About the museum
The story of the National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1937 with the collection of the financier Andrew W. Mellon and opened on the National Mall in 1941. It is free and open to the public.
Its West Building holds European and American art from the thirteenth century onward, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas, while I. M. Pei's East Building shows modern art.
The collection
Andrew Mellon gave his collection of old masters, including paintings bought from the Hermitage in 1930–31, and paid for the building. Other founding donors such as Samuel H. Kress, Joseph Widener and Chester Dale followed.
The result is one of the great collections of the Americas, with Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci, Raphael's Alba Madonna, Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance, Rembrandt, Titian, Impressionists from the Chester Dale collection and American painting from Gilbert Stuart to Winslow Homer.
At ArtLogia you can order 41 of its paintings as hand-painted reproductions, by 25 artists led by Vincent van Gogh, Raphael and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
- paintings to order
- 41
- artists
- 25
- art movements
- 10
- years covered
- 1430–1905
The building
John Russell Pope designed the neoclassical West Building with its rotunda and marble columns. I. M. Pei's triangular East Building, opened in 1978, shows modern and contemporary art, and an outdoor Sculpture Garden lies on the Mall between them.
Masterpieces to see
Ginevra de' BenciLeonardo da Vinci, 1476 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Watson and the SharkJohn Singleton Copley, 1778 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Self-Portrait (Van Gogh, 1889)Raphael, 1505 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Woman Holding a BalanceJohannes Vermeer, 1665 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Planning a visit
Entry is free; a moving walkway under the plaza links the West and East buildings.
