in 1959. This has to provide for the building up of the three National Collections—of British Painting, of Modern Foreign Painting and of Modern Sculpture, both British and Foreign. The 'Friends of the Tate Gallery', founded in 1958 to raise funds for the purchase of works to fill the more conspicuous gaps in the collection, have already enriched the Gallery with many splendid gifts.