The enigmatic, patrician bust of a woman, her braided raven tresses swept back into a coiled chignon, gazes serenely into a gallery of ever-changing exhibits of modern art and sculpture. Marion Koogler McNay is perfectly at home here. The magnificent, Mediterranean mansion was her home from its construction by the fabled architects Robert and Atlee Ayers in 1926 until her death in 1950.

The youthful Marion Koogler was described in 1915 by the Marion, Ohio, superintendent of schools as "one of the best qualified art teachers I have ever known. ... She teaches Art in a manner that arouses and develops the child's observation and enlarges his aesthetic nature." It was not long after this that she met and married Don McNay, who died only a year later in the tragic influenza epidemic of 1918. Marion was to wed four more times, eventually returning to her first married name, McNay.

Mansion in the Hills

Marion and her mother moved to San Antonio in 1926, where she married Dr. Donald Atkinson and the couple proceeded to build the magnificent 24-room, tile-roofed, white villa on 23 rolling acres in Sunset Hills, north of downtown San Antonio. She bought her first oil painting, Diego Rivera's "Delfina Flores," shortly after moving in, and began to steadfastly and discriminatingly collect French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pieces, as well as the works of such early 20th-century modernists as Picasso, Matisse and Chagall. The mansion rooms now house these works of art, as well as a Medieval and Gothic collection -- the latter temporarily closed because of intensive restoration and renovation work on the stately home.

Upon her death in 1950, Marion Koogler McNay bequeathed her art collection, the mansion and its grounds to a permanent foundation dedicated to "the advancement and enjoyment of modern art," a legacy that continues a half-century later as the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum. The McNay, the first modern art museum in Texas, continues to acquire noteworthy works, as well as serve as host to important traveling exhibits in its several newer gallery wings.

Picasso and More

In the McNay's permanent collections you will find distinguished works by Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, O'Keefe, Cassatt and Hopper and a collection of prints and drawings considered one of the finest in the Southwest. The striking Tobin Gallery of Theatre Arts, with its extensive collection of thousands of rare books, stage designs, drawings, prints and posters, features rotating exhibits focusing on the theater and was a gift of the late patron of the arts, Robert Tobin. The current exhibition, "Exposed: the Performer Backstage," offers a glimpse of theatrical performers during backstage preparations in a collection of rare photographs.

Intriguing sculptures dot the museum grounds, from the fluid, metallic "Horizontal Column of Five Squares II (Excentric)" on the front lawn to the forlorn Don Quixote, still clutching his broken lance, in an alcove in the lush courtyard. Sculpture is a rapidly expanding facet of the McNay, with "Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk," currently featured in the Lang Gallery through Aug. 19. On display are 60 sculptures and 20 drawings by the Polish sculptor in various media -- the first major examination of Nadelman's work in more than 25 years.

Yes, Marion Koogler McNay is still teaching art. And visitors to the McNay Art Museum are her fortunate students.

The McNay Art Museum
6000 N. New Braunfels
210-824-5368
Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sun., noon-5 p.m.
Free