The National Gallery was still young in the 1960s. Andrew Mellon-banker, Secretary of State, and avid art collector-founded the Gallery in 1937, donating his personal collection to serve as the founding works of a public, national collection. Though it featured paintings by notable artists, Mellon’s collection still paled in comparison to those of well-established museums, especially the other national galleries in Europe.īut even with Congressional backing and an impressive new building on the National Mall, the reputation of the Gallery was relatively modest in its first few decades. Washington had a major art gallery, but it was still not an art capital.

A crowd gathers to view Mona Lisa during its 1963 National Gallery debut. The tide began to turn in 1963, when the Gallery hosted one of its first landmark exhibitions. In a stunning feat of diplomacy, First Lady Jackie Kennedy persuaded the French government to lend one of its greatest treasures to the United States: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Widely regarded as the most recognizable painting in the world, it seldom left its home at the Louvre and had never been to the United States before. On January 9, it made its “brilliant American debut” at the National Gallery, witnessed by the Kennedys, members of Congress, and ambassadors. Due to the number of famous visitors, the New York Times called Mona Lisa the “temporary but undisputed queen of Washington society.” In the coming weeks, Washingtonians made clear that the painting was not only famous in notable circles. Over half a million locals also came to see Mona Lisa while it was in Washington, waiting in lines for up to two hours. For the first time in its history, the Gallery even had to extend its hours to accommodate the massive crowds. The Gallery director, John Walker, took note: Washingtonians had an appetite for art. Inspired by the success of the exhibition, Walker began to show interest in acquiring new works for the collection-the more renowned, the better. Unfortunately, very few Old Master artworks were actually available for purchase those that were sold for unfathomable prices. Nevertheless, Walker began to court a piece that seemed the unattainable gem of the art world. Since Mona Lisa had drawn such an overwhelming public response, it seemed logical that the National Gallery should go after a Leonardo of its own. Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci, ca. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Source: National Gallery of Art)Īt the time, the only Leonardo painting remaining in a private collection-and, therefore, potentially available for purchase-was a small, unsigned portrait from the artist’s early career.

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