National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art A place where everyone is welcome to explore and experience art, creativity, and shared humanity. Mellon in 1937. Pei, and the verdant 6.1-acre Sculpture Garden.
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About the Gallery:
Masterworks by the most renowned European and American artists, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder, await visitors to the National Gallery of Art, one of the world's preeminent art museums. The Gallery’s collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals,

and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Open to the public free of charge, the Gallery was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of Andrew W. The Gallery’s campus includes the original neoclassical West Building designed by John Russell Pope, which is linked underground to the modern East Building designed by I.M. Temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art are presented frequently.

01/17/2025

This is the town where Claude Monet grew up.

On the northern coast of France, Le Havre was where Monet first learned to paint, where he found his true calling.

When he was 19, he left for Paris to study art, but he still came back to Le Havre often to see his family. In his young adulthood, he made nearly 30 paintings there—pictures of the beach and seaside resorts.

As Monet matured, so did his art. He focused less on the familiar attractions and began to notice the city in new and unexpected ways—painting his unique impression of construction sites and the town harbor. And it was there where he created “Impression: Sunrise”—the painting that gave the impressionist movement its name.

Le Havre grounded his art and shaped his legacy.

Before our show closes on Sunday, stop by to see this painting in person ➡️ https://bit.ly/4g0BTwi
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🖼 Claude Monet, “Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor, Le Havre,” 1874, oil on canvas, collection of Michael G. Herman Société Anonyme 1874, no. 96
🎥 Animation by Fgreat

“I know I'm worth as much as they,” Berthe Morisot once said when compared to male artists. Throughout her career, the F...
01/16/2025

“I know I'm worth as much as they,” Berthe Morisot once said when compared to male artists.

Throughout her career, the French painter struggled to be taken seriously.

Even the renowned Édouard Manet, someone who knew her personally, wrote to a friend after meeting Berthe and her sister, Edma. He called them “charming,” but then added, “It’s annoying they’re not men,” like their talent couldn’t count because of their gender. Thankfully, Berthe Morisot never let this hold her back.

Her gift to the world was art that was deeply personal. She painted women existing in their everyday lives in a way that was not present in the work of her male counterparts during her time. Rather than simply looking at these women, in Morisot’s work, you take time to think about what it’s like to be them, alone in their worlds.

Her art reminds us of the importance of perspective, of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. Thank you, Berthe Morisot 💛

See her work up close and witness the birth of the impressionist revolution before closes on Sunday. Plan your visit: https://bit.ly/4g0BTwi
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🖼 Berthe Morisot, “The Mother and Sister of the Artist,” 1869/1870, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection

🖼 Berthe Morisot, “At the Edge of the Forest (Edma and Jeanne),” 1872, watercolor and graphite on paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Who painted this portrait? It was a mystery for over a century. Now we know the artist was the first documented Black po...
01/15/2025

Who painted this portrait? It was a mystery for over a century.

Now we know the artist was the first documented Black portrait painter in American art history.

His name was Joshua Johnson.

For more than 100 years, Johnson’s work went uncredited. Despite the meticulousness and distinctive style of his paintings, no one knew Johnson was the one who created them. His talent, his vision was hidden from history.

Johnson rarely signed his portraits, and any images of himself disappeared over time, deepening the mystery of his identity. Then in 1939, his story was finally rediscovered by Maryland art historian J. Hall Pleasants.

Pleasants attributed 13 paintings to Johnson and worked to reconstruct his life and career based on the limited information available. Among the many questions raised about the artist have been his race, the spelling of his name (Johnson or Johnston), and essential details about his life.

Thanks to additional research and discoveries, we now know that Joshua Johnson was born around 1763. His father was white, and his mother was a Black woman enslaved by a Maryland farmer. Johnson's father bought him from the farmer and arranged for his freedom. What happened to Johnson’s mother, however, remains unknown.

As a free man, Joshua Johnson became a working artist in Baltimore, painting more than 80 portraits over the course of his career. In a newspaper advertisement for his services, he radiated confidence, marketing himself as a "self-taught genius" who had "experienced many insuperable obstacles” in the pursuit of his art.

To this day, scholars are still piecing together Johnson’s story. It's unclear why he started painting portraits, or how he developed his craft, or even when exactly he died.

Johnson's overdue acknowledgment raises a larger question: What other African American artists from this period have been forgotten or erased? What other stories are out there, waiting to be uncovered in the years ahead?
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🖼 Joshua Johnson, “Family Group,” 1800, oil on canvas, 34 x 53 in., Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

01/13/2025

Alone in a tower filled with the world’s largest display of sculptures by Alexander Calder. ✨

In this room filled with moving sculptures by Calder, giant mobiles are suspended in the sky. They turn and dance as you cohabit their space. One of the most extraordinary things about these deceptively gravity-defying objects is that they are supported by a force the size of your thumbnail: a tiny hook.

In the mid-1930s, in addition to developing his classic mobiles, Calder began to explore the concept of creating three-dimensional paintings in motion. The movement of these sculptures results in flashes of forms and colors, a complex choreography of elements that blurs the line between circumstance and permanence.

Plan your visit to see these dancing sculptures in person 🔎 https://bit.ly/4g0x8S5
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📍 East Building, Tower, Gallery 606
© 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

On this National Day of Mourning, we honor an often-overlooked aspect of Jimmy Carter’s presidency: his steadfast advoca...
01/09/2025

On this National Day of Mourning, we honor an often-overlooked aspect of Jimmy Carter’s presidency: his steadfast advocacy for the arts.

An oil painter himself, President Jimmy Carter relentlessly supported American artists. He understood that art was essential to the soul of a flourishing democracy. It was this belief that drove him to tirelessly promote, support, and champion American art and artists.

From the outset of his 1976 presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter made it clear that he valued the role of artists in shaping America’s cultural landscape–for example, by asking renowned pop artist Andy Warhol to design his campaign posters. Warhol portrayed Carter not only as a political candidate, but also a symbol of renewal–someone ready to embrace a changing society.

During his administration, President Carter supported the arts through initiatives like the expansion of the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA), which provided job opportunities for artists during economically difficult times. CETA supported the careers of many artists, including Dawoud Bey and Spike Lee. He also expanded the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), helping to ensure that artists across the country had access to resources.

At the 1978 opening of our East Building, President Carter delivered a powerful address on what he called the “delicate” relationship between government and the arts. He asserted that the American government must never try to dictate which art is “good or true or beautiful,” but instead “limit itself to nourishing the ground in which art and the love of art can grow.”

Today, we remember with gratitude President Carter’s many contributions to the arts. His leadership helped ensure that art remains not just a part of our culture, but a vital force within the American experience—one that continues to inspire, challenge, and move us all.
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📷 Photographs: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Gallery Archives

🖼 Jimmy Carter, “My Studio, Self-Portrait,” 2009, 48 x 36 in., oil on canvas, from the book: “The Paintings of Jimmy Carter (2018) by Jimmy Carter,” Courtesy Mercer University Press

🖼 Andy Warhol, "Jimmy Carter I 150," 1976, 39 x 29 in., Screenprint on Strathmore Bristol Paper, Yield Gallery

  62 years ago, the Mona Lisa was in DC. In 1963, Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting was on view in our West Build...
01/09/2025

62 years ago, the Mona Lisa was in DC.

In 1963, Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting was on view in our West Building.

It was during a visit with the French Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux, that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy proposed the idea of presenting “Mona Lisa” in Washington.

Malraux was open to the suggestion, and by the end of the year, the painting was transported from Paris across the Atlantic Ocean on board the SS France. The masterpiece was installed on a red velvet-draped baffle and was guarded around the clock by United States Marines.

Over the course of 26 days, 518,525 visitors came to pay homage to this alluring beauty. Mona Lisa returned home to the Louvre after one last stop at The Met. A few years later, the National Gallery was able to bring another Leonardo portrait to Washington, this time permanently, with our acquisition of “Ginevra de’Benci.” 💛

Tired of idyllic winter landscapes, Robert Henri painted the uglier parts of a snow day: the sludge, the fog, and the ha...
01/08/2025

Tired of idyllic winter landscapes, Robert Henri painted the uglier parts of a snow day: the sludge, the fog, and the hassle.

Far from a winter wonderland, Henri’s Snow in New York (1902) looks nothing like the idealized impressionist snow scenes of his time.

It exposes the gritty reality of living in a snow-drenched city, days after the exhilarating first snow. The colors become dark and somber. People trudge through un-shoveled gray slush and yellow mud. The vibes are utterly bleak.

Rather than a bustling major avenue or a blissful spot in Central Park, Henri decided to paint an unremarkable side street near his studio.

Look closely, and you’ll spot an inscription of “March 5, 1902,” which implies he captured that scene in a single day.

Reactions were mixed when Henri showed Snow in New York and other cityscapes at an exhibition. While some praised his bold brushwork, one critic overheard less enthusiastic remarks from fellow attendees.

"It is evident that his landscapes are regarded by many as sketches, or thoughts half-expressed,” the critic wrote.

