[4][5][6][9] The Gallery's permanent collection includes more than 93,000 works by European, American, Asian, Canadian, and Indigenous artists.

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.

Comfort had allowed the Gallery to host the exhibition, despite being warned about the works by the director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

[11] After the Canada's Constitution was patriated in 1982, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced a shift in policy focus towards the "creation of a nation," with priority given to the arts in an effort to enrich Canadian identity.

[16] As a result of this dissolution, the National Gallery reacquired its institutional independence, along with the mandate and powers outlined in its formative legislative act prior to 1968.

In December 2000, the National Gallery announced it suspected approximately 100 works from its collection was plunder stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War.

[22] On 19 April 2019, he was succeeded by Alexandra Suda, who was appointed the 11th Director and chief executive officer of the National Gallery of Canada.

Under Sasha Suda, the Gallery underwent a major re-branding, dubbed Ankosé, to be more inclusive and work towards reconciliation.

[23] The National Gallery of Canada is housed in a building on Sussex Drive, adjacent to the ByWard Market district.

[16] However, because the groundwork for the building was already completed, Mulroney chose to continue funding construction for the Gallery, albeit at a reduced total budget of C$162 million.

[16] The building's northern, eastern, and western exterior facade is made up of pink-granite walls, or glass-windows.

[24] The southern exterior facade features an elongated glass wall, supported by concrete pylons grouped in fours.

The third tier of the cupola is formed with similar designs, although the triangular glass panes are isosceles triangles.

[27] The interior entrance lobby is floored with pink-granite, and includes a straight four metres (13 ft) wide ramp which slopes upward towards the west.

[30] A glass and steel ceiling reminiscent of Gothic cathedral architecture, extends the entire way of the ramp.

[30] The summit of the ramp leads towards the Great Hall of the building, situated in the three-storey glass cupola.

[31] As of October 2018, the National Gallery of Canada's permanent collection holds more than 93,625 works,[1] representing several artistic movements and eras in art history.

[34] The Gallery's prints and drawings collection includes 27,000 works on paper, dating from the 15th century to the present day.

[41] Other artists featured in the collection include William Berczy, Jack Bush, Paul-Émile Borduas, Emily Carr, Robert Field, Vera Frenkel, Theophile Hamel, Joseph Légaré, Cornelius Krieghoff, Fernand Leduc, Alexandra Luke, Ken Lum, James Wilson Morrice, John O'Brien, Antoine Plamondon, William Raphael, Jean-Paul Riopelle, William Ronald, Michael Snow, Lisa Steele, Jeff Wall, Joyce Wieland, Paul Wong, and members of the Regina Five.

[44] In 1979, Henry Birks bequeathed a large collection to NGC consisting primarily of Quebecois pre-confederation silver; this bequest of more than 12,000 objects included around 16 works by Indigenous artists.

[35] A number of Indigenous artists whose works are featured in the collection include Kenojuak Ashevak, Kiawak Ashoona, Qaqaq Ashoona, Carl Beam, Faye HeavyShield, Osuitok Ipeelee, Rita Letendre, Norval Morrisseau, Shelley Niro, David Ruben Piqtoukun, Abraham Anghik Ruben, Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, Jeffrey Thomas, John Tiktak, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun.

The first Indigenous Canadian contemporary artwork acquired by the National Gallery was purchased in 1987, a piece called The North American Iceberg (1985) by Ojibwe artist Carl Beam.

[47] In 2017, Bob Rennie donated a contemporary art collection to the National Gallery in honour of Canada' 150th anniversary.

[34] In 1990 the Gallery bought Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire for $1.8 million, igniting a storm of controversy.

Other contemporary artists whose works are featured in the National Gallery's collection include David Altmejd, Lee Bul, Janet Cardiff, Bharti Kher, Christian Marclay, Elizabeth McIntosh, Chris Ofili, Paine, Ugo Rondinone, and Joanne Tod.

[52] In 2018, the Gallery acquired The Partie Carée by James Tissot from the collection of David R. Graham, putting it on display in December 2018.

[40] Other artists featured in the museum's European collection includes Alejo Fernández, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Gustav Klimt, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Henri Matisse, Charles Meynier, Claude Monet, Rembrandt, and Vincent van Gogh.

[40][36] The library and archives of the National Gallery of Canada hold an extensive collection of literature on Canadian art.

[54] The library and archives was established alongside the Gallery in 1880, and contains documents on western art from the Late Middle Ages to the present day.

The library and archives' special collections includes over 50,000 auction catalogues, in addition to 182,000 slides and 360,000 research photographs.