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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2007>Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art

# Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art

May 19 – December 31, 2007West Building, Main Floor, Information Room

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon in front of a portrait of his father, Andrew W. Mellon, by Sir William Orpen (1924), Photograph by H. Groskinsky

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Andrew W. Mellon (right) and Paul Mellon (left) aboard a ship, c. 1932, Washington Start photograph, courtesy D.C. Public Library

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
John Russell Pope's preliminary plan for a National Gallery of Art, c. 1935 (detail)

The building for the National Gallery of Art was designed by American architect John Russell Pope. Paul Mellon recalled later: "I remember showing John Russell Pope's preliminary but awe-inspiring plans and elevations to my father only days before he died in the summer of 1937, and I have always hoped that he was aware enough of them to have made him happy, and to have realized fully what a wise and generous gift he had made to the nation and to posterity."

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Vehicles arriving for the dedication, March 17, 1941. Washington Star photograph, Courtesy D.C. Public Library

Nearly nine thousand people attended the dedication of the National Gallery of Art on March 17, 1941. Representing his father, Paul Mellon gave the museum building and the Andrew W. Mellon art collection to the United States with these words: "This building is the product of many minds, intent on giving America their best; and we are happy to turn it over to you, Mr. President, with my father's collection, to be dedicated forever to the use and enjoyment of the people of the United States." President Franklin D. Roosevelt received the gift on behalf of the American people.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
President Roosevelt at the podium during the dedication of the National Gallery of Art, March 17, 1941. Paul Mellon stands in the front row to the President's right, next to Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Guided by a powerful sense of duty, Paul Mellon became the National Gallery's most dignified spokesman and persuasive advocate during its first decades.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
   

Paul Mellon was joined in his support for the museum by his elder sister Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Modest and intensely private, she was a refined collector and became one of the National Gallery's greatest patrons.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Founding benefactor Chester Dale in conversation with Paul Mellon and artist Salvador Dalí during the National Gallery's fifteenth anniversary celebration, March 17, 1956.

An extraordinary collector of strong personality, Chester Dale bequeathed his great collection of 269 works of art to the Gallery in 1962.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Photograph by Jack Hyams, 1941.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon and Mrs. Rush Kress greet Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in the Rotunda of the National Gallery, October 18, 1957.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon and National Gallery director John Walker examine paintings to be installed in a 1967 exhibition.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon and John Walker at the preview of Leonardo da Vinci's "Ginevra de' Benci," March 16, 1967

In 1967, the National Gallery purchased *Ginevra de' Benci*from the ruling house of Lichtenstein using funds provided entirely by Ailsa Mellon Bruce. In her modesty she declined to be identified as the source of the funds for more than a year.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Crowds viewing the newly acquired "Ginevra de' Benci," 1967

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
School group viewing Claude Monet's "The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil," 1880, from the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

When Ailsa Mellon Bruce died unexpectedly in 1969, she bequeathed her entire art collection to the National Gallery of Art, including twenty-three paintings by Auguste Renoir, eleven by Edouard Vuillard, and others by Pierre Bonnard, Eugène Boudin, Edgar Degas, and John Singer Sargent. Funds she provided have been used by the museum to purchase more than four thousand works of art.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul and Bunny Mellon with Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Gallery director John Walker on the opening night of the twenty-fifth anniversary exhibition, "French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce," March 17, 1966

Collecting Art: "Something we loved to do..."

 

Soon after their marriage in 1948, Paul Mellon and his wife Rachel (Bunny) began to collect paintings to hang in their houses for their personal pleasure. He later wrote: "we began going to public galleries and those of dealers in New York and abroad - out of interest, out of curiosity - for pleasure, relaxation, education."

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
The East Building © Dennis Brack/Black Star

The East Building: "The generosity of the father lives on in his children..."

 

In 1967, Andrew W. Mellon's children recognized that the original building of the National Gallery had been outgrown, and offered to build a new structure. Ailsa Mellon Bruce died when work on the building had only begun, and it was left to Paul Mellon to oversee its design and construction. He remained proud of this accomplishment for the rest of his life: "I have commissioned a variety of works of art during my lifetime...but only one great work of art."

