National Gallery of Art Kress Collection Digital Archive
After years of development, the National Gallery of Art has launched the Kress Collection Digital Archive, an online resource documenting the history and development of a collection of nearly 3,500 works of art. The Kress Collection was divided and donated years ago to almost 100 institutions throughout the United States, including the National Gallery.
Explore the resource here: https://kress.nga.gov
Screenshot of the new Kress Collection Digital Archive.
National Gallery of ArtFunded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the project digitally reunites the Kress Collection of European art, amassed by American businessman and founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art Samuel H. Kress and his Foundation. Data and digitized archival materials illustrate the history, acquisition, condition, care, and distribution of the works of art over many decades.
“With the launch of its Kress Collection Digital Archive, the National Gallery of Art has set an inspiring example for other art museums both in the United States and abroad,” said Max Marmor, president of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. “By documenting so fully—and sharing so openly—its rich archival holdings concerning the genesis and history of the Kress Collection, it has established a new standard of transparency while also modeling a new kind of scholarly resource for the study of the history of collecting.”
Beginning in the late 1920s, Kress—and, later, his brother Rush and the Foundation—acquired nearly 3,500 works of art, primarily from the Italian Renaissance. By 1961 the Foundation had donated the entire collection to institutions across the country, including the National Gallery of Art. The distribution of the Kress Collection brought European old masters to millions of Americans.
The new digital resource combines data, history, and archival materials. With more than 10,000 historical and conservation documents and images from the National Gallery Archives, the National Gallery of Art painting conservation department, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Archive, the project emphasizes the connections shared between people, objects, and institutions.
Kress Collection objects on the Foundation’s website are now connected to the relevant archival documents on the National Gallery’s site. Users can follow the “National Gallery of Art Archival Resources” link in the Notes section to access these materials.
Screenshot of the Kress Foundation's website which connects all Kress Collection objects with relevant materials on the National Gallery's Digital Archive site.
The history of the Kress Collection and the development of the National Gallery of Art are fundamentally linked. When the museum opened in 1941, nearly three-quarters of the works on view were Kress gifts or loans. Over the next two decades, the Kress Foundation developed, then distributed, its collection in close cooperation with the National Gallery.
The Gallery Archives preserves and makes available records that document the history of the National Gallery of Art. This digital archival project promotes understanding of the history and development of the Kress Collection within the larger context of National Gallery history and the cultural growth of the United States over the past 60 years.