National Gallery of Art

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Type: Government-owned
On the web: http://www.nga.gov

The National Gallery of Art, one of the world's pre-eminent art museums, owns more than 100,000 works of art dating from the Middle Ages to the present. Its collection of European and American art is comprised of works by some 10,000 artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso. The gallery is located on the National Mall in two buildings and an adjacent sculpture garden; its Web site offers virtual collection tours and in-depth study tours, as well as the ability to search the entire collection by artist, title, or style. The National Gallery of Art was established by Congress as an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in 1937; some 6 million people visit each year.

Officers:
Chairman: John Wilmerding
Director: Earl A. Powell III
President and Trustee: Victoria P. Sant

In December 1936, Andrew W. Mellon offered to build an art gallery for the United States in Washington, D.C., and to donate his superb art collection to the nation as the nucleus of its holdings. President Franklin D. Roosevelt recommended acceptance of this gift, described as the largest to the national government up to that time. On 24 March 1937, the Seventy-fifth Congress approved a joint resolution to establish the National Gallery of Art as an independent bureau of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Genesis of the National Gallery of Art

Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937), one of America's most successful financiers, came to Washington in 1921 as secretary of the treasury, a position he held until 1932. While in Washington, he came to believe that the United States capital needed a great art museum to serve Americans and visitors from abroad. He had begun to collect paintings early in life, yet he made his most important purchases after his plans for the national art gallery began to take shape. Most notably, in 1930 and 1931 Mellon purchased twenty-one paintings from the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad, USSR. He paid a total of more than $6.6 million for the works, including The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck, The Alba Madonna by Raphael, and A Polish Nobleman by Rembrandt. In 1930, he formed the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust to hold works of art and funds to build the new museum.

The institution that Mellon envisioned was to blend private generosity with public ownership and support. He laid out his proposals in two letters of 22 December 1936 and 31 December 1936 to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These letters became the basis for the museum's enabling legislation. Mellon believed the museum should belong to the people of the United States and that the entire public "should forever have access" to it. To accomplish this, it should be open to the public without charge and maintained by annual Congressional appropriation. At the same time, however, Mellon believed the museum, which would be built with private funds, should grow through gifts of works of art from private citizens. To encourage such gifts, Mellon stipulated that the museum not bear his name but be called "the national gallery of art or such other name as would identify it as a gallery of art of the National Government." To ensure its excellence, he also stipulated that all works of art in the museum be of the same high standard of quality as his own extraordinary collection.

Reflecting the combined public and private character of the museum, its enabling legislation specifies that the National Gallery of Art will be governed by a board of nine trustees consisting of four public officials: the Chief Justice of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and five private citizens.

Mellon selected architect John Russell Pope (1874– 1937), one of the best known architects of his generation, to design the museum's original West Building. The building Pope planned is classic in style, but thoroughly modern in its proportions and structure.

The location of the museum was of particular concern to Mellon. He believed that it should be close to other museums and accessible for visitors. After considering various alternatives, he selected a site on the north side of the national Mall, close to the foot of Capitol Hill near the intersection of Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues. Construction of the West Building began in June 1937. In August 1937, less than three months later, Andrew W. Mellon died. John Russell Pope died less than twenty-four hours later. The building was completed by Pope's associates, architects Otto Eggers and Daniel P. Higgins, under the direction of the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust.

Dedication

On the evening of 17 March 1941, the National Gallery of Art was dedicated before a gathering of roughly nine thousand invited guests. Andrew Mellon's son Paul presented the gift of the museum and the Mellon Collection to the nation on behalf of his father. In accepting the gift for the people of the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt concluded the ceremonies: "The dedication of this Gallery to a living past and to a greater and more richly living future, is the measure of the earnestness of our intention that the freedom of the human spirit shall go on."

