BRIEF GUIDE
National Gallery of Art
History and Description
The National Gallery of Art belongs to all the people of the United States of America. Established by a joint resolution of Congress, it is supported by public appropriation. The Board of Trustees consists of four public servants, ex officio, and five private citizens. Chairman of the Board is the Chief Justice of the United States. Under the policies set by the Board, the Gallery assembles and maintains a collection of paintings, sculpture, and the graphic arts, representative of the best in the artistic heritage of America and Europe. Supported in its daily operations by Federal funds, the Gallery is entirely dependent on the generosity of private citizens for the works of art in its collections.
Funds for the construction of the original building were provided by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. During the 1920s, Mr. Mellon began to collect with the intention of forming a national gallery of art in Washington. His collection was given to the nation in 1937, the year of his death. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed Gallery on behalf of the people of the United States of America.
Architect for the National Gallery was John Russell Pope, who also designed the Jefferson Memorial and other outstanding public buildings in Washington. The building is one of the largest marble structures in the world, measuring 780 feet in length and containing more than 500,000 square feet of interior floor space. The exterior is of rose-white Tennessee marble. The columns in the Rotunda were quarried in Tuscany, Italy. Green marble from Vermont and gray marble from Tennessee were used for the floor of the Rotunda. The interior walls are of Alabama Rockwood stone, Indiana limestone, and Italian travertine. The entire building is air-conditioned and humidity-controlled throughout the year to maintain the optimum atmospheric conditions for the works of art it contains.
The original building is no longer large enough to accommodate the Gallery’s acquisitions and interpretive art programs. A second building, presently under construction, will house new exhibition galleries and a Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. The two buildings will be connected by a plaza above ground and by a concourse of public service areas, including a new café/buffet, below. The new construction has been made possible by generous gifts from Mr. Paul Mellon, the late Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
THE COLLECTIONS
| [3] | Florentine and Central Italian Art |
| [6] | Venetian and North Italian Art |
| [8] | Italian Art of the 17th and 18th Centuries |
| [10] | Flemish and German Art |
| [13] | Dutch Art |
| [15] | Spanish Art |
| [16] | French Art of the 17th, 18th, and Early 19th Centuries |
| [19] | British Art |
| [21] | American Art |
| [24] | French Art of the 19th Century |
| [28] | 20th-Century Art |
| [30] | Decorative Arts |
| [30] | Prints and Drawings |
| [31] | Index of American Design |
About the Works of Art Listed in this Brochure
Owing to changes in installation, certain works of art listed in this brochure may not always be on view. For up-to-date information, please inquire at the information desks.