The 'Louvre' exits Washington on Sunday

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833, oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

What?

The Gallery of the Louvre is going to leave the National Gallery of Art on July 8 after a year's sojourn in Washington, alas.

Say it isn't so.  Can't it stay here forever?  The people love it and want it to remain in the West Building in that perfect gallery.

It is going to leave.  The Terra Foundation for American Art has been gracious to loan it to the National Gallery of Art where it has occupied prominent position, and there is only one day more to see it.

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), yes, the inventor (Morse code), painted Gallery of the Louvre between 1831-1833, and it is big.  He copied 38 masterpieces from the Louvre, and hung them in his Gallery of the Louvre's Salon Carre in desired arrangements that he favored. You may read more about it here. 

When I went over to the National Gallery at lunch to check out George Bellows again, I remembered the exit date for Louvre and swung around the corner for one last look. Sigh.

Have you ever heard of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs?  You must not be from the South.  A modification of their hit "Stay" (1961) may be applied to the people's desire to re-arrange the location of Morse's Gallery.

Stay, ahhh
Just a little bit longer
Please, please, please, please, please
Tell me that you're going to

Now your owner won't mind
And the Gallery won't mind
If we have another look, ya
Just one more time

Oh, won't you stay
Just a little bit longer
Please let me hear you say
That you will

Say you will!

Oh ya, just a little bit longer
Please, please, please, please, please
Tell me your going to
Come on, come on, come on, stay
Come on, come on, come on, stay, oh la de da
Come on, come on, come on, stay, my, my, my, my
Come on, come on, come on , stay

What: Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When: Now through July 8, 2012, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

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