Congratulations Hirshhorn!

Unique in style and substance on the Mall, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s opening night, October 4, 1974, was a glamorous affair that showed off the circular building, the sculpture garden grounds, and the collections they housed at their best. This was the first modern art collection on the National Mall, and the museum's design reflected its collection.

On opening night of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, October 4, 1974, a crowd has gathered in the interior court. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Neg. #92-1647. 

Those collections numbered over six thousand items on opening day, their transfer from Joe and Olga Hirshhorn completed just a month before the museum opened.  The couple was avid collectors of modern art, and wanted to see their collection kept together in a museum so that others could enjoy the art as much as they had.  With the help of Lady Bird and Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary S. Dillion Ripley convinced them to donate their collection to the Smithsonian.

Arriving on the Mall from the Hirshhorn home in Greenwich, Connecticut, Henry Moore's "King and Queen" is gently lowered into place on its pedestal in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Neg. #SIA2011-2398.

As a uniquely modern building on the National Mall, the circular building features curved galleries that float above the grounds that hold the Hirshhorn’s large sculpture collection. On opening night, both the garden and the museum glittered with bright lights. In his opening night remarks Secretary Ripley set the museum a lofty goal saying, “the purpose of the Hirshhorn is to remind us all that life is more than the usual, that the human mind is capable of seeing life subjectively, and being stirred into new and positive ways of thought…. Let its assemblage of shapes and objects continue to stir our slothful minds and jog our minds our sensibilities as they are designed to do.” William Schuman composed a special piece of music for the occasion, “Prelude for a Great Occasion” played by the National Symphony Orchestra during opening ceremonies.

Secretary S. Dillon Ripley (1964-1984) greets Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor, on opening day of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, October 4, 1974. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Neg. #SIA74-9851-04.

The Hirshhorn opened to high hopes and lots of enthusiasm.  In its first six months over one million visitors saw the opening exhibit of items from the permanent collection.  The Washington Post claimed that the collection “will enable to the Hirshhorn, better perhaps than any other museum, to present a comprehensive account of the development of modern art from the mid-19th century to the present.” And the Washington Star-News exclaimed “Well, we’ve seen it now. And we’re in love with it. It’s exciting, it’s full of old friends and many new ones that we hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before, and it’s, above all, great fun.”

Above all, I think that would have most pleased Mr. Hirshhorn and Secretary Ripley that this gift of art was bringing as much joy to its visitors as it brought to them.  This sense of joy and celebration ran throughout its opening days as Mr. Hirshhorn surprised the Museum with ‘birthday’ gift of four additional sculptures for the inaugural exhibition.

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives

John Singer Sargent at the Smithsonian

Lately I've been working on updating the listings of works by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) in the Inventory of American Paintings, an online database that records the last known locations of American works of art.  As I was working on this project I wondered: What else is in the Smithsonian that is related to Sargent?  We often become so focused on our own work in the rush to get so much done in so little time, that we forget to widen our view a little bit further and see the magnitude of resources available at the Smithsonian.

It turns out that Sargent is one of the most widely represented artists across the Smithsonian, as well as one of the most popular and well-known American artists. (He was born to American parents, but spent most of his life in Europe.)  His paintings are in four Smithsonian collections: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Portrait Gallery, and Freer Gallery of Art. 

There have been many exhibitions and monographs about Sargent, which can be found in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, including six volumes of the more recent Complete Paintings by the artist's great-nephew Richard Ormond, and Elaine Kilmurray. One of the more interesting books (in my opinion) is a novel written by Countess Eleanor Palffy in 1951: The lady and the painter: an extravaganza, based on incidents in the lives of the two principal characters: Mrs. John Lowell Gardner of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the artist, John Singer Sargent. I used Proquest (available on site at Smithsonian Libraries) to look up reviews of the book and, my oh my, it caused quite the scandal in its day.

Over 2000 paintings and 53 sculptures by Sargent are listed in the Inventories of American Painting & Sculpture. These works are in public and private collections around the world.  Did you know that Sargent, who is most well-known for his paintings, in particular his portraits, was also a sculptor? Many of these are plaster studies for his ceiling reliefs in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Also, about 1700 paintings are listed in the Catalog of American Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery.

You can also find Sargent in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Photograph Archives, both as an artist and as a subject. Of note is a photograph of the "John Singer Sargent medal" by Paul Manship, photographed by De Witt Ward. The inscription on the reverse reads "Pegasus Liberated. J.M. to J.S.S. 1923."

Finally, the Archives of American Art contains the letters of Sargent and photographs, all of which are digitized and available to view online. Take a look for yourself, though I must admit, I have trouble reading his handwriting!

Now that is a lot of resources!  I had fun looking for them. Did you know that you, too, can search for items across the Smithsonian museums?  Just click on Collections Search Center and begin your journey!

Pictured, top to bottom:


John Singer Sargent, Marble Fountain in Italy, ca. 1907. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.108


John Singer Sargent, Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.


Paul Manship, Medal for John Singer Sargent, 1923, photographed by De Witt Ward. American Sculpture Photograph Study Collection, Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum.


--Nicole Semenchuk, Research and Scholars Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum