Sir Augustus Moore Daniel (6 December 1866 – 7 November 1950) was a British curator who served as director of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from January 1929 to December 1933. Daniel was born in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

, the son of Dr. Edward MacManus Daniel. He was educated at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. As a young man, Daniel travelled abroad studying the attribution of paintings with

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...

. He was appointed as a Trustee of the National Gallery in 1925, apparently due to his being a personal friend and golfing partner of the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin. p. 119 His installation as Director in January 1929 is seen as a strike against "experts" and the increasing professionalisation of art history, on the part of the Trustees. In 1929, the Gallery bought the ''

Wilton Diptych The Wilton Diptych () is a small portable diptych of two hinged panels, painted on both sides, now in the National Gallery, London. It is an extremely rare survival of a late medieval religious panel painting from England. The diptych was pain ...

'' and

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

's group portrait of '' The Vendramin Family''; these are considered the two major purchases of Daniel's directorship. Also that year the highly controversial dealer

Joseph Duveen Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen (14 October 1869 – 25 May 1939), known as Sir Joseph Duveen, Baronet, between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer who was considered one of the most influential art dealers of all time. Life and career Jos ...

became a Trustee. Jonathan Conlin's history of the National Gallery describes Daniel as a "self-effacing nonentity" but Fry, for one, admired his "terrific energy and intellectual beefiness". Like many directors of the National Gallery, he was a trustee of the Iveagh Bequest. Daniel was appointed an honorary Fellow of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

in 1929 and an honorary Litt.D. of Cambridge in 1931. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(KBE) in the

1932 New Year Honours The 1932 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 29 December 1931. The recipients of honour ...

. In 1904, he married Margery Welsh. He died at his home in London, aged 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel, Augustus 1866 births 1950 deaths British curators Directors of the National Gallery, London Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People from Preston, Lancashire People educated at Repton School