Martin Davies

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Sir Martin Davies, KB, CBE, DLitt, FBA, FSA (22 March 1908 – 7 March 1978) was a British museum director and civil servant. He first joined the staff of the National Gallery, the institution to which he was to devote his career, as an attaché in 1930. After being made Assistant Keeper in 1932 he called for improved research on the paintings in the collection, which would eventually come to fruition in the series of catalogues inaugurated by Davies and still being produced by the Gallery today.

His scholarly work was interrupted from 1938 to 1941 by the need to find a safe home for the National Gallery's paintings at the onset of the Second World War, away from the aerial bombardment of London. After the artworks were safely transferred to Manod Quarry near Ffestiniog, North Wales, Davies was able to make his research in total seclusion. The catalogues for the Netherlandish, French, and British schools of painting were published from 1945 to 1946.

Davies rose steadily in the ranks at the National Gallery until in 1968 he was appointed Director. The public campaign in 1971 to buy Titian's late masterpiece The Death of Actaeon [1] was one of the great successes of his directorship. Davies's stated aim as director was to make the National Gallery the main public purchaser of artistic masterpieces, in which he succeeded, acquiring notable works by Caravaggio (Salome receiving the Head of Saint John the Baptist [2]), Tiepolo (An Allegory with Venus and Time [3]) and Henri Rousseau (Tiger in a Tropical Storm [4]).

He was knighted in 1972 and died several weeks before his 70th birthday in 1978.

Preceded by Sir Philip Hendy

Director of the National Gallery 1968–1973

Succeeded by Sir Michael Levey