National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., is one of the world’s leading art museums. Its collections begin with works from the 1100’s and represent some of the Western world’s greatest achievements in painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts. The collections are especially rich in European Old Master paintings and American, British, French, Italian, and Spanish paintings of the 1700’s and 1800’s. The museum also displays sculptures from the late 1100’s to the present, medals and bronzes from the early 1400’s to the early 1900’s, and porcelain from China. In addition, it owns a large collection of works of graphic art from the 1100’s to the present.
The National Gallery of Art was established in 1937, when American financier Andrew W. Mellon gave most of his magnificent art collection to the government. Mellon also provided money to construct the museum’s original building, now called the West Building. The marble neoclassical structure was designed by American architect John Russell Pope. It opened in 1941. The East Building, designed by American architect I. M. Pei, was completed in 1978. It houses the museum’s growing collection of art from the 1900’s. It also includes offices, a library, space for temporary exhibitions, a sculpture garden, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.
All the works in the gallery have been donated or bought with private funds. Major donations include the collections of Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Joseph Widener, Chester Dale, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Paul Mellon, and the Mark Rothko Foundation. In 2018, the National Gallery acquired a large portion of the art collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, a leading Washington, D.C., museum that had closed.
The National Gallery of Art is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, but it is governed by its own board of trustees. The museum receives operating funds from Congress.