In keeping with Andrew Mellon's vision for the National Gallery of Art, by the time of the museum's dedication, its collections were already being augmented by gifts from other donors. In July 1939, Samuel H. Kress (1863–1955), founder of the chain of five and dime stores, had offered the museum his large collection of mostly Italian Renaissance art. The great Widener Collection, including paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco, Degas, and others, also had been promised. Nonetheless, vast possibilities remained for further expansion.

The War Years

The museum opened on the eve of World War II. Less than ten months after its dedication, on 1 January 1942, the Gallery's most important works of art were moved for safekeeping to Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina. The museum remained open throughout the war and made every effort to make its rooms welcoming to men and women of the armed services. Following the example of the National Gallery in London, the museum began a series of Sunday afternoon concerts to entertain and inspire visitors. The concerts proved so successful that they were extended throughout the war and continue to the present.

The National Gallery of Art was instrumental in the establishment and work of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (the Roberts Commission). At the request of a number of organizations and individuals in the American cultural and intellectual community, on 8 December 1942 Chief Justice of the United States Harlan Stone, then Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, wrote President Roosevelt to ask him to set up a commission to help in protecting historic buildings and monuments, works of art, libraries, and archives in war areas. The Commission was formed as a result of this request. Its headquarters was in the National Gallery building.

In December 1945, shortly after the close of hostilities, the United States Army asked the National Gallery to accept temporary custody of 202 paintings from Berlin museums until conditions permitted their return to Germany.

The move proved highly controversial. Nonetheless, the works remained in secure storage at the museum until March 1948 when they were placed on public display for 40 days. Nearly a million people viewed the works during this brief period. Following the exhibition, paintings on panel were transferred to Germany and the remaining works toured to twelve other museums in the United States before being returned.

The Collections

During the war and afterward, the collections of the National Gallery of Art continued to grow. In 1943, Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891–1979) gave his collection of old master and modern prints and drawings. He continued to enlarge and enhance the collection until his death in 1979, when his gifts to the Gallery totaled some 22,000 prints and drawings. In 1943, Chester Dale (1883–1962), who eventually assembled one of the greatest collections of French impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, gave his first gift to the museum. When Dale died in 1962, he left the Gallery a bequest that included 252 masterworks of painting and sculpture.

Andrew Mellon's own children, Ailsa Mellon Bruce (1901–1969) and Paul Mellon (1907–1999) became the museum's most important supporters and benefactors. Throughout her life, Ailsa gave the museum works of art and funds that were used for the purchase of such masterpieces as Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de'Benci. Her brother Paul served as a trustee for more than 40 years before retiring in 1985. Paul Mellon also was an important collector, especially of British and French impressionist works. By the time of his death, he had given more than 1,000 works of art and generous endowments to the museum his father founded.

The East Building

By the time of its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1966, the National Gallery of Art had outgrown the original West Building. Additional space was needed for the display of the permanent collection, including large modern paintings and sculpture; for temporary exhibitions; and for new library and research facilities. Realizing these needs, in 1967 Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce offered funds for a second museum building. Architect Ieoh Ming Pei (1917–) was selected to design the new building, which was to be built on the trapezoidal site immediately to the east of the original building. The site had been set aside for the museum in its enabling legislation. Pei designed a dramatic modernist building, whose public spaces are centered around a grand atrium enclosed by a sculptural space frame. The ground breaking took place in 1971, and the East Building was dedicated and opened to the public in 1978.

Special Exhibitions

Even as the East Building was being designed and built, museums were becoming ever more popular destinations for the public and temporary exhibitions began to receive enormous public attention. At the National Gallery of Art, the exhibition Treasures of Tutankhamun attracted more than 800,000 visitors during the four months it was on view from November 1976 to March 1977. The Treasure Houses of Britain: 500 Years of Patronage and Collecting, the largest and most complicated exhibition undertaken by the Gallery, was on view from November 1985 to April 1986. It attracted nearly a million visitors who viewed some 700 works of art in 17 specially constructed period rooms.

