Editing National Gallery (section)

===Early 20th century===
[[File:Diego Velázquez - Rokeby Venus.jpg|alt=Realistic painting of a nude woman seen from behind, reclining on a couch. She is looking at her reflection in a mirror held by a winged child.|thumb|right|''Venus at her Mirror'' (The ''[[Rokeby Venus]]'') by [[Diego Velázquez]]]]

The agricultural crisis at the turn of the 20th century caused many aristocratic families to sell their paintings, but the British national collections were priced out of the market by American plutocrats.{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=107}} This prompted the foundation of the [[National Art-Collections Fund]], a society of subscribers dedicated to stemming the flow of artworks to the United States. Their first acquisition for the National Gallery was [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]]'s ''[[Rokeby Venus]]'' in 1906, followed by [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]]'s ''[[Portrait of Christina of Denmark]]'' in 1909. However, despite the crisis in aristocratic fortunes, the following decade was one of several great bequests from private collectors. In 1909, the industrialist [[Ludwig Mond]] gave 42 Italian Renaissance paintings, including the ''[[Mond Crucifixion]]'' by [[Raphael]], to the gallery.<ref> {{cite web|url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/mond_bequest/default.htm |title= The Mond Bequest| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051102111149/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/mond_bequest/default.htm |archive-date=2 November 2005 |publisher=National Gallery}}</ref> Other bequests of note were those of [[George Salting]] in 1910, [[Austen Henry Layard]] in 1916 and Sir [[Hugh Lane]] in 1917.

The initial reception of [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] art at the gallery was exceptionally controversial. In 1906, Sir Hugh Lane promised 39 paintings, including [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]]'s ''[[The Umbrellas (Renoir painting)|Umbrellas]]'', to the National Gallery on his death, unless a suitable building could be built in [[Dublin]]. Although eagerly accepted by the director [[Charles Holroyd]], they were received with extreme hostility by the trustees; [[Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale|Lord Redesdale]] wrote that "I would as soon expect to hear of a Mormon service being conducted in [[St. Paul's Cathedral]] as to see the exhibition of the works of the modern French Art-rebels in the sacred precincts of Trafalgar Square".<ref>Quoted in {{Harvnb|Conlin|2006|p=131}}</ref> Perhaps as a result of such attitudes, Lane amended his will with a codicil that the works should only go to Ireland, but crucially this was never witnessed.{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=132}} Lane died on board the {{RMS|Lusitania}} in 1915, and a dispute began which was not resolved until 1959. Part of the collection is now on permanent loan to the [[Hugh Lane Gallery]] and other works rotate between London and Dublin every few years.

A fund for the purchase of modern paintings established by [[Samuel Courtauld (art collector)|Samuel Courtauld]] in 1923 bought [[Georges-Pierre Seurat|Seurat]]'s ''[[Bathers at Asnières]]'' and other modern works for the nation;{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=131}} in 1934, many of these were transferred to the National Gallery from the Tate.

The director [[Kenneth Clark]]'s decision in 1939 to label a group of Venetian paintings, ''[[Scenes from Tebaldeo's Eclogues]]'', as works by [[Giorgione]] was controversial at the time, and the panels were soon identified as works by [[Andrea Previtali]] by a junior curator Clark had appointed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/research-papers/close-examination/scenes-from-tebaldeos-eclogues|title=Scenes from Tebaldeo's Eclogues |publisher=National Gallery|access-date=13 May 2020}}</ref>