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Watson And The Shark By John Singleton Copley

Art in Practice: Encountering the Buddha

Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley depicts the rescue of the boy from a shark attack in Havana harbor, Cuba. This painting is based on the true story of an attack that took place in 1749.

The English boy Brook Watson, then a 14-year-old cabin boy, lost his leg in the attack. He was not rescued until the third attempt by the shark, which is the subject of the painting.

The shark attack on Watson resulted in the loss of his right leg below the knee. However, he went on to have a distinguished career, including becoming a Lord Mayor of London.

Small Cowper Madonna By Raphael

The Small Cowper Madonna is a painting by Raphael, depicting Mary and Child in the 1500s Italian countryside. It was painted around 1505 during the middle of the High Renaissance.

The composition is centered on the seated Madonna in a bright red dress she is shown with fair skin and blonde hair.

She is sitting comfortably on a wooden bench, and across her lap is a dark blue drapery upon which her right hand delicately rests. There is also a sheer translucent ribbon elegantly flowing across the top of her dress and behind her head.

The faintest golden halo miraculously surrounds her head. In her left hand, she holds the baby Christ, who embraces her with one arm around her back, the other around her neck. He also has blonde hair and is looking back over his shoulder with a coy smile.

Madame Moitessier By Jean

Madame Moitessier by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is a portrait of Marie-Clotilde-Inès Moitessier completed in 1851 which depicts the subject standing in a black dress looking directly at the viewer.

Madame Moitessier was the daughter of a French civil servant who married a wealthy banker and merchant, who was a widower twice her age.

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Saint Jerome By El Greco

Saint Jerome by El Greco shows him as an ascetic with gaunt, sunken features and white hair and beard, which are symbolic of his history as a penitent and his retreat to the Syrian desert.

The cave-like setting recalls St Jeromes years as a hermit in the desert. The book symbolizes his scholarly activity. During the Renaissance, paintings showed Saint Jerome either in his study or performing acts of penance in the wilderness.

These pictures adorned the walls of the homes of many humanists and scholars.

Interior Of The Pantheon Rome By Giovanni Paolo Panini

National Gallery of Art (West Building) no. 04

Interior of the Pantheon, Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini depicts the interior of the famous and best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, the Pantheon.

The Pantheon has been a prominent tourist attraction in Rome for hundreds of years. Built by Hadrian in 113125 AD, this grand domed temple has survived structurally intact because it was consecrated as a Christian church, St. Mary and the Martyrs, in 609 AD.

Panini populated the scene with foreign visitors. He featured a diverse mix of Romans and visitors from all parts of society. They congregate in the Pantheon to pray and to admire the fantastic architecture.

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Whats Inside The National Gallery Of Art

The National Gallery of Art regularly features temporary exhibits that highlight distinctive artists in a range of mediums. From Renaissance masters to modern-day marvels, you will be able to take in creations that advance and challenge form and structure. Be sure to check out the museums current exhibits and installations as you plan your visit.

After a three-year renovation, the Gallerys East Building has added two sky-lit tower galleries, two staircases connecting all levels of the museum, a rooftop terrace with a dazzling blue rooster sculpture and more than 500 works of art, including pieces by Alexander Calder, Barbara Kruger, Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko. The I.M. Pei-designed wing sleekly contrasts the Beaux Arts and Classical architecture throughout DC, making it a must-visit for those looking to have their mind blown by art.

Connecting the West and East Buildings is Leo Villareals incredible Multiverse installation. More than 41,000 LED nodes light up the 200-foot space, creating abstract configurations that literally light your way as you head from one building to the other via an underground concourse.

The National Gallery of Art also hosts events throughout the year, including concerts, guided tours, gallery talks and much more. Check the museums calendar before you go.

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Street In Venice By John Singer Sargent

Street in Venice by John Singer Sargent is an oil on wood painting that depicts a young woman walking along the flagstones, kicking her skirt with her feet. She is being observed by two darkly colored men in the shadows to her right.

Her down-turned eyes, her crossed hands, and steady pace as she passes the two men, show the womans concern with the male glare as she deliberately avoids their attention. Her shawl and skirt are shown flowing in motion, suggesting that she is moving quickly past them.

Sargent painted this work in a post-impressionist manner. It is set in a backstreet off the Calle Larga dei Proverbi, near the Grand Canal in Venice.

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Adrienne By Amedeo Modigliani

Adrienne by Amedeo Modigliani is similar to Modiglianis other iconic and stylized portraits.

Adrienne is depicted with a simplified, elongated oval face, gracefully sculptured nose, and simplified mouth highlight Modiglianis interest in African masks.

Modigliani used portraiture to explore both his psychology and that of his subjects, who were typically fellow artists, friends, or lovers.

Modigliani drew inspiration from the art of so-called primitive cultures, his work often resembling African or Pre-Columbian sculpture.

Adriennes neck is elongated as in may other Modigliani portraits again echoing his appreciation of primitive sculptures.

