The year 2007 marked the centenary of the birth of Paul Mellon (1907–1999), philanthropist, art collector, founding benefactor, and trustee of the National Gallery of Art, and his life is celebrated in this intriguing documentary.
When Gallery founder Andrew W. Mellon died in 1937, only months after the Gallery had been approved by Congress, it was left to his thirty-year-old son Paul to see the museum to completion. In 1941, Paul Mellon presented the building and his father's collection of art to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who accepted it on behalf of the American people. From that time until his death, Paul Mellon was the museum's greatest benefactor, helping to shape the institution and inspire the gifts and talents of others. Mellon’s visionary leadership of the National Gallery of Art spanned more than six decades, from 1938, when he was first elected to the Board of Trustees, to his death in 1999. During that time he watched over and nurtured the museum's growth from a single grand building to a mature institution with two monumental structures, a sculpture garden, and a world-class collection. More than 1,000 works of art given by Paul Mellon and his wife Bunny form an extraordinary legacy.
50 minutes, color