The museum attracted national attention between November 1995 and February 1996 when an unprecedented Vermeer exhibition brought together 21 of the existing 35 works known to have been painted by the Dutch artist. The exhibition was closed for a total of 19 days during its showing due to two Federal budget-related shutdowns and a major blizzard.

In recent decades, the museum's collection also continued to grow. In 1991, to celebrate the museum's fiftieth anniversary, over 320 works of art were given or committed to the National Gallery by more than 150 donors.

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden

With the opening of the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in 1999, the museum added an area for the outdoor display of large sculpture to its campus. Designed by landscape architect Laurie D. Olin in cooperation with the National Gallery of Art, the garden was a gift of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. The garden's design is centered on a circular pool, which is transformed into an ice skating rink in winter.

Museum Programs

As the museum enters its seventh decade, it continues an active exhibition program, presenting approximately fifteen temporary shows annually. It also lends its own works of art widely to make the national collections available beyond Washington.

With its superb collection of works of art and outstanding library and research facilities, the National Gallery of Art has become an important center for the scholarly study of art. Its Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) was created in 1977 to promote research in the history of art, architecture, and urbanism. The Center supports fellowships and sponsors lectures and symposia on specialized topics intended to shape new directions in research.

Education programs are an important part of the museum's activities. Regular public lectures, tours, and film programs help interpret works of art for visitors. An extensive docents program provides guided tours and other activities for school groups. Films and videos are loaned to schools throughout the United States through an extension program. The MicroGallery, an interactive computer information center, is available to visitors on-site.

The National Gallery of Art web site (www.nga.gov) is among the most extensive art museum sites available on the Internet. It was among the first to provide access to complete, searchable information about the collection on-line. Extensive features and information relating to the museum's history, buildings, collections, and special exhibitions are included.

The museum operates an art conservation laboratory that monitors the condition of paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, and develops methodology to ensure the security of art during transportation. Since 1950, the museum has sponsored a program to conduct scientific research into conservation methods and artists' materials. Research analyzing the physical materials of works of art and the causes and prevention of deterioration continues to the present.

To date, there have been four directors of the National Gallery of Art, including David Finley (1939– 1956), John Walker (1956–1969), and J. Carter Brown (1969–1992). Earl A. Powell III became director in 1992.

Bibliography

Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.

Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991.

Mellon, Paul, with John Baskett. Reflections in a Silver Spoon: A Memoir. New York: William Morrow, 1992.

Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors: Confessions of an Art Collector. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.

———. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1984.

A noted art museum in Washington, D.C. The federal government pays for the operation of the buildings. The buildings themselves, and the works of art inside, were supplied by private donors.

This article is about the United States art museum. For other national art galleries, see National Gallery (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 38°53′29″N 77°01′12″W / 38.89147°N 77.02001°W / 38.89147; -77.02001

National Gallery of Art
Location in Washington, D.C.
Established	1937
Location	National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20565, National Mall, Washington, D.C.
Visitor figures	4.6 million (2009)[1] Ranked 2nd nationally Ranked 6th globally
Director	Earl A. Powell III
Public transit access	Metro: Judiciary Square (Red Line), Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter (Yellow/Green Lines), Smithsonian (Blue/Orange Lines) Metrobus: 4th Street and 7th Street NW DC Circulator: 4th Street and Madison Drive and 9th Street and Constitution Avenue NW Metrorail Interactive Map
Website	www.nga.gov

National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC. Open to the public, free of charge, the museum was established in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W. Mellon. Additionally, the core collection has major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Brown Widener, Joseph E. Widener and Chester Dale. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder.

The Gallery's campus includes the original neoclassical West Building designed by John Russell Pope, which is linked underground to the modern East Building designed by I. M. Pei, and the 6.1-acre (25,000 m²) Sculpture Garden. Temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art are presented frequently.

