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 preeminent 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 National Gallery of the United States, for other National Galleries, see National Gallery.

National Gallery of Art
Established	1937
Location	401 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20565 National Mall, Washington D.C.
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 7th Street and Constitution Avenue NW Metrorail Interactive Map
Website	www.nga.gov

The National Gallery of Art is a national art museum, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum was established in 1938 by the United States Congress, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W. Mellon plus major art works donated by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Italian art contributions from Samuel Henry Kress, and more than 2,000 sculptures, paintings, pieces of decorative art, and porcelains from Joseph E. Widener. As a result of bequests such as these, the National Gallery today houses one of the finest collections of Western painting and sculpture in the world.

Contents 1 History 2 Buildings 3 Collection 4 Operations 5 Gallery 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

History

Beginning in the 1920s, financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon began gathering a collection of old master paintings and sculptures, legally owned by the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust with the intent that they should become part of a public collection after his death. In 1929 he 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, 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". Following his death in 1937, Congress in a joint resolution accepted Mellon's 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).^[1][2]

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. At the time of its inception it was the largest marble structure in the world. The museum stands on the former site of the Sixth Street railway station, most famous for being where 20th president James Garfield was shot in 1881 by a disgruntled office seeker.

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

The East Building

Oculus of the West Building dome

The museum comprises two buildings, the West Building (1941) and the East Building (1978), which are linked by a spacious underground passage. The West Building, composed of pink Tennessee marble, was designed in 1937 by architect John Russell Pope. Its neoclassical style, with a gigantic columned portico and a massive dome, are reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome (as is Pope's other notable Washington, D.C. building, the Jefferson Memorial). To this central pavillion are attached large, symmetrical east and west wings. In contrast, the design of the East Building by architect I.M. Pei is sharply geometrical, fragmented or faceted compared to the West Building's cool classicism; from above, the East Building appears as if made of interlocking prisms.

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.

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 the 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. The concourse also includes the food court and a gift shop.

To the west of the West Building, across Seventh Street, is the Sculpture Garden. The 6.1 acres (25,000 m²) of the garden are centered on a large circular fountain (an ice rink in the winter) surrounded by stone seating. The exhibited sculptures in the surrounding landscaped area include pieces by Joan Miró, Louise Bourgeois, and Hector Guimard.

Collection

Exhibitions in the West Building

Exhibitions in the East Building

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, Bellini's Feast of the Gods, the only Leonardo painting in the Americas, 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 Grünewald, Cranach the Elder, Van der Weyden, Durer, Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya, Ingres, and 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 Rodin and Degas.

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 formally part of the Smithsonian Institution, but it is one of the more than 90 cultural institutions in the United States that are Smithsonian affiliate museums.

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.

Gallery

Detail of a corner of the East Building	Interior view of the East Building	The West building of the National Gallery of Art, with the East Building and the United States Capitol visible behind and to the left	The West Building of the National Gallery of Art soon after construction
Satellite image of National Gallery of Art grounds and surrounding streets	Centerpiece on the main floor of the West Building	Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci, one of the best-known pieces in the collection	Gift shop and waterfall cascade in the concourse

See also

• Micro Gallery, installed in 1995.

References

1. ^ Fink, Lois Marie "A History of the Smithsonian American Art Museum", University of Massachusetts Press (2007) ISBN 9781558496163, chapter 3
2. ^ National Gallery of Art website

Further reading

• David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life, Knopf, 2006, ISBN 0-679-45032-7

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

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

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