McNay Art Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, established in 1954, is Texas’s first modern art museum, featuring over 22,000 works, including medieval and Renaissance art, 19th- to 21st-century European and American paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, drawings, and the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts.
Planning your visit
The McNay was Texas's first museum of modern art, opened in 1954 in Marion Koogler McNay's Spanish Colonial Revival mansion — a heiress and painter who left her house, her collection and an endowment to the city.
The core is French post-Impressionist and modern European painting: Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani, alongside American modernists including O'Keeffe and Hopper. Over 22,000 works now span medieval and Renaissance material through to contemporary art, with substantial holdings of prints and drawings.
The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts is the unexpected strength: one of the most significant collections of stage design anywhere, with set and costume drawings, models and rare books covering four centuries of European and American theatre.
The house and its gardens, with a courtyard, fountains and a sculpture garden, are as much of the appeal as the collection.
It sits in Alamo Heights. Allow two hours. Bookable options include skip-the-line private tours. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is McNay Art Museum?
McNay Art Museum is in San Antonio, United States. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for McNay Art Museum?
Allow two hours. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book McNay Art Museum in advance?
Skip-the-line entry is worth booking ahead here: the saving is the queue, which is exactly what sells out.
