Introduction | 1907–1939 | 1941–1959 | 1961–1979 | 1980–1999

1941
The dedication of the National Gallery of Art takes place on March 17, 1941. Paul Mellon presents the museum and his father's collection, and President Franklin Roosevelt accepts the gift on behalf of the nation.

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. Paul Mellon, 1941

Paul Mellon enlists in the United States Army and is assigned to the cavalry at Fort Riley, Kansas.  Later in the war he is assigned to work for the Office of Strategic Services in London.

1942
As a surviving trustee of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Paul Mellon is instrumental in the trust's gift of $5 million to establish the Gallery's endowment fund.

1945
After his discharge from the army, Paul Mellon rejoins the Gallery's board of trustees to become an active board member for the next forty years.

1946
Paul Mellon's wife Mary, a long-time asthma sufferer, dies. The marriage produces two children, Catherine and Timothy.

1947
The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, with Paul Mellon as chairman, donates 113 American portraits to the National Gallery of Art.

1948
Paul Mellon marries Rachel "Bunny" Lambert Lloyd. Together they begin to collect works of art.

After we were married in 1948, 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. Gradually, we began to acquire paintings that appealed to us and our way of life. Paul Mellon, 1966

1949
Through the Old Dominion Foundation and the Avalon Foundation, representing Paul Mellon and his sister, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, a series of annual lectures is proposed at the National Gallery to be named after their father, Andrew W. Mellon. Jacques Maritain presents the first A.W. Mellon Lecture in the Fine Arts in 1952.

The lectures are...designed to bring to the people of this country the results of the best contemporary thought and scholarship relating to the Fine Arts. [They] are intended not only for the pleasure and information of those hearing them delivered but also for many people who will read them in books published subsequently by the Bollingen Foundation, established by Paul Mellon. David Finley, 1973

The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust gives more than $900,000 for the completion of additional exhibition galleries in the West Building.

1952
The trust makes a second major grant to the National Gallery's endowment, doubling its size.

We trust that these gifts will assure the continued accomplishments of the Gallery during the foreseeable future, as well as encourage others to become interested and extend their aid toward its worthy objectives. Paul Mellon, 1952

Paul Mellon buys Figures on the Beach by Eugène Boudin, one of many paintings by the artist that Paul and Bunny Mellon gradually acquire through the years. During the next two decades they add extensively to their collection of French impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.

1955
Paul Mellon acquires Flower Beds in Holland by Vincent van Gogh.

I'll never, with confidence, know
If Van Gogh is Van Gock or Van Go.
admit, to my shame
This chameleon name
Makes my highbrows feel terribly low.
But a friend of mine said, "Off the cuff,
You could just as well call him Van Guff.
But regardless, I fear
What he did to his ear
Was playing a little too rough.
—Paul Mellon, 1966

He also acquires the collection of some seventy waxes by Edgar Degas, which the artist had kept in his studio.

1958
In October 1958, Paul Mellon buys Cézanne's Boy in a Red Waistcoat at auction in London.

[At Sotheby's auction] I was able to buy three [paintings], including a famous Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat. In fact, my agent exceeded his instructions by quite a large amount, but I have no more reason to regret buying this superb masterpiece than I had when my trainer did exactly the same thing in purchasing the mare Red Ray, Mill Reef's great-grandam. Paul Mellon, 1992

1959
The Old Dominion Foundation and the Avalon Foundation establish fellowships at the National Gallery for advanced art study in preparation for museum careers. The fellowships are named for the Gallery's first director, David E. Finley. Paul Mellon buys 351 oil sketches of the American West by artist George Catlin. He gives the paintings to the Gallery in 1965, where they become the core of the National Lending Service. With Basil Taylor's assistance, Paul Mellon develops a new interest in British art and begins to collect enthusiastically.

His conversion resulted in a crusading zeal. He was determined to create a new and more intelligent appreciation of British art. John Walker, 1974

Introduction | 1907–1939 | 1941–1959 | 1961–1979 | 1980–1999