National Gallery of Art, DC

A Virtual Tour of the National Gallery of Art

• “Ginevra de’ Benci” by Leonardo da Vinci
• “A Young Girl Reading” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
• “Small Cowper Madonna” by Raphael
• “The Alba Madonna” by Raphael
• “Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani
• “Nude on a Blue Cushion” by Amedeo Modigliani
• “Saint Jerome” by El Greco
• “The Houses of Parliament, Sunset” by Claude Monet (National Gallery of Art, DC)
• “Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)” by Winslow Homer
• “Madame Moitessier” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• “Adrienne (Woman with Bangs)” by Amedeo Modigliani
• “Watson and the Shark” by John Singleton Copley
• “The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries” by Jacques-Louis David
• “The Boating Party” by Mary Cassatt
• “Interior of the Pantheon, Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
• “Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in “Chilpéric” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• “Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• “A Dutch Courtyard” by Pieter de Hooch
• “The Mother and Sister of the Artist” by Berthe Morisot
• “New York” by George Bellows
• “Self-Portrait” by John Singleton Copley
• “Self-Portrait” by Benjamin West

• “Symphony in White, No. 1″ by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
• A Prince of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder
• A Princess of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder
• “Skiffs on the Yerres” by Gustave Caillebotte
• “The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna” by Raphael
• “The Equatorial Jungle” by Henri Rousseau
• Masterpieces of the National Gallery of Art
• “Venus and Adonis” by Titian
• “Waterloo Bridge” by Claude Monet
• “Christ at the Sea of Galilee” by Circle of Tintoretto
• “Both Members of This Club” by George Bellows
• “Club Night” by George Bellows
• “Farmhouse in Provence” by Vincent van Gogh
• “Girl in White” by Vincent van Gogh
• “Street in Venice” by John Singer Sargent
• “Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son” by Claude Monet
• “A Lady Writing a Letter” by Johannes Vermeer
• “Tale of Creation” – “Genesis II” by Franz Marc
• “The Skater “by Gilbert Stuart
• “The Washington Family” by Edward Savage
• “The House Maid” by William McGregor Paxton
• “Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd White” by John Singer Sargent
• “La Mousmé” by Vincent van Gogh

Highlights Tour of the National Gallery of Art

“Ginevra de’ Benci” by Leonardo da Vinci

Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo da Vinci depicts a well-known young Florentine aristocrat. Leonardo painted the portrait in Florence in 1474 to commemorate Ginevra’s marriage at the age of 16.

The juniper bush that fills much of the background was regarded as a symbol of female virtue, in Renaissance Italy, while the Italian word for juniper, echo’s Ginevra’s name.

Ginevra is shown beautiful but reserved with no hint of a smile. Her gaze, although forward, seems indifferent to the viewer.

“A Young Girl Reading” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

“A Young Girl Reading” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard depicts a girl in profile wearing a lemon yellow dress with a white ruff collar and cuffs and purple ribbons.

The girl is reading from a small book held, and a cushion resting against a wall supports her back. Her face and dress are lit from the front.

Fragonard used fine brushwork on the face and looser brushwork on the dress and cushion and the ruff, which was scratched into the paint with the end of a brush.

“Small Cowper Madonna” by Raphael

The “Small Cowper Madonna” is a painting by Raphael, depicting Mary and Child in the 1500’s 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.

“The Alba Madonna” by Raphael

“The Alba Madonna” by Raphael depicts three figures all looking at the cross; they represent the Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist as a child.

The figures are grouped to the left in the round composition. The outstretched arm of the Madonna and the resting elbow on the stump with her enveloping cloak balance the group image.

“Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani

“Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani is one of the dozens of nudes created by Modigliani in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures that echo precursors such as Titian, Goya, and Velázquez.

However, Modigliani’s figures differ significantly in the level of raw sensuality they transmit.

Unlike depictions of female nudes from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, in which female nudity is couched in mythology or allegory, this series of paintings are without any such context, highlighting the painting’s eroticism.

“Nude on a Blue Cushion” by Amedeo Modigliani

“Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani is one of the dozens of nudes created by Modigliani in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures that echo precursors such as Titian, Goya, and Velázquez.

However, Modigliani’s figures differ significantly in the level of raw sensuality they transmit.

Unlike depictions of female nudes from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, in which female nudity is couched in mythology or allegory, this series of paintings are without any such context, highlighting the painting’s eroticism.

“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 Jerome’s 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.

