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National Gallery of Art

About

Situated at the heart of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., gazing across at the Capitol, the National Gallery of Art is the only museum in the Americas to own a Leonardo da Vinci painting and one of the very few world-class galleries that is completely free to the public. Its origin is a redemption story of staggering proportions. Banking titan Andrew Mellon, facing congressional tax-evasion charges during the Great Depression, made a decision that would reshape American culture forever: he donated his extraordinary collection of Old Masters—painstakingly acquired from European aristocrats and even the Soviet Hermitage—along with funds for an entire museum building, to the nation. When FDR cut the ribbon in 1941, Mellon had already been dead for four years. Today the Gallery comprises the neoclassical West Building and I.M. Pei's razor-sharp modernist East Building, housing a journey from gilded medieval altarpieces through the shimmering light of Impressionism to the meditative color fields of Rothko. In this temple belonging to all Americans, art is not a luxury—it is a birthright.

Address6th & Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20565, USA

Must-See Collection

George Washington — Lansdowne Portrait

Gilbert Stuart

Right hand in a Roman orator''s gesture, left hand resting on a downward-pointing blade — he had everything needed to make himself king, but that hand is letting go, not grasping.

The Alba Madonna

Raphael

A perfect triangle inside a circle: Raphael fused Leonardo's sfumato and Michelangelo's sculptural power into a 37-inch miracle.

Portrait of Bindo Altoviti

Raphael

Misidentified as Raphael's self-portrait for 300 years — because the sitter was simply too beautiful.

Small Cowper Madonna

Raphael

Raphael's transitional masterpiece at 21 — his first experiment with Leonardo's pyramidal composition, where the baby gripping his mother's neckline remains vivid across five centuries.

Niccolini-Cowper Madonna

Raphael

Raphael's Florentine farewell — fusing Leonardo's sfumato warmth with Michelangelo's dynamism, the signed date 'MDVIII' seals the turning point from Florence to Rome.

Saint George and the Dragon

Raphael

A full dragon battle on a palm-sized panel — the blue Garter on Saint George's leg reveals this painting's hidden identity as the Duke of Urbino's diplomatic state gift.

Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son

Claude Monet

Monet's plein-air Impressionist icon completed in a single session—his wife died four years later, and he spent the rest of his life repainting her vanishing figure, never able to render her face again.

Ginevra de' Benci

Leonardo da Vinci

The only Leonardo da Vinci oil painting in the Americas—a 22-year-old genius painted a girl who refuses to smile, her cool gaze more captivating than the Mona Lisa's.

Girl with the Red Hat

Johannes Vermeer

A tiny painting hiding Vermeer''s most dazzling light trick—the highlight on that red hat seems to genuinely glow from within.

Self-Portrait (1659)

Rembrandt van Rijn

After bankruptcy, Rembrandt stared at the viewer with unflinching honesty—no masks, no pretense—the bravest face in the history of self-portraiture.