Farmhouse In Provence By Vincent Van Gogh

The Smithsonian looks toward the “Futures”

Farmhouse in Provence by Vincent van Gogh depicts the entrance gate to a farm with haystacks beyond the gate and with the farmhouse in the background.

When Van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888, the landscape was covered with snow, but it was the sun that he enjoyed in Provence. And this painting captures the brilliant light that he sought.

Van Gogh simplified the forms and reduced the scene to the flat patterns he admired in Japanese woodblock prints. Arles, he said, was: the Japan of the South.

Van Gogh used pairs of complementary or contrasting, colors which together intensified the brilliance and intensity of one anothers colors.

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Connecting Lin’s Inner And Outer Life

The exhibition traces Lin’s life from her Ohio childhood, through her work on the many buildings and public art projects she’s designed all over the world, to accolades like earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

It also offers visitors insights into Lin’s vivid inner life.

Her sketchbooks buzz with energy, revealing an effervescent mind. There’s the gray-brimmed, wool hat Lin wore to help her hide from the media when she was going through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial debacle. Then there’s the glass case with a pair of tiny, frolicking deer crafted by the artist out of silver when she was a high schooler. The animated creations reflect Lin’s lifelong love of the natural world.

The exhibition touches on this passion through an interactive installation, where visitors can jot down memories of favorite places now lost to environmental destruction and attach them to a large, vinyl map. The installation is part of What Is Missing?, Lin’s multi-faceted climate change project.

The map is covered with reminiscences about everything from a once pristine, now landfill-polluted lake in New Hampshire to a wildfire that ravaged wildlife and farms near a visitor’s grandfather’s town in Spain.

“We hear, we read, we understand it’s a little abstract,” said Lin of the limitations of the usual messaging around climate change. “But how do we make it personal? Because I think you have to, in the end, communicate not just the facts. You have to get people to feel.”

An Original Work Of Art

The original museum, now known as the West Building, was designed by architect John Russell Pope, who also designed the Jefferson Memorial. The Neoclassical-style building is made from pink Tennessee marble and features a dome rotunda modeled after the interior of the Pantheon in Rome. Wings off the rotunda boast sky-lit exhibition halls. Completed in 1941, the building occupies the site of the former Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station where disgruntled office seeker Charles Guiteau assassinated President James Garfield in 1881.

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Waterloo Bridge By Claude Monet

Waterloo Bridge by Claude Monet is one in a series of paintings of the famous bridge in London. All of the pictures in the Waterloo Bridge series share the same viewpoint overlooking the Thames.

The paintings depict different times of the day and very different weather and light conditions. From 1899 through 1901, Monet set up his paints in the Savoy hotel and on the rivers north bank and painted the bridge over 40 times.

He depicted the Waterloo Bridge more than either the Houses of Parliament or the Charing Cross Bridge, from his two other London series.

Symphony In White No 1 By James Abbott Mcneill Whistler

Washington Academic Internship Program: Smithsonian American Art Museum ...

Symphony in White, No. 1 by James Abbott McNeill Whistler shows a woman in full figure standing on a wolf skin in front of a white curtain with a white lily in her hand.

The woman is dressed all in white, which is the color scheme of the painting. The painting was initially called The White Girl, but later, Whistler called it Symphony in White, No. 1.

Art critics have interpreted the painting as an allegory of innocence and its loss. This painting was an early experiment in white on white.

This color scheme was a subject he would return to later, in two other paintings that would be given the titles of Symphony in White, No. 2 and Symphony in White, No. 3 .

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What And Where Is The National Gallery Of Art

The National Gallery of Art and its gorgeous Sculpture Garden are located on Constitution Avenue NW between 3rd and 9th Streets NW. Through its East and West Buildings, the museum preserves, collects and exhibits works of art from numerous countries and historical eras. Its collection features roughly 141,000 paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and forms of new media that stretch all the way back to the Middle Ages.

The museum is open every day of the year except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. Its hours are 10 a.m. 5 p.m. from Monday Saturday and 11 a.m. 6 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is always free.

The easiest way to reach the National Gallery of Art is via Metrorail or the DC Circulator. The closest Metro stop is Archives Navy Memorial Penn Quarter on the Green and Yellow Lines. The DC Circulators National Mall route will take you near the Gallerys buildings and Sculpture Garden making it easy to continue your exploration of the National Mall afterward. The facility is handicap-accessible.

National Gallery Of Art: Of The Nation And For All The People

The National Gallery of Art, one of the world’s preeminent museums, preserves, collects, exhibits, and fosters the understanding of works of art at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards. The Gallery’s collection includes some 141,000 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, decorative arts, and new media tracing the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Temporary exhibitions span the world and the history of art, and free programs, including lectures, tours, concerts, films, and family activities, are offered year-round. The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden, located on the National Mall between Third and Ninth Streets at Constitution Avenue, NW, are open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and are closed on December 25 and January 1. Admission is free. For more information, visit nga.gov or call 737-4215.

