National Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C., United States
The National Gallery of Art is the national art museum of the United States, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was established by an act of Congress in 1937, founded on a gift from the financier and collector Andrew W. Mellon, whose donation of paintings and funds provided the museum's nucleus. Its neoclassical West Building, designed by John Russell Pope, opened in 1941, and was joined in 1978 by the modernist East Building designed by I. M. Pei.
The collection spans Western art from the Middle Ages to the present and is admitted free of charge. Among its Dutch holdings are several works associated with Johannes Vermeer, including A Lady Writing, Girl with a Red Hat and Woman Holding a Balance, together with the disputed Girl with a Flute.