While Snow in New York sold, most of Henri’s cityscapes didn’t attract buyers. Frustrated, he redirected his efforts to portraiture, where he would ultimately find fame and commercial success.

But some scholars argue Henri’s urban scenes are woefully underappreciated—and that Snow in New York is the most accomplished work of his early career.

Henri strove to paint reality, even when reality was at a glance boring or unpleasant. As an art teacher, he urged his students not to shy away from the ugliness of everyday life, but to look for the beauty within that ugliness. “You can find it anywhere, everywhere.”
🖼 Robert Henri, “Snow in New York,” 1902, oil on canvas, 32 x 25 in., Chester Dale Collection

Adding a pop of color to your snow day. We’re closed today and tomorrow (January 6 & 7) due to inclement weather and roa...
01/06/2025

Adding a pop of color to your snow day.

We’re closed today and tomorrow (January 6 & 7) due to inclement weather and road closures. But anyone who decides to make a Blue Rooster-inspired snow man this week gets a repost.
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💙 Katharina Fritsch, “Hahn / Cock,” 2013, glass fiber reinforced polyester resin fixed on stainless steel supporting structure, 173 × 173 × 59 in., Gift of Glenstone Museum

01/04/2025

Freezing weather and impending snowstorms are the perfect excuse to stay inside and bake a cake inspired by Wayne Thiebaud, if you ask us.

Christian and Giancarlo Guevara, twin brothers and co-owners of dbakers Sweet Studio, were so inspired by Thiebaud’s frosted creations that they decided to bring them to life in their own kitchen.

Thiebaud’s process was about turning the everyday into something extraordinary. His journey began when he worked as a dishwasher, observing pies, cakes, and processed foods around him. Though he initially feared no one would take him seriously, he began painting them anyway.

He studied the basic shapes of his subjects—cakes, pies, and other familiar foods—and focused on making them “sit” on the canvas in a way that created geometric depth and texture. There’s something in the ritual of baking—the careful measuring, the frosting, the layering—that mirrors Thiebaud’s process: a balance of precision and creativity, where a cake is both an object of beauty and a simple pleasure.
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🖼 Wayne Thiebaud, “Cakes,” 1963, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 in., Collectors Committee and The Circle Gift, with Additional Support from the Abrams Family in Memory of Harry N. Abrams

01/03/2025

Hay que hablar más de Emilio Amero.

Formó parte del mismo grupo de muralistas mexicanos que Diego Rivera y José Clemente Orozco, un conjunto que creó murales que ahora son emblemáticos de la época y del país.

Pero también hacía litografías, como la que nos comenta aquí nuestra compañera, Angélica ⬇️
🖼 Emilio Amero, "Madre e hijo", 1935, litografía, 23 x 19 cm, Colección Rosenwald
📍 Edificio este, planta baja — galería 106-A

01/03/2025

The National Gallery Library is a sanctuary for introverts.

A new year brings new uncertainty. But Thomas Cole’s “Voyage of Life” invites us to embrace it.In a series of four paint...
01/02/2025

A new year brings new uncertainty. But Thomas Cole’s “Voyage of Life” invites us to embrace it.

In a series of four paintings, Thomas Cole traces the journey of a man traveling down a winding river. Each painting capturing a different stage of the heroic quest.

But this journey isn’t just a story about an adventure. It’s a story about life itself.

“The Voyage of Life” begins with “Childhood,” where a golden boat emerges from a cave, carrying a joyous baby while an angelic figure keeps watch.

Then: “Youth.” The voyager starts to take control at the helm of the boat, reaching toward his dreams with earnest hope. It’s unclear what lies ahead—anything could happen…

Suddenly, stormy skies and thrashing waters enter the picture in “Manhood.” The bearded voyager has fallen to his knees, surrendering control and clinging to faith.

Finally, in “Old Age,” he reaches calm waters. Angels beckon him toward a divine light radiating through the clouds.

Born from Cole’s desire to convey spiritual allegories through a “higher style of landscape,” this series offers us a bird’s-eye view of an entire lifetime, from beginning to end. But zooming in on the cusp of this new year, what else might “The Voyage of Life” teach us?

Today, much of the world is rushing to make New Year’s Resolutions—setting goals, planning for what’s next. But as we stand at the start of this new year, “The Voyage of Life” reminds us that the twists and turns of life are unpredictable—that no matter how much we plan, the river doesn’t always flow in a straight line. Maybe it’s okay to take in the journey as it comes.
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🖼 Thomas Cole, “The Voyage of Life: Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age,” 1842, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

“Woman with a Parasol” by Claude Monet. That’s it. That’s the post.🖼 Claude Monet, “Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet ...
01/01/2025

“Woman with a Parasol” by Claude Monet.