Amenities

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Smithsonian Latino Center Announces Expansion Of Latino Museum Studies Program

The Smithsonian Latino Center announced plans to expand its internship and fellowship programs, launch a postdoctoral fellowship and consolidate them under its Latino Museum Studies Program brand. A new $2.1 million grant, provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will support the paid undergraduate internships and related components. The Latino Center will fund the graduate and postdoctoral fellowships.

We need to expand our programs if were going to develop the next generation of Latino museum professionals, said Eduardo Díaz, director of the Smithsonian Latino Center. Were grateful for the Mellon Foundations support they see the need to diversify museum workforces and understand how our approach addresses that.

LMSP is a pathway program designed to increase hands-on training opportunities for emerging museum professionals with an academic focus and interest in Latino Studies and the U.S. Latino experience. The Latino Center will partner with the National Gallery of Art and five colleges and universities that serve large or significant Latino student populations, most of them Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Through those partnerships, LMSP intends to diversify opportunities into non-curatorial museum studies and practice to include conservation, exhibition design, digital culture and museum education.

Quadrille At The Moulin Rouge By Henri De Toulouse

Conversations about Ceramics in the Freer Gallery of Art (Part 1)

At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is one of several works by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret built in Paris in 1889.

This painting portrays a group of three men and two women sitting around a table situated on the floor of the nightclub. In the background of this group is a self-portrait of Toulouse-Lautrec himself, who can be identified as the shorter stunted figure next to his taller companion.

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The Houses Of Parliament Sunset By Claude Monet

The Houses of Parliament by Claude Monet is one in a series of paintings of the Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament, created during the early 1900s while Monet stayed in London.

All of the series of paintings with similar titles share the same viewpoint from Monets terrace at St Thomas Hospital overlooking the Thames.

The set of pictures depict different times of the day, and various weather and light conditions, interestingly all on canvases are of approximately similar size.

National Museum Of African Art

Another Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African Art spans historic and contemporary art from sub0-saharan and Arab North Africa. It is the largest collection of African Art in the United States.

Hours, Tickets & Tours

Daily 10am-530pm . There is no admission to enter the Renwick Gallery.

Docent led tours are offered most days at 1030am, 12pm and 2pm. For the current schedule, visit their website.

How to get to the National Museum of African Art

The museum located on the National Mall on the Independence Ave side, just behind the Smithsonian Castle. The closest Metro to the National Museum of African Art is L’Enfant Plaza

Artwork & Exhibitions

The Museum currently has 11,861 objects. 10,746 are traditional and 1,115 contemporary. There is a rare Akan gold pendant and African masks from the 1400s, as well as modern photographs from South Africa.

Lesser Known & Underrated Art Galleries you should visit

  • Dupont Underground

Dupont Underground repurposes old underground trolley station underneath Dupont Circle into an art space and gallery. It is open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm with a $5 suggested donation.

  • Cultural House DC

The SouthWest Arts Club opens their gallery on Saturdays and Sundays 12pm-5pm. In addition to unique and incredible exhibits, the building is a must see. The historic 1886 Friendship Baptist Church retains it Victorian architecture but is painted with vibrant colors and scenes.

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American Art Museum And National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are two different museums that had their origins in the Smithsonians National Gallery of Art. They have been housed in the old Patent Office Building since 1968. The American Art Museum was established in 1907 under the name National Gallery of Art. The National Portrait Gallery was officially established in 1962, although the collections began in 1921. The postcards in this gallery show the Patent Office Building, as well as several items from the museums collections.

c. 1898-1901, Unknown creator, Courtesy of a private collector, No copy available at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.c. 1898-1901, Unknown creator, Courtesy of a private collector, No copy available at the Smithsonian Institution Archivesc. 1905, Unknown creator, Courtesy of a private collector, No copy available at the Smithsonian Institution Archivesc. 1906, Unknown creator, Courtesy of a private collector, No copy available at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.c. 1907-1915, Unknown, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 84, Folder: 25, Negative Number SIA2011-2283 and SIA2011-2284 .c. 1907-1915, Unknown creator, Courtesy of a private collector, No copy available at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.c. 1915-1930, B.S. Reynolds Co., Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 84, Folder: 25, Negative Numbers SIA2011-2297 and SIA2011-2298 .

National Gallery Of Art

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery &  Art Museum
National Gallery of Art

Show map of Washington, D.C.National Gallery of Art Show map of the United States
Interactive fullscreen map
1937 85 years ago
Location National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20565, National Mall, Washington, D.C.
1,704,606 ranked 6th globally
Director
Metrobus: 4th Street and 7th Street NW DC Circulator: 4th Street and Madison Drive 9th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Website .gov

The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated a substantial art collection and funds for construction. The core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, and Chester Dale. 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, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.

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