Augustus Daniel
Deceased Person
1866 – 1950
Who was Augustus Daniel?
Sir Augustus Moore Daniel was the Director of the National Gallery in London, England, for five years from January 1929 to December 1933.
As a young man, Daniel travelled abroad studying the attribution of paintings with Roger Fry. He was appointed as a Trustee of the National Gallery in 1925, apparently due to his being a personal friend and golfing partner of the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin. His installation as Director in January 1929 is seen as a strike against "experts" and the increasing professionalisation of art history, on the part of the Trustees.
In 1929, the Gallery bought the Wilton Diptych and Titian's group portrait of The Vendramin Family; these are considered the two major purchases of Daniel's directorship. Also that year the highly controversial dealer Joseph Duveen became a Trustee. Jonathan Conlin's history of the National Gallery describes Daniel as a "self-effacing nonentity" but Fry, for one, admired his "terrific energy and intellectual beefiness". Like many directors of the National Gallery, he was a trustee of the Iveagh Bequest.
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Augustus Daniel." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/augustus_daniel>.
Discuss this Augustus Daniel biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In