To the long-range vision that his home would eventually be a museum, constructed for the delight of generations that would follow his rich and rewarding life.Johnson proposed a modern interpretation of a Roman villa, complete with sculpture terraces and reflecting pools, set in a décor of sprawling indoor and outdoor gardens.

Johnson's melding of historicism and modernism results in a somewhat romantic yet functional house in the grand manner, where the same module, same clerestory lighting, and same tent-like vaults shelter intimate and public spaces alike.

The modern exterior, inspired in part by Philip Johnson's admiration for and prior collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on the Seagram Building in New York, is clad with 900 tonnes of hand-selected Italian travertine slabs.

The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists are represented by nine Claude Monet paintings, as well as works by Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro.

Other 20th century European artists include Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, Jean Dubuffet, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, George Braque, Fernand Léger, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Delvaux, James Ensor, and Joan Miró.

[1] American artists include, among others, Alexander Calder, Arshile Gorky, Clyfford Still, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Anne Truitt and James Rosenquist.

The Sculpture Garden, an extension of the Museum, expands the outdoor exhibition space and affords visitors additional opportunities to experience art in a natural setting.

The Sculpture Garden features work by Rainer Lagemann, George Rickey, Lucien Wercollier and notable Washington, DC- area artists Kendall Buster, Carol Brown Goldberg, Dalya Luttwak, and Foon Sham.