National Gallery Opens: Art Unites a Nation

President Franklin Roosevelt officially opened the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 1941, accepting a gift that financier Andrew Mellon had conceived as his legacy to the American people. Mellon had secretly assembled one of the world's finest private art collections, including 21 masterworks purchased from the Soviet government during Stalin's sell-off of Hermitage paintings in the early 1930s. Among these were Raphael's Alba Madonna and Jan van Eyck's Annunciation. Mellon died in 1937 before the gallery opened. The building itself, designed by John Russell Pope in neoclassical style, remains one of the largest marble structures in the world. Mellon stipulated that the gallery not bear his name, anticipating that other collectors would donate only if they could be equally recognized. His strategy worked: the Widener, Kress, Dale, and Rosenwald collections followed within years. The National Gallery charges no admission, a condition Mellon insisted upon to ensure that art would be accessible to every American regardless of wealth.