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
I.M. Pei's preliminary sketch for the East Building, 1968

Designing a monumental building for the trapezoidal plot of land adjacent to the National Gallery's original West Building was a significant challenge. Architect I.M. Pei solved this problem by dividing the shape into two triangles: one, an equilateral triangle aligned with the central spin of the West Building for public functions and the other, a right triangle for the library, study center, and offices.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon (center) at the ground-breaking ceremony for the East Building, May 6, 1971

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon in the East Building Atrium, shortly before the building was completed, November 1977 © Dennis Brack/Black Star

Paul Mellon was deeply involved in the process, from the East Building's inception to its dedication. The Building Committee, he recalled, "had something like seventy meetings. Everybody points out that I went to every meeting, but what happened was that they wouldn't have a meeting unless they made sure that I was going to be there!"

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
The Most Generous Donor

 

As the East Building was being constructed, Paul Mellon began to give the museum carefully selected individual works from the collection that he and his wife had assembled during the past decades. Over time, the pace of his gifts accelerated with large donations of masterpieces, largely nineteenth- and twentieth-century works of art. Paul Mellon gave and bequeathed to the National Gallery of Art more than one thousand paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, an extraordinary record of generosity.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon viewing "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen" in the Gallery's West Building, 1983 © Dennis Brack/Black Star

Over time Paul Mellon gave the National Gallery of Art forty-eight wax sculptures by Edgar Degas, making the Gallery's collection of Degas waxes the largest in any museum in the world.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
**Retirement and Afterward**

 

In 1985 at the age of seventy-eight, Paul Mellon resigned from his position as the chairman of the board of the National Gallery of Art. He had served as a trustee for more than forty years, including twenty-five in the offices of vice-president, president, and chairman. Throughout these years, Paul Mellon's influence on the museum's programs, collections, and institutional character was enormous. Even after his retirement, his involvement and generosity continued until his death in 1999.

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
Paul Mellon at the dinner in his honor at the time of his retirement from the Board of the National Gallery, May 3, 1985. Photograph by Dean Beasom

Paul Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
West and East Buildings of the National Gallery of Art © Dennis Brack/Black Star

**This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.**

**Overview:** This thematic installation of archival documents, historical photographs, and memorabilia explored Paul Mellon's life and contributions to the National Gallery over more than six decades, including his role in implementing his father Andrew Mellon's plans for the new institution, his efforts to guide the museum and build its collections during its first decades, the inception and development of the East Building, and his generosity as a donor. The installation was part of the museum's celebration of the centenary of Paul Mellon's birth.

Other programs honoring the centenary of Paul Mellon's birth included the exhibition Eugène Boudin at the National Gallery of Art; Paul Mellon Collects, a series of Gallery talks on selected works of art that Paul Mellon and his wife Bunny gave the National Gallery of Art; In Honor of Paul Mellon: The Great Collectors, a series of Sunday lectures on major donors to the National Gallery; and a special series of mid-day piano concerts presented in the West Building Lecture Hall on six Wednesdays in May and June. A Benny Goodman–style jazz concert was presented by the Eddie Daniels Ensemble in the East Building atrium on Sunday June 10. Benny Goodman, one of Mellon's favorite musicians, had performed at the museum on May 30, 1978, at one of the events held on the occasion of the opening of the East Building. Paul Mellon: In His Own Words, a documentary film about the life of Paul Mellon, was produced by the National Gallery of Art and premiered in June 2007. The Choir of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle presented concerts in tribute to Paul Mellon on October 25 in the East Garden Court of the West Building and again on November 10 during the evensong service at St. George's Chapel.

**Organization:**Maygene Daniels, chief of archives at the National Gallery, was curator. The installation was designed by Barbara Keyes, head of graphics.

**Sponsor:**The special series of Wednesday piano concerts was supported by the Billy Rose Foundation.

Founding Benefactors of the National Gallery of Art

                  - Paul Mellon: In His Own Words
                  -                                     Video, Released:                                    August 17, 2007, (48:46 minutes)                                
                  - The Mellon Legacy: Andrew and Paul Mellon
                  -                                     Audio, Released:                                    July 3, 2007, (10:09 minutes)                                

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