Map - National Gallery of Canada (National Gallery of Canada)

The National Gallery of Canada (Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up 46,621 m2, with 12,400 m2 of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the largest art museums in North America by exhibition space.

The institution was established in 1880 at the Second Supreme Court of Canada building, and moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum building in 1911. In 1913, the Government of Canada passed the National Gallery Act, formally outlining the institution's mandate as a national art museum. The museum was moved to the Lorne building in 1960.

In 1988, the museum was relocated to a new building designed for this purpose. The National Gallery of Canada is situated in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive, with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The building was designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie and opened in 1988.

The museum's permanent collection includes over 93,000 works from European, American, and Asian, Canadian, and Indigenous artists. In addition to exhibiting works from its permanent collection, the museum also organizes and hosts a number of travelling exhibitions.

The Gallery was first formed in 1880 by Canada's Governor General, John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll in conjunction with the establishment of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1882, moved into its first home on Parliament Hill, housed in the Second Supreme Court of Canada building.

Eric Brown was named the first director in 1910. In 1911, the Gallery moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum building, sharing it with the National Museum of Natural Sciences. In 1913, the first National Gallery Act was passed, outlining the Gallery's mandate and resources. During the 1920s, the building was expanded. The art gallery was given four floors, and a separate entrance was created for the art museum. In addition, a firewall was built between the natural sciences museum and the National Gallery. But, the Gallery was still in temporary space in the Victoria Memorial Museum building. Longterm plans were to move it to a new permanent location, with spaces dedicated to the viewing of art. By the 1950s, the space in the Victoria Memorial Museum building had grown inadequate for the museum's collections. In 1952, the museum launched a design contest for architects to design a permanent home for the gallery. But the museum failed to garner support from the government of Louis St. Laurent, resulting in the museum having to abandon the winning bid.

To provide a workable compromise for the National Gallery, St. Laurent's government offered the National Gallery the eight-storey Lorne office building for use. The National Gallery moved into the nondescript office building on Elgin Street. The building has since been demolished and replaced by a 17-storey office building to house the Federal Finance Department.

In 1962, Charles Comfort, the museum's director, was criticised after half of the works on display at an exhibition for Walter Chrysler's European works were exposed as forgeries by American journalists. Comfort had allowed the Gallery to host the exhibition although he had been warned about the works by the director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

The National Museums of Canada Corporation (NMC) absorbed the National Gallery of Canada in 1968. During the 1970s, the NMC diverted funds from the National Gallery to form regional galleries. The museum completed renovations to the Lorne building in 1976. By 1980, it had become apparent that the National Gallery would need to relocate, given the poor condition of the building, historic use of asbestos there, and inadequate exhibition areas that provided only enough space for two per cent of the collection to be exhibited at any given time.

After the Canadian constitution was patriated in 1982, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced a shift in policy focus towards the "creation of a nation," with priority given towards the arts in an effort to enrich Canadian identity. In same year, Minister of Communications Francis Fox declared the government's commitment to erect a new permanent buildings for its national museums, including the National Gallery, and the Museum of Man within five years. The director of the National Gallery, Jean Sutherland Boggs, was chosen by Trudeau to oversee construction of the national gallery and museums. The museum began construction for its permanent museum building on Sussex Drive in 1985, and was opened in May 1988.