That’s it. That’s the post.
🖼 Claude Monet, “Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son,” 1875, oil on canvas, 39 x 31 in., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
📍 West Building, Main Floor, Gallery 85

For this portrait, Alice Neel didn’t ask her son, Hartley, to put on a happy face. She painted him as he was: exhausted ...
12/31/2024

For this portrait, Alice Neel didn’t ask her son, Hartley, to put on a happy face. She painted him as he was: exhausted and vulnerable.

It’s clear that Alice Neel’s 26-year-old son, Hartley, was preoccupied with his thoughts as he sat before his mother, a pioneering painter who redefined 20th-century American portraiture.

But Neel was never interested in depicting people’s most flattering moments. Hartley (1966) lays bare the harsh reality of her son’s circumstances as he trudged through medical school while the Vietnam War raged on.

Neel didn’t tell her son to smile, or to put on a dressier outfit, or to correct his slouched posture in the armchair. For her, asserting Hartley’s dignity meant capturing his true state of mind.

No matter whom Neel painted—her family, famous friends like Andy Warhol, blue-collar laborers, or her own aging body in the nude—she rendered her subjects with the same unrelenting honesty, in her signature emotive, blue-tinged brushwork.

Despite her distinctive approach, Neel went relatively unrecognized for most of her artistic journey, as emerging movements like abstract expressionism were more in vogue than portraiture. The art world finally began paying attention to her work in her 60s, during the rise of second-wave feminism and a renewed interest in realist representation.

But no matter how her career ebbed and flowed, she would always return to Hartley, whom she painted “many hundreds” of times.

Out of her love for her child and her commitment to her artistic vision, Neel painted Hartley as she truly saw him: imperfect.

In an age of edited photos and curated feeds, what might we learn from Neel’s raw, unvarnished representations of her son? And during a time of year when there may be pressure to perform cheeriness, what might it mean to allow ourselves and one another to simply feel what we feel, regardless of whether it looks picture-perfect?

12/31/2024

Sketching a Vermeer. ✍️✨

Visitor Gustavo Ramos was so captivated by Vermeer's masterpiece “Woman Holding a Balance” that he decided to sketch it quickly during his visit.

What do you think of his sketch?

Some flowers for you, just because. 🌹 Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known around the world for his contributions to the impre...
12/30/2024

Some flowers for you, just because. 🌹

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known around the world for his contributions to the impressionist movement. What’s less known is his magnificent early work.

Like many of us, in his younger years, Renoir was still trying to find his voice. Before the vibrant colors and loose brushstrokes that characterized his later works, Renoir had a much different style—a style that reveals a side of him that's often overshadowed by his later success.

The artist made this painting, “Flowers in a Vase,” when he was 25 years old. The composition is filled with muted colors and exquisite detail. You can see the labor of love that went into each stroke, each shadow—not surprising considering his training as a young porcelain painter, which required a greater degree of procession and elegance.

Although it’s a far cry from the more spontaneous flair of his later years, Renoir’s early work is a reminder that beneath every masterpiece lies the essence of exploration, waiting to be embraced. 💛
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🖼 Auguste Renoir, "Flowers in a Vase," 1866, oil on canvas, 32 x 25 in., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Today, we remember President Jimmy Carter.This photograph captures a moment from the opening of our East Building, where...
12/30/2024

Today, we remember President Jimmy Carter.

This photograph captures a moment from the opening of our East Building, where President Carter stands with the building's architect, I.M. Pei, alongside Second Lady Joan Mondale, Bunny and Paul Mellon, and J. Carter Brown.

In his speech that day, President Carter said, “The building we dedicate today is a reaffirmation in this generation that human values—the expression of courage and love, in triumph over despair—will always endure.”

12/29/2024

John Singer Sargent’s landscapes are underrated. 👀

Sargent, who was a superstar of Gilded Age portraiture on both sides of the Atlantic, found himself increasingly weary of the demands of that high-profile life in the early 1900s. He even went so far as to announce he was "shutting up shop in the portrait line," to focus more on landscapes.

And here's the thing: his landscapes are imbued with the same dazzling variety of brushwork that made his portraits so vibrant. Take a look at his “En route pour la pêche” painting, for example. The way he captures sunlight and deep shadows in that seaside scene—it’s nothing short of brilliant. His landscapes are a testament to his incredible range and skill, revealing an entirely different facet of his artistry.
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🖼 John Singer Sargent, “En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish),” 1878, oil on canvas, 31 × 48 in., Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund)

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