The National Gallery of Art announced last week that it has made what NGA Director Earl A. Powell III calls “a transformational acquisition” of more than 5,200 American prints made between 1875 and 1975.
The pieces come primarily from the Stamford, Conn.-based Print Research Foundation, established in 2003 by collectors Reba and Dave Williams, though the NGA has purchased some 250 works from the Williams’ personal collection, too.
The only known impression of Winslow Homer’s 1891 “The Signal of Distress” is among the treasures newly added to the NGA’s holdings, along with Childe Hassam’s 1920 “The Lion Gardiner House, Easthampton,” widely regarded as the prolific American Impressionist’s single greatest print.
In addition to familiar masters like Andy Warhol (represented by 1967’s “Marilyn”) and Jasper Johns (the 1974 screenprint “Target”), the acquisition includes works by nearly 2,100 other artists, more than 1,500 of whom are new to the NGA.
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National Gallery of Art
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