The Times of last Saturday publishes a very sensible proposal
for the better housing of the Turner pictures in the National Gallery. It is notorious that the oil paintings are crowded, and that the water-colours are badly lighted and displayed below stairs. Not long ago, it will be remembered, the Government contemplated building a new Stationery Office at the back of the Tate Gallery. Protests were made on the ground that the land should be reserved for the inevit- able expansion of the Tate Gallery, and the Government withdrew their scheme. Thereupon an anonymous person offered £20,000 for a building on condition that Turner's pictures should be placed there. The Trustees of the National Gallery would not be justified, it appears, in agreeing te this attractive offer, though most of them would have liked to do so, as Turner's will expressly provided that his pictures should remain at the National Gallery. The suggestion in the Times is that, as there is now an open space at the back of the National Gallery itself, and the foundations of a new building have already been prepared, the Trustees should seriously set to work in conjunction with the anonymous benefactor, who could probably be induced to repeat his offer, to provide a new Turner Gallery adjoining the room where the pictures are now hung. This would leave enough room for the other buildings required, and a special gallery would be the best of tributes to the glorious art of Turner.
Previous page
