Renwick Gallery (Corcoran Gallery of Art)

1859-1861, James Renwick, Jr.
1967-1969, Universal Engineering and Waterproofing Service, Inc. and John Carl Warnecke, Architects
1967-1972, Hugh Newell Jacobson

The Corcoran Gallery of Art was founded by William Wilson Corcoran who had retired from a distinguished banking career to collect art. In 1854, he traveled to the Paris International Exposition with architect James Renwick, Jr. There they visited Visconti and Lefuel's additions to the orginal Louvre design by Lescot. Five years later in 1859, Corcoran commissioned Renwick to design the Corcoran Gallery of Art based on the French Second Empire Style of the Louvre addition. The design by James Renwick, Jr. dramatized the mansard roofs with ornamental iron railings and a pavilion motif. Quoined pilasters decorated the first floor exterior and fluted Corinthian pilasters on the second floor were designed with crescent pediments. The pediment on the central south façade was triangular with an entablature inscribed, "Dedicated to Art." Renwick slightly modified the Style with American influences when he designed Corinthian columns with cornhusks instead of acanthus leaves--a direct reference to the capitals of the United States Capitol designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. In 1861, construction of the building was interrupted by the United States Civil War when the Quarter Master General occupied the partially-constructed building from 1862 to 1869. The building was eventually evacuated, reclaimed and restored for use as an art museum. On January 19, 1874, the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened to the public with three rooms: the Hall of Bronzes, the Main Picture Gallery and the Octagon Room.

Later that year the Hall of Sculpture and two small sculpture rooms were opened. In the 1880's, numerous improvements were made to the building: two bronze lions were placed at the south entrance; three bronze plaques honoring Corcoran were installed on the exterior and the façade niches were installed with seven-foot statues by the sculptor Moses Ezekiel representing Phidias, Michaelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Durer, da Vinci, Murillo, Canova and Thomas Crawford. In 1890, the Board of Trustees approved an expansion proposal to the rear of the museum; however, it was never built. Instead, the Corcoran moved a new building designed by Ernest Flagg constructed in 1897 at 17th Street and New York Avenue. The building was sold to the government for use as the United States Court of Claims for several decades. In 1956, Congress proposed that the building be razed, but efforts by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson resulted in the transfer of the old Corcoran Gallery of Art building to the Smithsonian Institution on June 23, 1965. After renovation the newly named Renwick Gallery opened to the public. The following year it was made a National Historic Landmark within the Lafayette Park Historic District. The Renwick Gallery has been under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution since 1965, operating as an extension of the National Museum of American Art.

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