Contents 1 History 2 Buildings 3 Operations 4 Architecture 5 Collection 6 Highlights from the collection 7 Selected highlights from the American collection 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

History

Financier Andrew W. Mellon began gathering a private collection of old master paintings and sculptures during the First World War, but in the late 1920s he decided to direct his collecting efforts, secretly, towards the establishment of a new national gallery for the United States. This intent was confirmed in 1930 by the formation of the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, which was to be the legal owner of works intended for the gallery. In 1930-1931, the Trust made its first major acquisition, 21 paintings from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, including such masterpieces as Raphael's Alba Madonna and Jan van Eyck's The Annunciation. In 1929 Mellon had initiated contact with the recently-appointed Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Charles Greeley Abbot, and in 1931 he was appointed a Commissioner of the Institution's National Gallery of Art. When the director of the Gallery retired, Mellon requested Abbot not to appoint a successor, because he proposed to endow a new building, with funds for expansion of the collections, which would, in effect, be a rebirth of the Gallery. However, his trial for tax evasion, centering on the Trust and the Hermitage paintings, caused the plan to be modified, and in 1935 he announced, in the Washington Star, his intention to establish a new gallery for old masters, separate from the Smithsonian. When quizzed by Abbot, he explained that the project was now entirely in the hands of the Trust- also that their decisions were partly dependent on "the attitude of the Government towards the gift". Eventually, in January 1937, Mellon formally offered to create the new Gallery, and on his birthday, 24 March 1937, an Act of Congress accepted the collection and building funds (provided through the Trust), and approved the construction of a museum on the National Mall. The new gallery was to be effectively self-governing, not controlled by the Smithsonian, but took the old name "National Gallery of Art" while the Smithsonian's gallery would be renamed the "National Collection of Fine Art" (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum).^[2][3][4]

Designed by architect John Russell Pope (who would go on to design the Jefferson Memorial), the new structure was completed and accepted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the American people on March 17, 1941. Neither Mellon nor Pope lived to see the museum completed; both died in late August 1937, only two months after excavation had begun. At the time of its inception it was the largest marble structure in the world. The museum stands on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, most famous for being where 20th president James Garfield was shot in 1881 by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker.^[5]

National Gallery of Art logo.

As anticipated by Mellon, the creation of the National Gallery encouraged the donation of other substantial art collections by a number of private donors. Founding benefactors included such individuals as Paul Mellon, Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Chester Dale, Joseph Widener, Lessing J. Rosenwald and Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.

The Gallery's East Building was constructed in the 1970s on much of the remaining land left over from the original congressional joint resolution. It was funded by Mellon's children Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, the contemporary structure was completed in 1978, and was opened on June 1 of that year by President Jimmy Carter. The new building was built to house the Museum's collection of modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints, as well as study and research centers and offices. The design received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1981.

The final addition to the complex is the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Completed and opened to the public on May 23, 1999, the location provides an outdoor setting for exhibiting a number of pieces from the Museum's contemporary sculpture collection.

Buildings

"East Building" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Eastern Building.

The East Building

Exhibitions in the West Building

Exhibitions in the East Building

Two buildings comprise the museum: the West Building (1941) and the East Building (1978) linked by a spacious underground passage. The West Building, composed of pink Tennessee marble, was designed in 1937 by architect John Russell Pope in a neoclassical style (as is Pope's other notable Washington, D.C. building, the Jefferson Memorial). Designed in the form of an elongated H, the building is centered on a domed rotunda modeled on the interior of the Pantheon in Rome. Extending east and west from the rotunda, a pair of high, skylit sculpture halls provide its main circulation spine. Bright garden courts provide a counterpoint to the long main axis of the building.

The West Building has an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures by European masters from the medieval period through the late 19th century, as well as pre-20th century works by American artists. Highlights of the collection include many paintings by Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Leonardo da Vinci.