“The Houses of Parliament, Sunset” by Claude Monet (National Gallery of Art, DC)

“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 Monet’s 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.

“Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)” by Winslow Homer

 “Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)” by Winslow Homer is an iconic painting of a father and three boys out for a spirited sail.

Homer had a sensibility that allowed him to distill art from potentially sentimental subjects and to yield straightforward views of American life of the period. 

Homer painted warm and appealing images that appealed to the postwar nostalgia for a simpler, more innocent America. 

Following a trip to Europe in 1866–1867, Homer adopted a warmer palette and a technique, which owed much to the influence of French artists such as Courbet, Manet, and Monet.

“Madame Moitessier” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

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

Madame Moitessier (1821–1897) was the daughter of a French civil servant who married a wealthy banker and merchant, who was a widower twice her age.

“Adrienne (Woman with Bangs)” by Amedeo Modigliani

Adrienne (Woman with Bangs) by Amedeo Modigliani is similar to Modigliani’s other iconic and stylized portraits.

Adrienne is depicted with a simplified, elongated oval face, gracefully sculptured nose, and simplified mouth highlight Modigliani’s 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.

Adrienne’s neck is elongated as in may other Modigliani portraits again echoing his appreciation of “primitive” sculptures.

“Watson and the Shark” by John Singleton Copley

“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.

“The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries” by Jacques-Louis David

“The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries” by Jacques-Louis David shows Napoleon standing. This portrait is three-quarters life-size, wearing the uniform of a colonel of the Imperial Guard Foot Grenadiers with his military decorations.

Napoleon is looking at the viewer and poses with his right hand is in his jacket. His face is reminiscent of Churchill’s early portraits of determination. 

On the desk are a pen, several books, dossiers, and rolled-up papers. More rolled documents and a map are on the green carpet to the left of the desk.

Napoleon is shown with unbuttoned cuffs, wrinkled stockings, disheveled hair. The flickering candles are nearly spent, and the time on the clock is 4.13 am.

These symbols are all meant to imply he has been up all night, writing laws such as the Code Napoléon. The word “Code” is prominent on the rolled papers on the desk.

“The Boating Party” by Mary Cassatt

“The Boating Party” by Mary Cassatt depicts a woman, baby, and man in a sailboat. It is one of her largest oil paintings and is an unusual painting compared to Cassatt’s other artworks.

While it does show her familiar theme of a mother and child, most of her other pictures are set in domestic interiors or gardens.

In this painting, Cassatt expertly contrasts the dark figure of the oarsman with colorfully dressed figures of mother and child. In 1890 Cassatt visited the great Japanese Print exhibition in Paris, and she started collecting Japanese prints, which had a significant influence on her.

In this picture, Cassatt placed the horizon at the very top of the frame in the Japanese fashion.

“Interior of the Pantheon, Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Panini

“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 113–125 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.

“Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in Chilpéric” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in “Chilpéric” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicts the artist’s favorite subject from the theater, Marcelle Lender, the red-headed actress.

Toulouse-Lautrec first encountered her when he began to attend the theater regularly, in 1893. His infatuation with her peak when she starred in the revival of Hervé’s “Chilpéric.”

Toulouse-Lautrec visited this operetta over twenty times, arriving just in time to see Lender dance the bolero in the second act. This painting shows Lender performing a bolero from the operetta.

“Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“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.

“A Dutch Courtyard” by Pieter de Hooch

“A Dutch Courtyard” by Pieter de Hooch depicts two men seated at a table in the courtyard and a standing woman. The soldier who is wearing a breastplate is setting down the pitcher he has used to fill the glass, now held by the woman.

The “pass-glass” the woman is drinking from was used in drinking games. Each participant had to drink down to the next line on the glass.

If the drinker failed to reach the line level, the reveler would be required to drink down to the next ring. Only when the drinker had drunk successfully to the required line would the glass be passed on to the next participant.

The little girl carries a brazier of hot coals so that the two soldiers can light their long-stemmed, white clay pipes.

“The Mother and Sister of the Artist” by Berthe Morisot

“The Mother and Sister of the Artist” by Berthe Morisot depicts a family portrait and an intimate scene, which the artist created when Morisot’s sister stayed with her family in the winter of 1869–1870 to await the birth of her first child.

The loose white morning robe discreetly disguises the pregnancy.

“New York” by George Bellows

New York by George Bellows is a large painting that captures the essence of modern life in New York City in 1911.

