Excerpt from Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &C of the Corcoran Gallery of Art The corcoran gallery OF art, including ground, building, its con tents, and endowment fund, is the free gift of Mr. Wm. W. Corcoran to the public. In his own words to the Trustees to Whom the property was deeded May 10, 1869, it was designed for the encouragement of the Fine Arts; and in the deed the Object Of the institution is stated as the perpetual establishment and encouragement Of Painting, Sculp ture, and the Fine Arts generally, with the condition that it Should be Open to visitors without charge two days in the week, and on other days at moderate and reasonable charges, to be applied to the current expenses Of procuring, and keeping in order the building and its con tents. With these liberal purposes, the institution was chartered by act of Congress, May 24, 1870. By that act the building was declared exempt from all taxation, and authority given to settle the claim for rent during its occupancy by the Government. The building, planned by Mr. James Renwick, of New York, was begun in 1859. The civil war arrested the work, and early in 1861 the Government took it for the use Of the quartermaster-general's Depart ment, retaining it until four years after the close of the war. On the 10th of May, 1869, it was restored to its owner, who at once placed it in the hands of a board of nine Trustees, as already stated. After the Institution was incorporated by Congress, in 1870, the general work of reconstruction and adaptation of the building to its original purpose was begun, and after much delay and labor finished in 1871. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.