Salon Doré, 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. The Salon Doré is a Louis XVI style room designed by the architect Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin in 1770 and was originally installed at the Hôtel de Clermont, which was a private residence in Paris. The panels were eventually sold to Senator William A. Clark to be displayed in his New York mansion. Upon Clark’s death in 1925, the room was relocated to its current position in the Flagg Building. Kennedy’s photograph of the Salon Doré was taken before the room underwent extensive preservation in 1990, yet Kennedy portrays the natural luminescence of the room's precious materials, including the intricate moldings and gold leafed trophy panels. It is interesting to note that this room — originally intended for a private hôtel particulier — was incorporated into the Corcoran and became an important part of the identity of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Corcoran School.

Dare Hartwell (Author), The Salon Doré, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998

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

Linda Hales (Author), Lifting the Curtains at Corcoran's Salon Dore, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., November 10, 2001

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

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