The view looks uptown toward Madison Square from the intersection of Broadway and 23rd Street, but Bellows drew on several commercial districts to create an imaginary composite. 

His focus was to show the crowds and traffic to convey a sense of the city’s hectic pace. Bellows assembled all of these diverse elements of New York into one scene.

“Self-Portrait” by John Singleton Copley

Self-Portrait by John Singleton Copley depicts the artist ten years after his departure from Boston. In London, he achieved success as a portraitist for the next two decades.

He also painted several large history paintings, which were innovative in their depiction of modern subjects and modern dress. His later years were less successful, and he died heavily in debt.

“Self-Portrait” by Benjamin West

Self-Portrait” by Benjamin West depicts the artists with the light strongest on his face and hands, and the rest of the picture falls into shadow. West began his career as a portrait painter in Philadelphia and New York.

Patrons granted him a scholarship visit Rome, the first American artist to be given this opportunity. An earlier version of this portrait is exhibited in the Baltimore Museum of Art, which was created in 1770. This version is from 1776 and is more dramatic in its contrasts.

“Symphony in White, No. 1” by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

“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 (1864) and Symphony in White, No. 3 (1865–67).

“Skiffs on the Yerres” by Gustave Caillebotte

“Skiffs on the Yerres” by Gustave Caillebotte depicts three one-person skiffs being paddled along a river with its banks densely wooded.

The skiff in the foreground dominates the painting. It is an open canoe designed to accommodate a single occupant. All the rowers appear to be wearing a straw-colored cloche hat.

The rowers are using a double-ended paddle with a heart-shaped blade at each end.  The bows of the skiff produce patterned ripples in the water, in which the bright color of the paddle and man’s bright colors are seen in the reflection.

“The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna” by Raphael

“The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna” by Raphael, also known as the Large Cowper Madonna, depicts Mary and Child, against a blue sky. The painting was the last of Raphael’s Florentine paintings before he left for Rome.

An inscription on the border of Madonna’s bodice, “MDVIII.R.V.PIN,” indicates that it was painted in 1508 by Raphael of Urbino. It is more complicated than a similar painting the Small Cowper Madonna of a few years earlier, though their intimacy closely relates both pictures.

“The Equatorial Jungle” by Henri Rousseau

“The Equatorial Jungle” by Henri Rousseau was ridiculed during much of his life as a naïve painting. Rousseau’s technique included the use of controlled brush strokes, which made each object in the picture appear outlined. 

Eventually, with the endorsement of Picasso, Matisse, and other artists, Rousseau gained the recognition he craved. Today he is known a self-taught genius famous for his imaginary jungle scenes.

“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 river’s 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.

“Christ at the Sea of Galilee” by Circle of Tintoretto

“Christ at the Sea of Galilee” by Lambert Sustris or a member of the Circle of Tintoretto, depicts Jesus Christ as he raises a hand toward the apostles, who are in a boat on massive waves and beneath stormy skies.

Christ is depicted backlit by the rising sun on the shore of Lake Galilee as he appears to the seven men in a boat. This painting tells the story in the Gospels of John when the apostles had been fishing all night without success.

Christ told them to cast their nets to the right side of the boat, where the catch would be plentiful. When Peter saw Christ, he jumped into the water to swim to shore.

As the sunrise begins to brighten the waves and sky, Peter extends his leg from the boat. Many of the events in the life of Jesus Christ took place in the region of Galilee and areas surrounding the Sea of Galilee. In the Gospels, Jesus walks on the surface of the Sea of Galilee and feeds the thousands near the Sea of Galilee.

“Both Members of This Club” by George Bellows

“Both Members of This Club” by George Bellows is the third and largest of George Bellows’s early prize-fighting subjects. The painting’s title is a reference to the practice in private athletic clubs of introducing the contestants to the audience as “both members” to circumvent the law.

The Lewis Law made prize-fighting illegal in New York State. Boxing continued in New York on a club membership basis until 1911. 

Boxing was a controversial subject, but the interracial theme made this painting even more so, especially since the black boxer appears to be winning the match. 

This painting follows the success of the African American professional prizefighter Jack Johnson, who had won the world heavyweight championship in 1908. The idea of a black boxing champion was unsettling to then social order.

“Club Night” by George Bellows

“Club Night” by George Bellows was the first of three similar boxing subjects that Bellows painted Between 1907 to 1909.

This painting represents a fight at an athletic club in New York City where attendees paid club membership fees instead of admission fees to a specific fight, allowing them to gamble on matches legally. 

