Curator Strikes Peers as 'Brilliant'

Steven C. Swett ’56 had already moved into his freshman dormitory when he was informed about a surprise third roommate who would be joining them. Little did Swett know he would be bunking with J. Carter Brown ’56, a descendant of the initial donors to Brown University and later the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Although Brown died in June of 2002 of pulmonary failure after an extended battle with multiple myeloma, he left a lasting legacy in the art world by supporting the creation of the Vietnam, Korean, and World War II memorials, and by raising the prominence of the National Gallery of Art.

Born in 1934, Brown lived in Providence and later Newport, R.I. with his family, which had been influential even before the Revolutionary War.

During his time in boarding school, Brown described himself as “hopeless.”

“I was very unathletic, and when I was in school, I was two years younger than everybody in my class, so I got beaten up all the time, and I got laughed at for being interested in studying,” he told the Academy of Achievement in a 2001 interview.

Following a year of studying art in England, Brown arrived at Harvard in Fall 1951 with little advance notice.

After settling into their Thayer room, Swett and his roommate Charles C. “Charlie” Cunningham Jr. ’56 were called into the office of Freshman Dean Francis Skiddy von Stade ’38.

“Charlie and I were called into his office and he sat us down, and the very first question he asked us was how would we like to room with the son of the owner of Bolero,” says Swett. Bolero was the premier private sailing yacht in America, “a 72-foot yawl, which was the finest boat that money could buy.”

Swett and Cunningham, both interested in sailing, accepted.

Swett says that he remembered his surprise when he first met Brown.

“The chauffeur-driven Chrysler drove up to Thayer South and out came Brown, just bouncing and smiling, full of enthusiasm,” recalls Swett. “He also brought an icebox, a rug, pictures to put on the walls and eventually a sofa.”

“His mother was concerned that he might not be comfortable at college, and she made sure that his comforts came with him,” adds Swett, a former Crimson editor.

But even if he was born into old money, Brown had immense modesty, Swett says.

Brown, a history and literature concentrator and an active member of the Glee Club, orchestra, and Hasty Pudding Club, amazed his roommates from the start, according to Cunningham.

“It was clear from the get-go that Carter was a brilliant student,” says Cunningham, who remained friends with Brown while serving as chairman of the Visiting Committee for the Harvard University Art Museums from 1972 to 1985.

During Brown’s time at Harvard, the Glee Club embarked on their first European tour since World War I. “As an example of Carter’s brilliance,” Cunningham says, “Carter would introduce the Glee Club in the language of the country they were in.”

But Brown’s “brilliance” was evident even before he entered Harvard. Angela Brown Fischer, Brown’s younger sister, says that Brown tried to impart this knowledge with others.

“I was younger than him, so he always tried to teach me,” Fischer says. “He always tried to open people’s eyes to build an environment around them.”

After graduating summa cum laude, Brown earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1958 and then studied art in Europe with Bernard Berenson, an expert on Italian art.

“He was very earnest and very serious, and I liked him,” says Henri Zerner, a professor of history of art and architecture at Harvard who first met Brown when they were both studying art in Paris.

Following the completion of an M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, Brown joined the National Gallery of Art as assistant to the director John Walker in 1961, moving his way up the ranks.

“It was pretty clear that Carter was brought in to be groomed to be director,” Zerner says.

In 1969, 34-year-old Brown was appointed director of the Gallery, the first American museum director to ever hold a business degree.

As director, Brown expanded the federal spending on the Gallery from $3.2 million to $52 million and the endowment from $34 million to $186 million.

Brown also oversaw the construction of the Gallery’s East Building in 1978. Designed by I.M. Pei, the wing’s construction initially met opposition but is now one of Washington’s most popular cultural attractions.

Brown also changed the character of the Gallery. He introduced “blockbuster exhibitions”—expansive art shows that attracted large crowds to the Gallery.

“[Brown] absolutely recognized the significance of special exhibitions to capture the public eye and give the museum a day-to-day excitement,” says Maygene Daniels, chief of gallery archives at the National Gallery of Art.

Brown’s most well-known exhibitions include “Treasures of Tutankhamen” in 1977, “Treasure Houses of Britain” in 1985, and “Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration,” a 500th anniversary show of Columbus’ 1492 voyage and Brown’s final accomplishment as the Gallery’s director.

In organizing these exhibitions, Brown paid acute attention to detail and respected each person’s contribution to the project, according to Daniels, who worked with Brown in the eighties.

“He was the best kind of person to work with,” she says. “He always thanked people and was always aware of it, and when things went wrong, he did not fly into a rage.”

At the Gallery, Brown also increased the curatorial staff considerably and made it more professional, says Zerner. Brown needed this enlarged curatorial staff for his expansion of the Gallery’s permanent collection, especially of twentieth century art.

“He was interested in doing new kinds of things that would bring cultural enrichment to the museum and to the country,” says Daniels.

Following his retirement in 1992 as the longest-serving director, Brown became chairman of the cable television arts network Ovation and continued to serve as chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. As chairman of the Commission, Brown advised on the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the National World War II Memorial.

“I think throughout Carter’s professional career, doing things in the highest possible taste and quality was a number one element,” says Cunningham, “and that governed everything he did and he wanted the monuments in Washington to reflect high quality of taste.”

“Anyone who is willing to be out front and provide leadership wherever should be admired and appreciated,” remembers Swett. “I always admired and appreciated Carter.”

—Staff writer Madeline W. Lissner can be reached at mlissner@fas.harvard.edu.