Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting

January 21 – September 3, 1979
East Building, Mezzanine, Pod I (3,000 sq. ft.)

Domenico Veneziano, *Saint John in the Desert*, c. 1445/1450, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.48

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 126 paintings, drawings, letters, telegrams, books, photographs, and other materials concerning Bernard Berenson and his influence on art patrons were exhibited. Included were some 20 paintings from the Gallery's collection. Berenson (1865-1959) was a key figure in the history of taste and collecting, particularly concerning the acquisition of early Italian paintings by American collectors.

Organization: David Alan Brown, curator of early Italian painting, organized the assemblage. Gaillard Ravenel, Mark Leithauser, and David Brown designed the exhibition, and Gordon Anson designed the lighting for the National Gallery.

Attendance: 198,000

Catalog: Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting: A Handbook to the Exhibition, by David Alan Brown. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1979.

Other Venues: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts