Highlights of the National Gallery of Art's History

This timeline is an introduction to the rich history of the National Gallery as a preeminent cultural institution. Selected key events from the museum’s past are supplemented with archival images, audio recordings, and other documentary material from the holdings of the National Gallery of Art Archives.

Scroll down to view events by decade.

For more information about the history of the National Gallery, please contact the National Gallery Archives at [email protected].

1920s

1928

Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon first writes of his interest in establishing a national art museum in the nation’s capital.

Andrew W. Mellon in his apartment at 1785 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, with *A View on a High Road* by Meindert Hobbema hanging above the fireplace mantel. National Gallery of Art Archives.

1930s

1931

Andrew W. Mellon completes his purchase of 21 masterpieces from the Hermitage Museum, including Raphael’s Alba Madonna, Van Eyck’s The Annunciation, and Botticelli’s The Adoration of the Magi.

A woman and two children, all with pale skin and flushed cheeks, sit together in a landscape in this round painting. The woman takes up most of the composition as she sits with her right leg, to our left, tucked under her body. Her other leg, on our right, is bent so the foot rests on the ground, and that knee angles up and out to the side. She wears a rose-pink dress under a topaz-blue robe, and a finger between the pages of a closed book holds her place. Her brown hair is twisted away from her face. She has delicate features and her pink lips are closed. She looks and leans to our left around a nude young boy who half-sits and half-stands against her bent leg. The boy has blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. The boy reaches his right hand, on our left, to grasp the tall, thin cross held by the second young boy, who sits on the ground next to the pair. This second boy has darker brown hair and wears a garment resembling animal fur. The boy kneels facing the woman and looks up at her and the blond boy. The trio sits on a flat, grassy area in front of a body of water painted light turquoise. Mountains in the deep distance are pale azure blue beneath a nearly clear blue sky. — Raphael, The Alba Madonna, c. 1510, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.24

1935

Andrew W. Mellon commissions architect John Russell Pope to make the first sketches for the National Gallery of Art at a site on the National Mall in Washington.

1936

On December 22, Andrew W. Mellon writes to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, formally offering to donate his art collection and to build the National Gallery of Art.

1937

On March 24, Congress passes legislation to establish the National Gallery of Art.

In August, Andrew W. Mellon and John Russell Pope die within 24 hours of each other, shortly after construction for the new museum begins (left).

West Building original construction progress, July 1937. Commercial Photo Co. Gift of Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art Archives.

1939

Samuel H. Kress’s Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City with Pesellino’s The Crucifixion with Saint Jerome and Saint Francis, Domenico Veneziano’s Madonna and Child, Giovanni Bellini’s Saint Jerome Reading, and other works of art in view, late 1930s. National Gallery of Art Archives.

Samuel H. Kress and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation donate a collection of Italian paintings and sculpture, the first major addition to the National Gallery’s collection (above).

The National Gallery loans three paintings from the Mellon collection to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco and three to the New York World’s Fair, the first loans made by the new museum (below).

Shown from the waist up, an older man with pale, peachy skin looks out at us with deep-set, gray eyes under a furrowed brow, in front of a sable-brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and his face turns to us. He has a faintly pink, bulbous nose, and his slightly sunken cheeks are shaded with gray. His peach-colored lips are framed with a wispy, gray mustache and goatee. Bronze-orange lines are incised within the battleship gray of his hair to create soft curls under his brown beret, which has gold trim around the base. The dark collar of his fawn-brown coat is turned up so his neck is covered. He is lit from the upper left, so his body and the right side of the painting are deeply shadowed. On our left, the canvas is painted with blended strokes of tawny and dark brown. His dark coat blends into the background, and his folded hands are in shadow in the lower left corner. The brushstrokes are visible in some areas, especially in the man’s face. The painting is signed and dated next to his shoulder, to our left, “Rembrandt f. 1659.” — Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1659, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.72

1940s

1940

Construction of the museum's building is completed in December and installation of works of art begins.

1941

The National Gallery of Art is dedicated on March 17 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at evening ceremonies attended by 8,822 guests (above and below). The museum opens to the public the next day.

Listen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech at the National Gallery of Art dedication ceremony, March 17, 1941 (above).

The National Gallery's first special exhibition, Two Hundred American Watercolors, opens on the ground floor on May 15.

Nightly black-outs of the National Gallery building for air-raid protection begin on December 8.

1942

A windmill stands on a promontory cutting into a waterway under a partially stormy sky in this square landcape painting. The promontory and mill are painted in muted tones of brown and rust orange, while steel-gray and white clouds encircle a topaz-blue sky above. The promontory juts into the scene from our left, and the front of the windmill is angled to our right so its golden-tan sails catch the light. Silvery water winds around the base of the promontory and extends to a dark green, shadowy bank on the far side. A boat in the lower right corner of the composition is rowed by a man wearing a red jacket and cap. A path runs to the water’s edge from the left edge of the painting, in front of the promontory’s retaining wall, which is shored up with stones or panels. A person in dark clothing close to the windmill seems to rest their arms on the retaining wall, their back to us. Closer to us, a woman holds a child’s hand as they walk down the path to the bank. A bearded man with tattered brown clothes and bare feet stands leaning against the wall near a woman wearing burnt-orange garment. She sits or kneels at the water’s edge in front of a basket of clothes and holds up a brown cloth. The olive-green forms of the trees on the far bank are reflected in the water, and closer inspection reveals two cows near the water there. Charcoal-gray clouds pile up along the left of the painting and span the top edge. There is a brilliant blue sky beyond and a screen of white clouds near the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the canvas. — Rembrandt van Rijn, The Mill, 1645/1648, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.62

Joseph Widener donates the Widener collection of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, jewels, furniture, ceramics, and other art objects in memory of his father, Peter A. B. Widener.

US servicemen in the Founders Room, c. 1942. National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives.

The National Gallery’s most valuable paintings and sculpture are evacuated to Biltmore House in North Carolina for wartime protection.

The National Gallery remains open on Sunday evenings for the "benefit of men in the armed forces and war workers in the city." Sunday evening orchestra concerts are presented through the generosity of Chester Dale (below).

1943

Lessing J. Rosenwald. National Gallery of Art Archives.

Lessing J. Rosenwald (above) donates a collection of prints and drawings, his first major gift to the museum. His gifts eventually total over 22,000 prints and drawings.

The American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, known as the Roberts Commission, is organized with its headquarters in the museum.

The National Gallery accepts the Index of American Design, a collection of more than 18,000 drawings and watercolors documenting early American design and craftsmanship, and related research materials, from the federal Works Progress Administration.

Lucille Chabot, Gabriel Weather Vane, c. 1939, watercolor and gouache over graphite on wove paper, Index of American Design, 1943.8.9505

View Selected Works from the Index of American Design.

1944

The first annual American Music Festival is held on Sunday evenings during March and April in the East Garden Court.

Works of art are returned to the National Gallery from wartime storage at Biltmore House (below).

Trucks at the Biltmore House preparing to return works of art to the National Gallery of Art after wartime storage, October 1944. National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives.

1946

In honor of the museum’s fifth anniversary, six new galleries are completed for the special opening exhibition of the Kress collection.

West Building Main Floor gallery M-24. National Gallery of Art Archives.

1947

The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust gives the Gallery 113 portraits from the Clarke collection, with the provision that some works may be transferred to a national portrait gallery, should one be established.

1948

Nearly one million people see 202 paintings from Berlin Museums during a 40-day exhibition at the National Gallery of Art.

1949

A key set of about 1,500 photographic prints by Alfred Stieglitz is given to the National Gallery by Georgia O’Keeffe, executor of the Stieglitz estate.

Alfred Stieglitz, The City of Ambitions, 1910, printed in or before 1913, photogravure on beige thin slightly textured laid Japanese paper, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.3.308

1950s

1950

Twelve new exhibition galleries open on the east side of the National Gallery’s Main Floor.

West Building, Main Floor gallery M-60. National Gallery of Art Archives.

1952

The first A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts are given by Jacques Maritain on the subject of "Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry."

1953

Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch give 142 paintings from their collection of early American art, the first of several major gifts to the National Gallery.

1956

In celebration of its 15th anniversary, a special night opening is held for the Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1951-1956.

Rush H. Kress (left), Jocelyn Kress, and National Gallery of Art director David Finley at the opening of the Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1951–1956 (March 18–October 30, 1956). National Gallery of Art Archives.

1958

The innovative LecTour radio guide system is installed in several main floor galleries.

Two visitors with the LecTour self-guided audio tour system in front of Winslow Homer’s Right and Left. National Gallery of Art Archives.

1960s

1962

Chester Dale dies, bequeathing his collection of modern French and American paintings to the National Gallery of Art.

Chester Dale in the National Gallery of Art West Garden Court, c. 1943. National Gallery of Art Archives.

1963

The Mona Lisa, lent by the Government of the French Republic to President Kennedy and the people of the United States, is viewed by more than a half million visitors in its 26-day display at the National Gallery.

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Gallery Archives.

1966

In honor of the museum’s 25th anniversary, the National Gallery exhibits 19th- and 20th-century French paintings from the collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce.

National Gallery of Art director John Walker (left), First Lady Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon at the opening reception for the exhibition French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce (March 18–May 1, 1966). National Gallery of Art Archives.

1967

Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de'Benci is acquired through the generosity of the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund (left).

Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce donate funds for the new East Building.

This square portrait shows the head and shoulders of a young woman in front of a spiky bush that fills much of the background except for a landscape view that extends into the deep distance to our right. The woman's body is angled to our right but her face turns to us. She has chalk-white, smooth skin with heavily lidded, light brown eyes, and her pale pink lips are closed. Pale blush highlights her cheeks, and she looks either at us or very slightly away from our eyes. Her brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back, but tight, lively curls frame her face. Her hair turns gold where the light shines on it. She wears a brown dress, trimmed along the square neckline with gold. The front of the bodice is tied with a blue ribbon, and the lacing holes are also edged with gold. A sheer white veil covers her chest and is pinned at the center with a small gold ball. The bush fills the space around her head with copper-brown, spiky leaves. A river winds between trees and rolling hills in the distance to our right. Trees and a town along the horizon, which comes about halfway up the painting, is pale blue under an ice-blue sky. — Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci [obverse], c. 1474/1478, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.6.1.a

1968

I. M. Pei & Partners begin schematic drawings for the East Building, which includes a new research center for advanced study in the visual arts.

1970s

1971

Ground-breaking ceremonies are held for the East Building on May 6.

Left to right: Chief Justice and Gallery chairman Warren Burger, Gallery president Paul Mellon, and J. Slater Davidson Jr., president of Chas. H. Tompkins Company, the general contractor, at the East Building ground-breaking ceremony, May 6, 1971. National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives.

1973

French impressionist paintings from the Hermitage and Pushkin Museums are exhibited, the first Western paintings lent to the United States by the Soviet Union.

1974

Paul Mellon (left), First Lady Betty Ford, and Chinese diplomat Liu Yang-Chiao at the opening reception for The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People’s Republic of China (December 13, 1974–March 30, 1975). National Gallery of Art Archives.

The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of The People's Republic of China opens and is seen by nearly 700,000 people.

1975

The Collectors Committee is established at the Gallery and adopts a three-year program to commission large-scale works of art for the new East Building.

Architect I. M. Pei (left) and Gallery director J. Carter Brown (right) with sculptor Henry Moore for the installation of Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece, 1978. National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives.

1976

The exhibition Treasures of Tutankhamun begins its US tour at the National Gallery, where it is viewed by more than 835,000 visitors.

Open the slideshow, Treasures of Tutankhamun (November 17, 1976–March 15, 1977).

1977

The untitled mobile by Alexander Calder, commissioned for the East Building, is installed in the atrium of the new building nearly a year after the artist's death.

Six black, wedgelike shapes, one dark blue arrowhead shape, and six red triangular shapes with rounded corners are connected with thin rods to form this abstract sculpture. In this photograph, we look up at the piece to where it hangs from the glass ceiling of a light-filled interior space with marble walls. The paddle-like shapes are attached to the end of the curved rods, which are linked together like branches. In our view, the black arm curves up across the top of the picture and the red arm curves down into the lower right corner, and to our left. Each red paddle is smaller as they move from the central armature to the end of the branch. — Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1976, aluminum and steel, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1977.76.1

1978

The East Building is dedicated by President Jimmy Carter and opens to the public on June 1. Attendance reaches one million in less than two months.

President Jimmy Carter (left), the Right Reverend John T. Walker, and National Gallery benefactor Paul Mellon at the East Building dedication ceremony, June 1, 1978. National Gallery of Art Archives.

Listen to President Jimmy Carter's speech at the dedication of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, June 1, 1978.

1980s

1983

New ground floor galleries in the West Building open to the public.

1984

The Mark Rothko Foundation gives the artist’s core collection and related research materials to the National Gallery, which becomes the primary repository and study center for Rothko’s works of art (below).

The West Building oculus project is completed, allowing the Rotunda to be seen from the Constitution Avenue lobby below.

A long, butter-yellow rectangle is stacked over a papaya-orange square, and both float against a honey-yellow field in this abstract, vertical painting. The honey-yellow background creates a narrow border around and between the shapes. The brushstrokes throughout have soft, indistinct edges, which creates a blurred effect. At the top, the butter-yellow rectangle extends nearly the width of the painting, and takes up the top third of the composition. A band of canary yellow floats at the center within this rectangle. A tall, narrow band of pale petal pink spans the height of the composition to our left alongside both shapes. The orange square takes up almost all of the bottom two-thirds of the painting. A few vertical lines in cream white are painted within the square, near the left edge. A band of the same papaya-orange is bordered by a slightly darker shade to create a long, narrow rectangle about halfway down the square. — Mark Rothko, No. 8, 1949, oil and mixed media on canvas, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.147

1985

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon donate nearly 200 works of art including 17 wax sculptures by Edgar Degas.

The exhibition Treasure Houses of Britain: 500 Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting opens and is seen by nearly one million visitors by the close of the exhibition (below).

Open the slideshow, The Treasure Houses of Britain: 500 Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting (November 3, 1985–April 13, 1986).

1986

The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886 commemorates the centennial of the last exhibition held by the impressionist painters.

1988

The 10th anniversary of the opening of the East Building is celebrated with an expanded reinstallation of the National Gallery’s 20th-century collection.

1990s

1990

The masterpiece The Feast of the Gods by Giovanni Bellini and Titian is returned to public view after extensive conservation.

Six women, eight men, two satyrs, and one child gather in pairs and trios in a loose row that spans the width of this nearly square painting. They are set within a landscape with craggy rocks, cliffs, and trees. Most of the people face us, and the men, women, and child have pale skin. The two satyrs have men’s torsos and furry goat’s legs, and they have darker, olive complexions. Most of the men wear voluminous, knee-length togas wrapped in short robes in shades of white, topaz blue, grass green, coral orange, or rose pink. Most of the women wear long, dress-like garments in tones of shell pink, apricot orange, or lapis blue over white sleeves. For all but one woman, their garments have fallen off one shoulder to reveal a round, firm breast. Several objects are strewn on the rocky, dirt ground in front of the group, including a wide, wooden bucket with a piece of paper affixed to its front to our right, a glass goblet, a pitchfork, a large blue and white ceramic dish filled with grapes and small yellow fruits, and an overturned cup near the center. Cliff-like, craggy rocks rise steeply behind the group to our left, filling much of the sky opposite a tall grove of leafy, dark green trees to our right. A few puffy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky. The slip of paper on the barrel has been inscribed, “joannes bellinus venetus p MDXIIII.” — Giovanni Bellini, Titian, The Feast of the Gods, 1514/1529, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.1

1991

The National Gallery of Art celebrates its 50th anniversary with an exhibition of nearly 300 works of art, given or pledged to the National Gallery in honor of the occasion.

Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration opens in commemoration of the quincentenary of Columbus’s voyage to the Americas (below).

Open the slideshow, Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration (October 12, 1991–January 12, 1992).

1992

Dorothy and Herbert Vogel donate their collection of minimalist and conceptual American art to the National Gallery.

1993

The National Gallery accepts nine old master drawings from the Woodner Family Collection, one of several gifts given by the family over the years.

1995

In its 20th anniversary year, the Collectors Committee acquires Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Bolsena) for the National Gallery’s 20th-century collection.

The Micro Gallery, an interactive multimedia computer system, opens in the newly redesigned art information room in the West Building.

Three new cabinet galleries housing small Dutch and Flemish paintings on the West Building Main Floor are completed.

The exhibition Johannes Vermeer attracts extraordinary crowds and receives overwhelming public response (below).

Crowds waiting outside the exhibition Johannes Vermeer (November 12, 1995–February 11, 1996). National Gallery of Art Archives.

1997

The National Gallery debuts its website on the World Wide Web, which includes a database with information about works of art in the collection and related educational, exhibition, and scholarly resources.

Ground breaking for the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, a gift of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, takes place on June 12 (below).

National Gallery Sculpture Garden ground-breaking ceremony, June 12, 1997. Left to right: Laurie D. Olin, landscape architect, Olin Partnership; Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art; Robert H. Smith, president, Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art; Calvin Cafritz, president and chairman, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and Robert Douma, vice-president, operations, Chas. H. Tompkins Company. National Gallery of Art Archives. Photograph by Lorene Emerson.

1998

Betsy Cushing Whitney, widow of John Hay Whitney, bequeaths eight important paintings by major artists to the National Gallery, including Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh (right).

Van Gogh’s Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, an exhibition of 70 paintings by the artist on loan from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, attracts capacity crowds.

Shown from the chest up, a man with short, orange hair and green-tinted, pale skin looks at us, wearing a vivid blue painter's smock in this vertical portrait painting. His smock and the background are painted with long, mostly parallel strokes of cobalt, azure, and lapis blue. His shoulders are angled to our left, and he looks at us from the corners of his blue eyes. He has a long, slightly bumped nose, and his lips are closed within a full, rust-orange beard. He holds a palette and paintbrushes in his left hand, in the lower left corner of the canvas. The background is painted with long brushstrokes that follow the contours of his head and torso to create an aura-like effect. — Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.5

1999

The museum mourns the death of Paul Mellon, son of its founder, Andrew Mellon, and a preeminent leader and patron of the National Gallery since serving as its first president in 1938.

The multiyear project to replace the original West Building skylights with new specially designed glass panels and modern hardware is completed.

The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden is dedicated on May 19. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton accepts the gift of the completed garden on behalf of the nation (below).

A redesigned ice rink in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden opens to the public in December.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden dedication, May 19, 1999. National Gallery of Art Archives.

2000s

2000

Designed to evoke the small private chambers of the Renaissance, a suite of three new Italian Cabinet galleries opens on the West Building Main Floor.

2001

Frank Stella's monumental sculpture Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, Ein Schauspiel, 3X, a gift of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, is installed on the East Building lawn.

Left to right: Earl A. Powell, director, National Gallery of Art; Calvin Cafritz, president and chairman of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Frank Stella, artist; and Jeffrey Weiss, Gallery curator, in front of Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, Ein Schauspiel, 3X, 2001. National Gallery of Art Archives.

2002

The redesigned Sculpture Galleries open on the West Building Ground Floor, presenting more than 900 works of art in 22 rooms.

2003

The National Gallery commemorates the 25th anniversary of the East Building opening with special programs, tours, and an archival installation in the East Building Reception Room.

2004

The National Gallery presents the 2,500th program in its series of free Sunday concerts, which began in December 1942.

2005

British artist Andy Goldsworthy completes Roof, a site-specific sculpture of nine stacked slate domes, on the East Building Ground Level.

We look down onto nine gray stone domes that melt into each other in the space of a patio enclosed with a pink marble wall opposite floor-to-ceiling windows. Each dome is nearly as tall as the ceiling over the windows, and each is made of stacked pieces of slate. At the top center of each dome is a collar of gray slate to create a pupil-like opening. The stone collar creating the openings is lighter gray around the ink-black centers, which are the shaded interiors of the domes. The domes meld and stack like a handful of bubbles. — Andy Goldsworthy, Roof, 2004-2005, Buckingham Virginia slate, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2005.86.1

2006

Frans Snyders's Still Life with Grapes and Game is acquired with funds provided by the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund in honor of the 20th anniversary of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art, a national membership group to support acquisitions and programs.

A basket overflowing with grapes and surrounded by dead birds and more fruit sits on a long table covered in a scarlet-red cloth in this horizontal still life painting. In the basket at the center of the painting, luminous green, blue-black, red, and purple grapes are piled up in a rough pyramid that overflows the sides. Long stems with broad sage and celery-green leaves edged with brown jut up above and to the side of the bunches of grapes, nearly touching the top edge of the painting. Just in front of the basket to our left, a bowl overflowing with a bunch of purple grapes is tipped toward us. The inside of the bowl is painted with cobalt-blue, geometric, vegetal designs against a white background. Behind it, at the far left, a tall, bronze, footed serving dish stacked high with pale green and black-skinned figs is cut off by the left edge of the composition. In front of and to the right of the central basket, the bodies of about two dozen small and medium-sized birds fill the right half of the tabletop. About ten small birds are arranged along a stick between a pair of dead birds to our left and a pile of several larger birds to our right. The birds’ feathers and bodies are painted in shades of cream and parchment white, ink black, ruby red, tawny brown, and butter and golden yellow. The fruit and birds are lit from the upper left, and the backround is earth brown. — Frans Snyders, Still Life with Grapes and Game, c. 1630, oil on panel, Gift of The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund in Honor of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Circle of the National Gallery of Art, 2006.22.1

2007

The centenary of the birth of the museum's greatest benefactor, Paul Mellon, is celebrated with exhibitions on Eugene Boudin and J.M.W. Turner, a new film about Paul Mellon's life, a historical installation, and other special programs.

2008

A national gift program is launched, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States. Under the program, 2,500 works selected by the Vogels from their collection of contemporary art are distributed to art institutions in each of the 50 states.

Sculptor Leo Villareal’s computer-programmed digital light project Multiverse is installed in the Concourse walkway (right).

Artist Leo Villareal programming his Multiverse installation in the Concourse walkway, October 2008. National Gallery of Art Archives. Photograph by Rob Shelley.

2009

In the Tower: Philip Guston opens, the first in a series of changing exhibitions of contemporary art in the East Building Tower gallery.

2010s

2012

NGA Images debuts as a free online open access resource with over 21,000 high resolution digital images of works of art in the permanent collection. While the NGA Images website has now been retired, Open Access image downloads are now available directly from the object pages located on this website. Learn more about Open Access.

A woman with pale white skin and her blond hair covered by a wide veil is shown from the waist up in this vertical portrait painting. Her folded hands rest on the lower edge of the panel, suggesting that she sits just on the other side, close to us. The transparent white veil covers her blond hair and falls in stiff, wide panes down in front of her shoulders. Her hair is pulled back behind a black ribbon over a high forehead. Her light brown eyes are downcast and she has a straight nose and full, pale pink lips. Her chest is covered by another veil and is tucked into the deep V-neck of her long-sleeved, black dress. A wide scarlet-red belt adorned with an ornately filigreed gold belt buckle encircles her narrow waist. Her skin, white veils, and red belt contrast sharply with her velvety black dress and the dark pine green of the background. — Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.44

2013

A refreshed website is launched, with new features, improved graphics, and an enhanced interface providing expanded access to museum and collection information and educational and scholarly resources.

The exquisite glass and stone mosaic Orphée, designed by Marc Chagall and bequeathed to the National Gallery by arts patron Evelyn Stefansson Nef, is installed in the Sculpture Garden (left).

Created with tiny, colored stones and glass, this mosaic shows groups of people along and near the edge of a brilliant, topaz-blue body of water with a large, lemon-yellow, stylized sun in the sky in this horizontal composition. The aquamarine blue and vibrant yellow along with lime green, lilac purple, oyster white, and teal used in the people and landscape give this work a shimmering look. A pair of people recline together under a tree in the lower right corner. A sheep stands nearby, and a bird perches in the tree above. Beyond the tree and to our left, a cluster of box-like forms suggests a city in the distance. Larger in scale, so seeming closer to us, a man wearing a lapis-blue toga and a yellow cap holds a stringed instrument, a lyre, in front of his body. To the left, at the center of the composition, a trio of women each wearing amethyst-purple, magenta-pink, or lapis-blue dresses stand close to each other. They have long, dark hair and their bodies and garments are outlined in black. Between them and the large sun to our left, a winged horse with a buttercup-yellow body and turquoise-blue wings rears up. Near the upper left corner, the stylized sun is represented by a disk surrounded by pointed peaks, surrounded by a larger disk outlined with another ring of triangular points. A winged person holding a set of pan pipes flies above the sun to our left, over a small crescent moon below. Near the lower left corner, two groups of people gather around a body of bright blue water occupied by two fish. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower right corner: “MArC ChAgAll 69.” The mosaic is displayed outside in front of a screen of trees, with a band of bushes with green and orange leaves below. — Marc Chagall, Orphée, 1969, stone and glass mosaic, The John U. and Evelyn S. Nef Collection, 2011.60.104.1-10

2014

The National Gallery of Art signs a historic agreement with the Corcoran Gallery of Art for stewardship of the Corcoran art collection.

We hover over the bottle-green surface of a river as it rushes toward a horseshoe-shaped waterfall that curves away from us in this horizontal landscape painting. The water is white and frothy right in front of us, where the shelf of the riverbed changes levels near the edge of the falls. Across from us, the water is also white where it falls over the edge. A thin, broken rainbow glints in the mist near the upper left corner of the painting and continues its arc farther down, between the falls. The horizon line is just over halfway up the composition. Plum-purple clouds sweep into the composition at the upper corners against a lavender-colored sky. Tiny trees and a few buildings line the shoreline to the left and right in the deep distance. — Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara, 1857, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund), 2014.79.10

The reinstallation of 17,026 panels of exterior marble with new anchor supports is completed on the East Building.

2015

Two special exhibitions American Masterworks from the Corcoran, 1815–1940 and Focus on the Corcoran: Works on Paper, 1860–1990, feature works of art from the Corcoran collection.

2016

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the National Gallery, the newly restored Andrew W. Mellon Memorial Fountain is rededicated on March 17, one year after custody of the 1952 fountain and its surrounding park was transferred to the Gallery from the National Park Service.

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art Archives.

The East Building galleries reopen after three years of renovation of existing galleries and construction of new Tower galleries and an outdoor sculpture roof terrace.

East Building Roof Terrace, 2016. Photograph by Rob Shelley. National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives.

2018

The National Gallery’s first online free education course for teachers to learn about incorporating works of art into their school curricula opens for enrollment.

2019

The National Gallery launches a new accessibility program, The Art of Looking, a series of four salon-style conversations to help participants analyze, experience, and practice skills in slow looking, active listening, fostering empathy, and perspective taking.

The National Gallery becomes the first American art museum to invite teams of data scientists and art historians across the nation to analyze, contextualize, and visualize its permanent collection data to promote wider public access to its collection, culminating in a two-day public datathon event.

Conservation treatment of six 18th-century French marble sculptures in the West Building East Sculpture Hall is carried out in situ during public hours for the first time, allowing visitors to observe and learn about the National Gallery's renowned conservation, research and scientific programs.

Conservator Robert Price treating Painting and Sculpture by Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert in the West Building East Sculpture Hall as visitors observe, 2019. National Gallery of Art Archives. Photograph by Rebecca Clews.

2020s

2020

Arnold and Joan Saltzman conclude three decades of philanthropy with a gift of 11 artworks. The Saltzman collection of German expressionist art comprises 14 paintings and two sculptures. It features such artists as Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Elisabeth Epstein, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, and Emil Nolde.

I See Red: Target by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, an enrolled Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation in Montana, becomes the first painting by a Native American artist to enter the collection of the National Gallery of Art. The painting’s acquisition was made possible by Emily and Mitchell Rales.

In response to the global pandemic and in accord with federal and local health safety measures, the National Gallery temporarily closes its doors to the public and moves programs online. Many activities and offerings—from internships and fellowships to exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, lectures, and tours—are reimagined in robust digital environments, and new programs are introduced to enhance the virtual visitor’s experience.

Elisabeth Epstein, People on a Café Terrace, 1913, oil on canvas, Collection of Arnold and Joan Saltzman, 2020.112.9

2021

Katharina Fritsch's Hahn/Cock, on view on the East Building roof terrace since 2016, is donated to the National Gallery of Art on its 80th anniversary by Glenstone Museum in honor of the resilience of the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Gallery of Art unveils a reimagined brand identity built on new and reimagined vision and mission statements with accompanying values. The redesigned brand introduces a new logo and color palette to promote the institution's renewed commitment to serve as the nation's art museum and to emphasize creativity, diversity and inclusion, empathy, and public engagement.

2022

The family of Victoria P. Sant, former president of the National Gallery of Art, gives a $10 million gift to the museum to establish an endowment fund in her honor for the acquisition of works by women.

The National Gallery of Art launches Artle, a new daily guessing game, as a fun way to discover new artists and interact with art daily.

2023

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) is the first artist to curate an exhibition (The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, September 22, 2023 – January 15, 2024) at the National Gallery of Art.

The National Gallery of Art announces a gift of 15 artworks by modern and contemporary Haitian artists from the collections of Kay and Roderick Heller and John Fox Sullivan, becoming the first works by Haitian artists to enter the collection.

Philomé Obin, President Tiresias Sam Entering Cap-Haïtien, 1958, oil on fiberboard, Gift of Kay and Roderick Heller, 2023.44.6

2024

National Gallery of Art announces a gift of 20 box constructions and 7 collages by Joseph Cornell from Robert and Aimee Lehrman, joining other art objects already in the collection to make the museum one of the world’s leading repositories of the artist’s works (left).

National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University announce the launch of a three-year artist residency for the organization For Freedoms to foster innovative and accessible approaches to art research and public programs.