The Chester Dale Collection

If you want to see an outstanding art exhibit, look no further than the National Gallery of Art’s Chester Dale Collection which is here through the end of July 2011.  So, yes, no hurry, but yes, hurry.  I was fortunate to be a guest at the National Gallery’s patron circle event Wednesday evening and couldn’t wait to tell everyone about the exhibit.  I know of some folks who have gone back to see it numerous times. It’s hard to get enough of this one of a kind collection that Mr. Dale (a banker who earned a lot of $$) purchased for “a song”.  He was brilliant enough to know timing in his own industry and that translated over to the arts world.

Upon his death Mr. Dale bequeathed the amassed (more than 300) works of art to the National Gallery.  From American to French – impressionism to modernism – you will no doubt truly enjoy this multiple rooms of paintings.  The exhibition includes the famous “A Girl with a Watering Can” by Renoir, “The Boating Party” by Mary Cassatt, plenty of Degas, Cezanne, and Monet.

Learn more here: http://www.nga.gov/past/data/exh134.shtm

http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/ggfound/ggfound-30743.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Dale