The public’s response to boxing varied; some regarded boxing as savage and brutal, but many thought it a natural manifestation of masculinity.

“Farmhouse in Provence” by Vincent van Gogh

“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 another’s colors.

“Girl in White” by Vincent van Gogh

“Girl in White” by Vincent van Gogh depicts a young woman wearing a large yellow hat with a knot of sky-blue ribbons standing against a background of a green wheat field.

Vincent van Gogh created this painting in 1890 in Auvers-Sur-Oise, France, during the last months of his life. 

Van Gogh has used the picture’s elongated plane to dramatic effect by having the woman fill most of the pictorial space, making her appear closer to the viewer.

Van Gogh shadowed her face and gave her a distant gaze, which endows her with a touching emotional distance.

“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 woman’s 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.

“Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son” by Claude Monet

“Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son” by Claude Monet depicts the artist’s wife Camille Monet and their son Jean Monet during 1875 while they were living in Argenteuil.

Monet’s brushwork creates splashes of color to capture a moment during a stroll on a windy summer’s day. Madame Monet and her son are viewed from below the horizon line, with an upward perspective, against the white clouds in an azure sky.

Sunlight shines from behind Camille to whiten the top of her parasol and the flowing cloth at her back, while brightly colored wildflowers surround her front with yellow.

Camille Monet’s veil is blown by the wind, as is her swirling white dress. The waving grass of the meadow is both in the light and the woman’s shadow, which is echoed by the shaded green underside of her parasol.

Monets’ seven-year-old son is placed further away, partially concealed behind a rise in the ground and visible only from the waist up, creating a sense of depth.

“A Lady Writing a Letter” by Johannes Vermeer

“A Lady Writing a Letter” by Johannes Vermeer depicts a lady writing a letter while sitting at a table in a room. She appears to have been interrupted, as she looks up towards the viewer, while she continues to hold the quill in her right hand.

The lady is dressed in an elegant lemon-yellow morning jacket and wears pearl earrings. A necklace lies on the table.

Vermeer’s compositional focus is on the woman and her face. The smaller objects on the table stand in contrast with the large forms used in the rest of the composition, which create a geometric framework for the figure.

The table is brought close to the picture plane to emphasizes the directness of her gaze. Johannes Vermeer preserves the integrity of the picture plane to create a vivid illusion of three-dimensional space.

On the back of the wall is a dark painting that covers much of the background and contrast with the lady’s brighter colors.

“Tale of Creation” – “Genesis II” by Franz Marc

“Tale of Creation,” also known as “Genesis II” by Franz Marc, is a colored print from woodcut, illustrating the creation story in the Book of Genesis. Pure and uncorrupted life emerges from a chaotic and dynamic swirl of interlocking forms.

Color for Marc came to embody emotional and spiritual states. Animals were frequent subjects in his paintings, as Marc considered them more spiritual and closer to nature than humans.

Marc, in this woodcut print, was influenced by his studies of early printed Bibles and their woodcut illustrations.

Marc was planned to include this print in an illustrated Bible he was organizing for the Blaue Reiter, the Munich-based artist group he cofounded. 

However, by 1914 at the beginning of World War I, when Franz Marc created Schöpfungsgeschichte II (Genesis II), he had lost his faith that the natural world could provide an antidote to what he viewed as a sick society.

National Gallery of Art, DC

• Museum:       National Gallery of Art, DC
• City:               Washington, D.C.
• Country:         United States
• Established:   1937
• Type:              Art Museum
• Address:        National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20565, National Mall, Washington, D.C.
• Public transit access:
  • Metro:      Red Line – Judiciary Square, Yellow Line, Green Line – Archives, Blue Line,
  • Orange Line, Silver Line – Smithsonian
  • Metrobus: 4th Street and 7th Street NW
  • DC Circulator: 4th Street and Madison Drive; 9th Street and Constitution Avenue NW

National Gallery of Art – Map

National Gallery of Art – Washington, DC.

The National Gallery: A collection of 200 artworks

Explore Museums in Washington, D.C.

• National Gallery of Art
• National Museum of American History
• National Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of African American History and Culture
• National Museum of Natural History
• National Portrait Gallery
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• The Phillips Collection
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• International Spy Museum

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“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
Abraham Lincoln

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Photo Credit: By AgnosticPreachersKid (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 2) By USGS, cropped and labeled by Postdlf (USGS satellite image) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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