A LASTING LEGACY Paintings and Sculptures from the Paul Mellon Collection national gallery of art Art has brought so much pleasure to my own life. It seems to me that the best I can do, or hope to do, is expand the opportunities for others to enjoy the arts.

paul mellon, 1982 A LASTING LEGACY Paintings and Sculptures from the Paul Mellon Collection

paul mellon (1907 – 1999) donated more than one thousand works of art to the National Gallery of Art. Enduring reminders of his generosity, these gifts are but one aspect of the philanthropist’s many contributions to the Gallery, which his father, Andrew W. Mellon (1855 – 1937), founded in 1937. Paul Mellon provided both visionary leadership and financial support, serving as a trustee for nearly fifty years (including as the first president of the board), overseeing the design of the East Building, and funding its construction with his sister, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His devotion to the Gallery as the nation’s artistic standard-bearer assured its position among the world’s great art museums.

A passionate and discerning collector, Mellon expressed his desire never to acquire art that he “would not want to live with or see constantly.” He built much of his collection in concert with his wife, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, (1910 – 2014), and his donations of works by renowned masters of American, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon British, and continental European art, together with additional gifts from his sister, Ailsa, made an indelible mark on the institution.

4 National Gallery of Art 75th Anniversary 5 west building main floor

The areas shaded in color on the Main The circled letters mark a walking Floor map below and Ground Floor map tour of selected paintings and sculp- on pages 14 – 15 indicate galleries that tures donated by Paul Mellon, which contain works given to the Gallery by are described on the following pages. Paul Mellon. Visit our online tour: www.nga.gov/ paulmellongifts

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91 87 24 23 22 11 10 9 6 5 3 2 90 G J 74 73 92 H 25 26 27 28 8 7 4 1 93 89 F I 72

West East Lobby A Garden Lobby B West Sculpture Hall Rotunda East Sculpture Hall Lobby C Garden Lobby D Court Court

50 69 L 29 45 46 48 51 C 52 56 57 58 71 A 50 70 B 69 49 32 30 33 37 38 43 K 47 50 53 54 55 E 60 67 50 InformationMicro Founders A A Room Room

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Mall Entrance

Please note that the permanent collection display occasionally changes, so some works of art may be temporarily off view.

6 National Gallery of Art 75th Anniversary 7 A B C D

Winslow Homer, Dad’s Coming!, 1873, George Catlin, The White Cloud, Joseph Wright, The Corinthian Maid, George Stubbs, White Poodle in a oil on wood, National Gallery of Art, Head Chief of the Iowas, 1844 / 1845, 1782 – 1784, oil on canvas, National Punt, c. 1780, oil on canvas, National Washington, Collection of Mr. and oil on canvas, National Gallery Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery 68 of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Collection gallery 61 Collection gallery 61 Collection gallery 63

A significant number of the Gallery’s Fascinated with British life and history Mellon expressed a particular fondness Catlin painted Mu-hu-she-kaw, or The drawings, paintings, and prints by from a young age, Paul Mellon built for paintings that captured the English White Cloud, in Europe. He had joined Winslow Homer are gifts from Paul an extensive collection of English art. landscape, country life, and sports — all Catlin on tour to promote the artist’s Mellon. Here, the artist painted mother This scene illustrates the ancient story of which are featured in this portrait of “Indian Gallery”— a collection of more and son awaiting the return of a fishing of the origin of relief sculpture: after a poodle. English hunters of the eigh- than five hundred paintings of Ameri- boat in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a young woman traced the shadow of teenth century favored the breed for can Indians. In 1965 Paul Mellon gave during a summer when the town her lover’s face on the wall, her father, the retrieval of waterfowl. Renowned 351 of Catlin’s paintings to the Gallery, experienced a number of tragedies at a potter, modeled the drawing in clay for his depictions of animals, Stubbs where they became the core of the sea. Homer’s choice of subject — the and baked it in his kiln. The painting was one of Mellon’s favorite painters. National Lending Service, a program watching, waiting family — evokes a was commissioned by the English pot- established to make the collections meditative mood. ter Josiah Wedgwood, who founded of the National Gallery of Art accessible the porcelain and fine china company to museums throughout the country. of the same name.

8 National Gallery of Art 75th Anniversary 9 E F G H

Benjamin Marshall, J. G. Shaddick, the Claude Monet, Woman with a Parasol — Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Georges Seurat, The Lighthouse at Celebrated Sportsman, 1806, oil on can- Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, oil Armchair, 1878, oil on canvas, National Honfleur, 1886, oil on canvas, National vas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection Paul Mellon Collection gallery 59 Washington, Collection of Mr. and of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery 86 of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery 88 Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery 85

Flanked by his horse and hunting dogs, Paul and Bunny Mellon acquired many Thanks largely to Paul Mellon’s and holding up a pheasant in triumph, “Bunny and I — and I think I can also works by impressionist painters, whose generosity, the Gallery has one of the the subject of this portrait is the ulti- speak for my sister, Ailsa Mellon interest in depicting everyday scenes most significant collections of works mate sportsman on a successful hunt. Bruce — have always loved the out- of domestic life is exemplified in this by Seurat in America. Seurat based his Like so many of the works Paul Mellon of-doors. Perhaps this explains our painting of a young girl slouched in distinctive technique of painting with collected, this painting hung in his affinity for the impressionists. For an armchair. With its loose brush- dots of color, or pointillism, on new home — a tribute to his own love of never before or since in the unfold- strokes and limited palette, it marks theories about the optical character- horses and country sport. ing pageant of art have painters so the point at which Cassatt, an American istics of light and color. The technique brilliantly captured the poetry of the who lived in Paris for more than four enabled Seurat to record appearances countryside.” — Paul Mellon, 1967 decades, adopted the techniques of more accurately while preserving the her French counterparts. fresh, natural qualities he admired in impressionist works.

