David Finley: Quiet Force for America's Arts - Hardcover

David Finley; Quiet Force for America's Arts

Hardcover. Zustand: Very good. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very good. vii, [1], 392 pages. Color frontispiece. Illustrations (some in color). Selected Bibliography. Index. Inscribed on the fep to David Brown - Supporter and Friend of Mr. Finley and preservationist in his mold, warm regards David Doheny 2 May 2006. Embossed stamp of previous owner on fep. David A. Doheny was a corporate and real estate lawyer in Chicago and Miami, where he also served as Assistant State and U.S. Attorney. He served as vice-president and general counsel at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC from 1985 to 1996 where he developed in interest in its founding chairman, David Finley, who was also the first director of the National Gallery of Art. Doheny produced a small biographical profile in 1999, David E. Finley: Statesman of the Arts, which was later expanded and published as David Finley: Quiet Force for America's Arts in 2006. David Edward Finley Jr. (September 1, 1890 February 1, 1977) was an American cultural leader during the middle third of the 20th century. He was the first director of the National Gallery of Art, the founding chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a prime mover in the founding of the National Portrait Gallery, and founding chairman of the White House Historical Association. During the Second World War, Finley led the Roberts Commission, which led the rescue of much of the threatened artworks of Europe. In 1921 Finley joined the legal staff of the United States Treasury Department where he came to the attention of Secretary Andrew W. Mellon. In 1924, Finley wrote Taxation, the People's Business, published in Mellon's name, which articulated Mellon's taxation and fiscal policies. By 1927, Finley was writing most of Mellon's speeches, policy papers and correspondence and had begun to assist Mellon in his art collection. In 1927, Mellon decided to found the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and made Finley his special assistant in that enterprise. Finley was particularly influential in Mellon's selection of art from the Italian Renaissance, which he began collecting in 1928 with a view to creating a collection worthy to be the nucleus of a great national gallery. When Mellon went to London as ambassador in 19321933, Finley went with him on Mellon's private payroll and continued to work on the planning for the National Gallery. Upon their return in 1933, Mellon was forced to spend most of the next three years defending himself, against politically motivated charges of tax fraud brought by the Roosevelt administration, while Finley continued to work on planning the National Gallery. In late 1936 Finley selected twenty-four Italian Renaissance paintings and eighteen sculptures from Lord Joseph Duveen, which Mellon bought to complete his collection. He offered it to the nation as the nucleus of the National Gallery, together with the gallery building and a large endowment. The total gift was valued at $80 million, which would translate to perhaps $10 billion in current dollars the richest gift ever from an individual to a government. After Mellon's death in 1937, Finley spent the next thirty years realizing Mellon's plans for the National Gallery of Art and his dream of a National Portrait Gallery and went on to many accomplishments of his own. Throughout his long and remarkable lifetime, David E. Finley (1890-1977) made brilliant contributions to the cultural life of this country. Yet less than thirty years after his death, his name is barely known. In David Finley: Quiet Force for America's Arts, biographer David Doheny revitalizes Finley's legacy, presenting the compelling story of his life and incorporating fascinating excerpts from recently discovered private journals, published here for the first time. As the first director of the National Gallery of Art, founding chairman of the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and a key player in creating the National Portrait Gallery. Artikel-Nr. 91095

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