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But the winning suitor was never really in doubt. The National Gallery's director, John Walker, had known Dale since Harvard days when he, along with Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg, opened a gallery. The great collector had lent them Modiglianis, Picassos, Braques and Matisses when such artists were considered too avant-garde to show. When the National Gallery opened in 1941, Dale lent a few American paintings plus 25 French works, added 41 the next year, and 59 more in 1952. A trustee since 1943, Dale was the museum's president from 1955 until his death in 1962.
Tough to Rival. "Every picture will go to the public. I consider myself the custodian," said Dale once. Last week he was as good as his word. In six new rooms of the National Gallery, 88 previously unseen works were placed on view. This last installment brought Dale's bequest to a total of 274 paintings, seven sculptures, 22 graphics, 1,560 art books, 1,232 valuably annotated auction catalogues, plus $500,000 for overseas scholarships in the arts.
Does this mean that the day of great French impressionist and post impressionist collecting is over? Not necessarily. The National Gallery estimates that nine of Dale's last 88 bequests could each command more than $250,000 at auction. But as Manhattan Dealer Eugene Thaw points out, "It's a fallacy to say that it can never be done today. A collector has to wait longer for the right picture, but treasures as great as ever are still coming up on the market." A case in point is California Collector Norton Simon, who recently purchased Degas' Répétition de Ballet at auction for a walloping $410,000. "Only by paying such a record price," says Parke-Bernet's Carroll Hogan, "can a collection comparable to Dale's be assembled."