In contrast, the design of the East Building by architect I. M. Pei is rigorously geometrical, dividing the trapezoidal shape of the site into two triangles: one isosceles and the other a smaller right triangle. The space defined by the isosceles triangle came to house the museum's public functions. That outlined by the right triangle became the study center. The triangles in turn became the building's organized motif, echoed and repeated in every dimension. The building's most dramatic feature is its high atrium designed as an open interior court, it is enclosed by a sculptural space frame spanning 16,000 square feet (1,500 m²). The atrium is centered on the same axis that forms the circulation spine for the West Building and constructed in the same Tennessee marble.^[6] Starting in 2005, the joints attaching the marble panels to the walls began to show signs of strain, creating a risk of panels falling off the building onto the public below. In 2008 officials decided that it would be necessary to remove and reinstall all the panels. The project is scheduled for completion in 2013.^[7]

The East Building focuses on modern and contemporary art, with a collection including works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Alexander Calder. The East Building also contains the main offices of the NGA and a large research facility, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA).

The two buildings are connected by a walkway beneath 4th street, called "the Concourse" on the museum's map. In 2008, the National Gallery of Art commissioned American artist Leo Villareal to transform the Concourse into an artistic installation. Today, Multiverse is the largest and most complex light sculpture by Villareal featuring approximately 41,000 computer-programmed LED nodes that run through channels along the entire 200-foot (61 m)-long space.^[8] The concourse also includes the food court and a gift shop.

The final element of the National Gallery of Art complex, the Sculpture Garden was completed in 1999 after more than 30 years of planning. To the west of the West Building, across Seventh Street, the 6.1 acres (25,000 m²) Sculpture Garden was designed by landscape architect Laurie Olin as an outdoor gallery for monumental modern sculpture and includes plantings of native American species of canopy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, ground covers, and perennials. A circular reflecting pool and fountain form the center of its design, complemented by great arching pathways of granite and crushed stone. (The pool is transformed into an ice-skating rink during the winter) The exhibited sculptures in the surrounding landscaped area include pieces by Roy Lichtenstein, Sol LeWitt, Roxy Paine, Joan Miró, Louise Bourgeois, and Hector Guimard.^[9]

Operations

The National Gallery of Art is supported through a private-public partnership. The United States federal government provides funds, through annual appropriations, to support the museum's operations and maintenance. All artwork, as well as special programs, are provided through private donations and funds. The museum is not part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Noted directors of the National Gallery have included David E. Finley, Jr., John Walker and J. Carter Brown. Earl A. 'Rusty' Powell III is the current director.

Entry to both buildings of the National Gallery of Art is free of charge. From Monday through Saturday, the museum is open from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; it is open from 11 – 6 p.m. on Sundays. It is closed on December 25 and January 1.

Architecture

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  Detail of a corner of the East Building

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  Interior view of the East Building

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  The West building of the National Gallery of Art, with the East Building and the United States Capitol visible behind and to the left

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  School children entering the Madison Drive NW entrance of the West building

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  The West Building of the National Gallery of Art soon after construction

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  Satellite image of National Gallery of Art grounds and surrounding streets

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  Centerpiece on the main floor of the West Building

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  Oculus of the West Building dome

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  Gift shop and waterfall cascade in the concourse

Collection

The National Gallery of Art has one of the finest art collections in the world. It was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of financier, public servant, and art collector Andrew W. Mellon in 1937. European and American paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts are displayed in the collection galleries and Sculpture Garden. The permanent collection of paintings spans from the Middle Ages to the present day. The strongest collection is the Italian Renaissance collection, which includes two panels from Duccio's Maesta, the great tondo of the Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, a Botticelli on the same subject, Giorgione's Allendale Nativity, Giovanni Bellini's The Feast of the Gods, the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas, Ginevra de' Benci; and significant groups of works by Titian and Raphael. However, the other European collections include examples of the work of many of the great masters of western painting, including an important version of Saint Martin and the Beggar, by El Greco, and works by Matthias Grünewald, Cranach the Elder, Rogier Van der Weyden, Albrecht Dürer, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Francisco Goya, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and Eugène Delacroix, among others. The collection of sculpture and decorative arts is admittedly not quite as rich as this, but includes such works as the Chalice of Abbot Suger of St-Denis and a superb collection of work by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas. Other highlights of the permanent collection include the second of the two original sets of Thomas Cole's famous series of paintings titled The Voyage of Life, (the first set is at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York) and the original version of Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley (two other versions are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Detroit Institute of Arts).

