Tour: Founding Benefactors of the National Gallery of Art

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Overview

These portraits depict nine individuals, representing five families, whose generous contributions to the National Gallery of Art earned them the title of Founding Benefactors. Each of these founders presented a private collection that could have constituted a museum in itself. Their combined donations established a precedent for giving to the nation that continues today -- more than a half-century after the Gallery opened in 1941. (continue)

Captions

1.
1	Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley, Andrew W. Mellon, 1933
2	Leopold Seyffert, Samuel Henry Kress, 1953
3	Leopold Seyffert, Rush Harrison Kress, 1953
4	John Singer Sargent, Peter A. B. Widener, 1902
5	Augustus John, Joseph E. Widener, 1921
6	Gardner Cox, Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1955
2.
7	George Bellows, Chester Dale, 1922
8	Philip Alexius de Laszlo, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, 1926
9	William Franklin Draper, Paul Mellon, 1974