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Lewis, Douglas

    Full Name: Lewis, Charles Douglas, Jr.

    Other Names:

    • C. Douglas Lewis

    Date Born: 30 August 1938

    Place Born: Centreville, MS, USA


    Overview

    Curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968-2004.  Lewis was born at Beech Grove, a Mississippi Landmark property held in his family since 1803, to Charles Lewis (1911-2001) and Beatrice Fenwick Stewart (Lewis) (1913-2000). His father engaged in farming. When the Second World War was declared, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where his father, a Naval ordnance officer, was stationed.  Not yet three years old, he visited the National Gallery on its opening day with his mother.  After the war, the family returned to Mississippi, where Lewis spent his middle school years, transferring to The Lawrenceville School near Princeton for high school.

    Lewis earned Bachelor’s degrees in European History and History of Art from Yale University and then, on a Mellon Fellowship, another Bachelor’s with First-Class Honours and a Master’s in Fine Arts from Clare College, Cambridge. At both institutions he was an accomplished oarsman. He returned to the US for a Master’s and Ph.D. from Yale, which included three years in Italy as a Rome Prize fellow. His dissertation on the late baroque churches of Venice (later published by Garland Press) was completed in 1967.  His dissertation supervisor was Vincent Scully, Jr., with committee assistance of George Hersey and William R. Crelly (1924-1999) (Emory).

    Lewis joined the National Gallery the following year, where, among other duties he co-administered the NGA’s prestigious fellowship program. In 1969 he married the architectural historian Carolyn Kolb.  Lewis served as curator-in-charge for several in-house exhibitions presenting African sculpture, American Eskimo and American Indian art.  He joined the board of the Centro internazionale di studi di architettura Andrea Palladio in 1974. His work establishing the date of 1551–1553 for the Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese appeared in contemporary scholarly essays but its definitive study is an unpublished book-length manuscript deposited with CISA. He also published extensively on the Villa Barbaro at Maser, assigning both the architecture and internal frescoed illusions to Palladio, its sculpture cycle to the younger Barbaro brother, and the intricate iconographic program to the elder Barbaro. In 1981, Lewis launched an exhibition called The Drawings of Andrea Palladio.

    In seeking acquisitions for the National Gallery, Lewis sought to expand the collection beyond the Italian Renaissance and Neo-Classicism, the focus of the earliest donations to the Gallery. He helped bring in works from Girardon to Foggini, St. Gaudens to Maillol to Henry Moore (a friend).  He also enhanced the core collection with an exquisite relief which he identified as Antonio Lombardo’s depiction of Peace Establishing Her Reign for Alfonso d’Este’s Camerino d’Alabastro, and found and secured the acquisition of Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne’s c. 1757 bust of Baron du Bourg.

    As the 21st century approached, Lewis remained a prolific writer, contributing to numerous periodicals and collection catalogues, as well as Grove’s Dictionary of Art. He developed a deep and abiding interest in Renaissance plaquettes, small sculptural reliefs in metal which, like prints, served to disseminate antique and avant-garde compositions and motifs. His systematic catalogue of the National Gallery’s collection of plaquettes, running to more than 1,500 pages, remains unpublished, but is available for consultation on-site.

    Lewis periodically took leaves of absence from the National Gallery to teach as an adjunct or lecturer at Bryn Mawr, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and the University of Maryland. He also served for 26 years on the US Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, responsible for national philatelic design.  He collaborated on a reinstallation of the sculpture collection in the West Building, and helping design a study and seminar room.

    In retirement in Mississippi, he has served on the boards of several historic and cultural institutions, undertaken a restoration of Beech Grove, and continued to publish widely.


    Selected Bibliography

    • [dissertation:] Late Baroque Churches of Venice. Yale University, 1967, New York and London: Garland 1979;
    • edited, and contributor, The Far North: 2000 Years of American Eskimo and Indian Art. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1973;
    • contributor, Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1983;
    • edited, with Clifford Brown and Debra Pincus, and contributor, Essays in Art and Architecture in Memory of Carolyn Kolb. Vienna and Cracow: Artibus et Historiae No. 35, 1997;

    Sources




    Citation

    "Lewis, Douglas." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/lewisd/.


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