Highlights from the collection

El Greco, Saint Martin and the Beggar, c. 1597-1599 ^[10]

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  Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460

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  Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1474

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  Giorgione, Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1500

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  Raphael, Cowper Madonna, 1504–5

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  Titian, Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman, c. 1507

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  Giovanni Bellini and Titian, The Feast of the Gods, c. 1514

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  El Greco, Laocoön, 1604–16

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  Nicolas Poussin, The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1626

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  Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar, 1659

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  Johannes Vermeer, A Lady Writing a Letter, 1665-1666

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  Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Marcotte d'Argenteuil, 1810

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  Jacques Louis David, Napoleon in His Study, 1812

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  Eugène Delacroix, Columbus and His Son at La Rábida, 1838

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  Édouard Manet, Dead Matador, 1864–1865

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  Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil, 1880

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  Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait, August 1889

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  Paul Gauguin, Self-portrait, 1889

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  Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888–1890

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  Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905

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  Pablo Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905

Selected highlights from the American collection

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1862

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  John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, (original version), 1778

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  Gilbert Stuart, The Skater, 1782

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  Edward Savage, The Washington Family 1789-96

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  Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom, c. 1834

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  Thomas Cole, A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch), 1839

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  George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley, 1855

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  Thomas Eakins, The Biglin Brothers Racing, 1873

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  Winslow Homer, Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873–76

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  Frederic Edwin Church, Morning in The Tropics, (1877)

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  Mary Cassatt, The Loge, 1882

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  John Singer Sargent, Street in Venice, 1889

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  Albert Pinkham Ryder, Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens, 1888-1891

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  William Merritt Chase, A Friendly Call, 1895

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  Robert Henri, Snow in New York, 1902

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  George Bellows, New York, 1911

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  Childe Hassam, Allies Day, May 1917, 1917

See also

• Collections of the National Gallery of Art
• Micro Gallery, installed in 1995.
• Head of a Catalan Peasant and The Farm, both made by Joan Miró and preserved at the NGA.
• The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole

References

1. ^ "Exhibition and museum attendance figures 2009". London: The Art Newspaper. April 2010. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/attfig/attfig09.pdf. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
2. ^ Fink, Lois Marie "A History of the Smithsonian American Art Museum", University of Massachusetts Press (2007) ISBN 9781558496163, chapter 3
3. ^ National Gallery of Art website: general introduction
4. ^ National Gallery of Art website: chronology
5. ^ "National Gallery of Art, West Building". American Architecture. http://www.american-architecture.info/USA/USA-Washington/DC-010.htm. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
6. ^ NGA.gov
7. ^ Leigh, Catesby (December 8, 2009). "An Ultramodern Building Shows Signs of Age". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574581890709007568.html. 
8. ^ NGA.gov
9. ^ NGA.gov
10. ^ Provenance

Further reading

• David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life, Knopf, 2006, ISBN 0-679-45032-7
• "The National Gallery of Art, Washington", special number of Connaissance des Arts, Société Français de Promotion Artistique (2000) ISSN 1242-9198

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: National Gallery of Art

• Official Web site
• Current Exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art
• Online Gallery of Artwork in the NGA
• Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts

Coordinates: 38°53′29″N 77°01′12″W / 38.89147°N 77.02001°W / 38.89147; -77.02001

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