10 National Gallery of Art 75th Anniversary 11 I J K L

Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, Vincent van Gogh, Still Life of Oranges and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flowers in a Basket Canaletto, English Landscape Capriccio 1888 – 1890, oil on canvas, National Lemons with Blue Gloves, 1889, National and a Vase, 1615, oil on panel, National with a Column, c. 1754, oil on canvas, Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery 83 of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Paul Mellon Collection gallery 31 of the 50th Anniversary of the National Anniversary of the National Gallery of Gallery of Art gallery 84 Art gallery 44 With its reference to pruning and fruit In 1746 Canaletto’s great popularity gathering, this painting was likely a with English tourists and patrons This iconic painting draws on art Brueghel’s still life is the first picture favorite of Bunny Mellon, an ardent brought the Venetian artist to England, historical precedent in the pose of by this important Flemish master to horticulturalist, landscape designer, where he painted this canvas and its the boy and the background curtain, enter the collection. The artist was a and collector of rare garden books. companion almost a decade later. The which evoke Italian portraiture of the specialist in painting flowers and trav- Although her husband bequeathed fanciful composition, called a capriccio, sixteenth century; at the same time, eled to distant cities in search of rare the painting to the Gallery in 1999, combines Italian architectural motifs the flattened space and arrangements and unusual blossoms. Bunny Mellon, she lived with it until her own death in scenery reminiscent of the English of color and shape anticipate abstrac- a passionate gardener, would have es- in March 2014. countryside. Among the first gifts Paul tion, a concept more fully explored pecially appreciated this arrangement Mellon donated to the Gallery, it hung by artists in the twentieth century. of delicate flowers gathered in a basket in the American Embassy in London and the Venetian glass vase beside it. as part of a long-term loan in the 1960s and 1970s.

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6th Street and Constitution Avenue Entrance

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G G G16 20 G20B 20 A C G7 M G2 Lift G17 G18 G19 G1 Parking G G21 22 A G6 G5 N Ramp G 22 7th Street G 4th Street G G39 G G41 Central G42 Gallery G43 Garden Café Gallery Shop Entrance 37 38 40 Lift Plaza Entrance Entrance Atrium G G Project 34 30 G29 G23 Room

Lecture Hall G28 G24 G33 G32 G31 West Building Plaza

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Please note that the permanent collection display occasionally changes, so some works of art may be temporarily off view.

14 National Gallery of Art 75th Anniversary 15 degas waxes

Though untrained as a sculptor, Edgar Degas spent decades modeling studies in wax, clay, and mixed media. The dozens of small sculptures discovered in his studio after his death are testaments to his interest in the body in motion — both human and equine — a subject he also explored in his paintings, pastels, and prints. Upon seeing nearly seventy of Degas’s sculptures during a visit to a dealer in 1955, Paul Mellon reflected, “the overall effect . . . was overpowering, and one could feel the grace, the tension, and the movement of the dancers and the horses.” Recognizing his occasional role as a “collector of collections,” he purchased the entire group and donated the majority of the works to the Gallery, the largest repository of Degas’s original wax sculptures anywhere.

16 National Gallery of Art 75th Anniversary 17 As we look to the future, I hope that you will consider the National Gallery as your gallery, for as Americans, its collections and resources belong to each of you. M N paul mellon, 1983 Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Four- Edgar Degas, Horse Rearing, 1880s, teen, 1878 – 1881, pigmented beeswax pigmented beeswax and plastiline over and clay over metal armature with metal armature, National Gallery of human hair and silk, linen, and cotton Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and garments, National Gallery of Art, Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery g4 Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon gallery g3 Horses, like dancers, were attractive subjects for Degas because of their Highly naturalistic in style and labori- balanced, disciplined movement. An ously perfected over three years, Little avid horse racer and breeder, Mellon Dancer was the only sculpture Degas shared Degas’s love of the animal, exhibited publicly. At least thirty bronze depicted in many works of art in the and two plaster casts were made after Mellon collection. his death based on this original wax- and-clay sculpture, the sole version the artist ever touched.

cover: Details of Claude Monet, Woman with a Parasol — Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875 (front), and Vincent van Gogh, Still Life of Oranges and Lemons with Blue Gloves, 1889 (back), Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. page 4: Paul Mellon in front of a 1924 portrait of his father, Andrew W. Mellon, by Sir William Orpen. Photograph by Henry Groskinsky. National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives

Written by the departments of education publications and exhibition programs. Produced by the publishing office. Copyright © 2016, Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington 18 National Gallery of Art