British Homes of Art
The proper arrangement of the respective functions of the National Gallery, the Tate-Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum is a public question on which haste is not called for. Doubt- less this consideration, has helped to interpose an interval of seventeen months between the presentation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Education of the report of the Committee appointed to consider the matter and its publication by the Stationery Office. In any event, the result is admirable. It is recommended that the Tate Gallery should be divided into a National Gallery of British Art of all periods and a National Gallery of Modern Art cevering both British and foreign art of the last too years or so. The -Victoria and Albert Museum should house the national collection of British and foreign sculpture up to the end of the eighteenth century, with the exception of cer- tain examples from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which would be more appropriately housed at the Tate in the National Gallery of British Art. A certain amount of inter-transfer will be required in order to eliminate the degree of overlapping which now exists in the collections in these centres. There will also be a con- tinuous redistribution of works which, having attained an age of too years, pass out of the province of the Gallery of Modern Art. The National Gallery, the National Gallery of British Art and the Victoria and Albert will have first choice. The rest will go to reference sections or, on permanent loan, to other institutions. A number of remaining questions, including the future administration of the Chantrey Bequest, the arrangements for water-colours, ane the part to be played by the British Museum, are still the subject of controversy. There need be no hurry to settle them so long as th, final result is as excellent as that which has been already achieved.
Previous page
