Marion Koogler McNay's Spanish Colonial Revival mansion, set in 23 acres of landscaped grounds, is now the McNay Art Museum — the result of one of the most generous acts of cultural philanthropy in Texas history. Marion Koogler McNay was an heiress, artist, and passionate art collector who settled in San Antonio in 1926 and spent the next two decades assembling a remarkable personal collection of post-Impressionist, Modernist, and American art. She purchased works by Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, and dozens of American masters at a time when collecting modern art required both taste and courage.
Her home, designed by architect Atlee Ayres in 1927, was built as a private gallery as much as a residence — high-ceilinged rooms, generous natural light, and arcaded courtyards that displayed her growing collection to best advantage. When Marion McNay died in 1950, she bequeathed her home, her collection, and her endowment to the people of Texas, specifying that it be established as an art museum for the community she had adopted as her own. The McNay opened in 1954 as the first modern art museum in Texas.
The permanent collection has grown to over 20,000 works. The sunlit Leeper Study Center and the Oppenheimer sculpture garden have made the McNay one of the most pleasant museum afternoons anywhere in Texas.