by We’ve previously been to the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., but since we made a return visit to see the exhibit Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment, of course we took another spin through. We’ve certainly got some new artists on our radar since our last visit, and the East building was not open on last time.
The NGA was established in 1937 with a resolution by the United State Congress and a substantial donation by Andrew W. Mellon of artworks and funds for construction. Today it is one of the largest museums in North America, and it’s free!
The “collection of more than 150,000 paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings spans the history of Western art and showcases some of the triumphs of human creativity.” It is truly a marvelous collection with something for everyone.
The museum also has a sculpture garden that opened in 1999. As we’d previously visited that on a nice spring day, we didn’t feel the need to do it again on a blustery winter day.
Of course I made the Impressionists their own post – so much good stuff!! The cover photo is Finny Fish, 1948, Alexander Calder.
This is the only painting by da Vinci in the Americas. Da Vinci was about 22 years old when he painted Ginevra de’ Benci’s portrait at the time of her marriage when she was 16. On the back is a “symbolic ‘portrait’ of Ginevra. The juniper sprig framed by laurel and palm branches refer to her purity, wisdom, and achievement, as does the Latin phrase ‘Beauty Adorns Virtue’.” The portrait is among da Vinci’s earliest experiments with the new medium of oil paint.
