By vote of the Corporation, Monday, it was finally decided that the Gray collection of engravings should be brought from Boston and placed in the Fogg Art Museum.
The famous Gray collection was bequeathed to Harvard College thirty years ago by Francis Calley Gray of the class of 1809. For some years it remained in Gore hall, until in 1876 it was loaned to the Boston Art Museum, there being at the time no place in Cambridge suitable for its safe-keeping. The loans were made for seven years at a time and the third term expired this spring, so that at last it is possible to bring the collection to the Fogg Art Museum.
It will be by far the most important display in the Museum. The intrinsic value of the collection cannot be overestimated, as much as $1600 having been paid for a single print. There are about 20,000 engravings in all, including engravings from their own works by Albrecht, Durer, and Rembrandt, and many engraved portraits from originals by Raphael, Titian, Rubens and Van Dyck.
The object of the collector was to secure the best works of the great masters. Many of the engravings are valued as beautiful and accurate transcripts of paintings, others for some peculiar merit of their own or because they are important in the history of art. Thus there is a specimen of the work of the earliest known German engraver and also an Italian engraving of a very early date.
Professor Moore will attend to the arrangement of the collection and expects to have it ready for inspection at the opening of the fall term.
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