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to be placed permanently with the famous canvasses of the Louvre, it is transferred to that great collection. It is significant that Mr. Ranger fixed this ten year period from the death of the artist as the time when the option of the National Gallery to take a picture should become effective.

Let us then, examine Mr. Ranger's plan, sentence by sentence, and see whether the words have any meaning except along these lines.

In the first place, Mr. Ranger gave his entire estate; he withheld nothing. He gave it to the National Academy of Design, founded in 1825, one of the leading art institutions in the country. Mr. Ranger was a member of the National Academy of Design and had intimate knowledge of its operations. He knew that it was composed of and managed by artists, who presumably would be the best judges of the merits of any painting. He knew that it held frequent public exhibitions, at which carefully selected works of art from all over the country were displayed, and that these exhibitions were attended by the public and widely reviewed in the public press and in art journals. He was aware that the Council of the Academy were chosen by its large membership consisting of artists only, and that the Academy was likely to exist permanently; so that, so far as one can judge, in directing that the Council of the Academy should select the pictures to be purchased, he was providing for all time that experts should carry out the provisions of his will. This is 

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the first test to which these pictures to be selected are to be submitted.

Next, the entire income of the bequest is "to be spent by the Council of said Academy in purchasing paintings produced by American artists, at least two-thirds (2/3) of such income to be spent in the purchase of works by artists who are forty-five years of age and over, it remaining optional with the Council to spend the remaining one-third (1/3), or any part thereof, in the purchase of works by younger artists".

Bearing in mind always that Mr. Ranger's purpose was to secure the finest American pictures, those which would pass the successive tests which his will provides, it is obvious why he directed that two-thirds of the purchases should be made of works by artists forty-five years of age and over. By the time an artist reaches the age of forty-five years, he has "arrived", if he is ever going to arrive, and is turning out his best work. His reputation is established and his pictures command the attention and study of other artists, of art lovers and of critics. His youthful vagaries, if any, have been discarded and, if he is ever to take his place by the side of such men as Inness, Winslow Homer, Sargent and other great American artists, the work that he is producing, after long years of testing, is likely to be his best. Therefore Mr. Ranger provided that at least two-thirds of the entire income should be expended to purchase works of artists who had reached and passed that age, no limit being placed on

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