Little Mantel, Corcoran Gallery of Art

Paul J. Kennedy was a faculty member of the Corcoran College of the Arts and Design from 1971 to 1974. On March 12, 1973, in a letter to Roy Slade—the Dean and Director — Kennedy requested to create a portfolio for the school: "I propose to photograph the Corcoran [Gallery of Art] not as a building where art is displayed but as a piece of art in itself. By photographically exploring every floor and room only then will we be able to see the total beauty of this building we call the Corcoran." The commission resulted in sixteen photographs that documented the beauty of the building. The Beaux-Arts style building was designed by Ernest Flagg in 1897, and Kennedy’s photographs successfully present the building as a regal home for the Corcoran Gallery and the school. The Flagg Building has remained a binding identity for the Corcoran School even through its acquisition by the George Washington University. Located on the first floor of the building behind the original gallery spaces the Little Mantle Room was built with a fireplace, large windows, wall decorations, and a high ceiling. Although not luxurious, the room functioned as a passage to the Salon Doré and emanated a feeling of homey warmth through the Beaux-Arts style fireplace and the large windows as visitors traverse to the opulence presented in the Salon Doré.

Ingrid A. Steffensen-Bruce (Author), Marble Palaces, Temples of Art: Art Museums, Architecture, and American Culture, 1890-1930 (Volumes I and II), PhD Dissertation, University of Delaware, Summer 1994

Paul Kennedy: Photographs, Corcoran Gallery of Art [1869-2014], Washington DC, December 15, 1973 - January 27, 1974

HOME: Selections from the Corcoran Study Collection, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Washington DC, November 14, 2019 - March 13, 2020