National Gallery of Art acquires 331 more works from the Corcoran Collection

Thomas Hart Benton’s painting, “Martha’s Vineyard,” is among the 331 works from the Corcoran Gallery of Art that were acquired by National Gallery of Art in January. (Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art)

A painting by Thomas Hart Benton and photographs by Andy Warhol are among the 331 works from the Corcoran Gallery of Art acquired by the National Gallery of Art in January.

The gallery, which released the list of the latest acquisitions Friday, has now added 8,301 works from the Corcoran as a result of a landmark agreement signed in 2014, after long-standing financial problems led to the Corcoran’s demise.

The court-approved deal allowed the National Gallery to take custody of the Corcoran’s 17,000-piece collection and gave it the right of first refusal to the works. After the National Gallery makes its decisions, it will help Corcoran board members distribute the remaining 9,000 works to other organizations, preferably ones in Washington.

The National Gallery acquired an initial group of 6,430 in February of 2015, followed by 1,541 in October. About 75 works from the Corcoran on are on view in its galleries.

[National Gallery aims to integrate Corcoran works while keeping its legacy alive]

The National Gallery’s Board of Trustees also acquired a painting by Dutch master Frans van Mieris, a trompe l’oeil painting by an unknown 17th-century Dutch artist, and an artist’s book with 80 woodcuts by Joan Miró.

Benton’s “Martha’s Vineyard” is among the highlights of the Corcoran works. Most of the works are photographs, including 158 by Warhol that the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts gave to the Corcoran in 2008. Other works are by Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and American photographers Berenice Abbott and Benedict J. Fernandez.