Small but perfectly formed

Visiting the Newseum on a particularly news-worthy day has not been the only positive outcome of my #shutdown experience in Washington. Readers of this blog will have spotted that I am a big fan of personal collections and house museums, so won't be surprised that I headed happily for two stellar Washington examples: The Phillips Collection and Corcoran Gallery. Visiting both in quick succession got me thinking about the power of small collections, especially as both reminded me of the Courtauld, a London favourite.

Both the Phillips and Corcoran were put together mostly by one dedicated collector - Messrs Duncan Phillips and William Wilson Corcoran unsurprisingly - although the Corcoran also benefited from the later donation of the William A. Clark collection. The Phillips is still partly housed in the original Phillips' house near DuPont Circle, where you get a striking mix of the dark-panelled Georgian Revival house and the bright, airy modernist wing complete with sunny sculpture courtyard. The Corcoran moved from its original red-brick home (now the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery) to an imposing classical building for both galleries and school, but has been there since the 1890s. Both collections feel very at home in their spaces. Incidentally, both also have excellent shops and cafés (you've heard before how important I think facilities are).

I was reminded of the Courtauld because of the Phillips' current display History in the Making on how Phillips' whole attitude to art was changed by the legendary New York Armory show of modern art in 1913, and how he in turn influenced others. The Courtauld often shapes its shows around Samuel Courtauld's collecting and influence on the art world. Seeing this in the context of American history of art, about which I know much less, I realised how effective such small collections, with comparatively few but spectacular pieces, are at telling such stories and making clear their significance in the history of art and collecting. Similarly the Corcoran's display American Journeys - Visions of Place uses the gallery's collection of pre-1945 American paintings to tell the story of national art in that period in relationship to the European. Again, spectacular works were used perfectly to tell me about the history of the Corcoran and of American art.

It's the personal touch of the collector, his or her story, and often house, that allows these collections to teach the visitor a lot at the same time as creating a sense of people and place. Their narratives are so successful because they touch at the same time on the large and the small. Who needs national museums anyway?!