Ailsa Mellon Bruce

This 1926 portrait of Ailsa Mellon Bruce by Philip Alexius De Laszlo hangs in the Founders Room at the National Gallery of Art in Washington,DC.

Ailsa Mellon Bruce (June 28, 1901 – August 25, 1969) was a prominent American socialite and philanthropist who established the Avalon Foundation...

At her death in 1969, Ailsa Bruce bequeathed 153 paintings, primarily by 19th-century French artists, to the National Gallery of Art, as well as establishing a fund for future acquisitions. Among the many works acquired by the Gallery through the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund was the portrait of Ginevra de' Benci, the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the United States. In 1969, the assets of Paul Mellon’s Old Dominion Foundation were merged into his sister's Avalon Foundation, which was renamed the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in honor of their father. -- Wikipedia

Ailsa was the daughter of banker and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon and his first wife Nora Mary (née McMullen) Mellon. She was the sister of Paul Mellon. America's National Gallery of Art - The First Fifty Years  says that “In June 1901 Nora [Mellon] bore a daughter and christened her Ailsa, the name of a British noble family and a remote, uninhabited island in Scotland’s Firth of Clyde.”

The Library of Congress miss-identifies this 1923 photo of Ailsa Mellon in riding clothes as Alisa Mellon.

But they spell her name right when identifying her cigarette smoking dog, Alex.

“‘Alex’, 1924 -  prize German police dog and pet of Miss Ailsa Mellon, daughter of Treas. smokes cigarettes n'everything” -- LOC

Ailsa Mellon married David Bruce in 1926. This photo appeared the Key West Citizen  on the first of June.

Here comes the Bride.

Mr. and Mrs. David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce, immediately after their marriage, which took place Saturday in Bethlehem Chapel of the Episcopal Cathedral, Washington. The bride, the former Ailsa Mellon, 25-year-old daughter of Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, here is shown with the full detail of her costume, including pearls at her throat, bouquet, short skirt and veil. The tall bridegroom is 28, the son of United States Senator William Cabell Bruce of Maryland.

In 1932 a photo of a portrait of Mrs. David K. Este Bruce by Savely Sorine appeared in the Indianapolis Times in a article entitled “Ailsa Mellon Bruce Will be Arbiter for Father in London Social Affairs.”

The 1969 Report of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation included this portrait of Ailsa Mellon Bruce: