3 Florentine and Central Italian Art
6 Venetian and North Italian Art
8 Italian Art of the 17th and 18th Centuries
10 Flemish and German Art
13 Dutch Art
15 Spanish Art
16 French Art of the 17th, 18th, and Early 19th
Centuries
19 British Art
21 American Art
24 French Art of the 19th Century
28 20th-Century Art
30 Decorative Arts
30 Prints and Drawings
31 Index of American Design
_About the Works of Art Listed in this Brochure_
Owing to changes in installation, certain works of art listed in this
brochure may not always be on view. For up-to-date information, please
inquire at the information desks.
The paintings and sculpture given by the founder, Andrew W. Mellon,
comprising works by the greatest masters from the thirteenth to the
nineteenth century, have formed a nucleus of high quality around which
the collection has grown. Indeed, in making his gift Mr. Mellon had
expressed the hope that the newly established National Gallery would
attract gifts from other collectors, so that these works of art might be
enjoyed by all and would be a lasting contribution to the cultural life
of the nation.
Mr. Mellon’s hope that others would carry on the work was realized, even
before the Gallery opened, by the action of Samuel H. Kress, who gave to
the nation his great collection of paintings and sculptures of the
Italian schools ranging from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
Enlarging and enriching the Kress Collection on subsequent occasions,
Samuel H. Kress and his brother Rush H. Kress made the National Gallery
outstanding for its representation of Italian art and also added a
distinguished group of French eighteenth-century canvases and sculpture
and fine examples of early German paintings, as well as works of first
importance from other schools.
In 1942 Joseph E. Widener gave the famous collection of painting,
sculpture, and decorative arts formed by him and his father P.A.B.
Widener. Chester Dale, besides making numerous gifts during his
lifetime, bequeathed his extensive collection of nineteenth- and
twentieth-century French paintings to the Gallery. Ailsa Mellon Bruce
also bequeathed her collection of French paintings to the Gallery and,
in addition, generously provided funds for the purchase of many old
master paintings, including the Leonardo da Vinci. Lessing J. Rosenwald
has given over 20,000 prints and drawings.
In addition, more than 325 other donors have generously added to the
collections of the National Gallery of Art.
[Illustration: ROTUNDA: Attributed to Adriaen de Vries, _Mercury_,
cast probably c. 1603-1613]
The vigorous movement, muscular lines, and above all the grace and
lightness of the bronze figure capture in this _Mercury_ the fleeting
presence of an ancient god. Protector of the forlorn and travel weary,
patron of shepherds, merchants, wayfarers, and even thieves fleeing the
law, Mercury was the bearer of news and tidings for the gods of
mythology. He was known by his winged feet, a traveler’s cap with wings,
and his herald’s staff, a _caduceus_, perhaps given him by Apollo, who
had the power of healing. The design of Mercury’s _caduceus_ with its
two serpents intertwined has been traditionally associated with medicine
and is the adopted symbol of the medical profession. This masterful
piece was probably made by Adriaen de Vries, a Dutch artist trained in
Italy, and was modeled after a _Mercury_ completed twenty years earlier
by Giovanni Bologna.
Florentine and Central Italian Art
(Galleries 1-10)
Because the Church defined much of the social and cultural structure of
medieval life, Christian themes predominated as the subject matter for
the arts of the period. In the National Gallery collections, works
created in Florence, Siena, Rome, and Central Italy show the range of
skills and styles prevalent in painting as it progressed from the highly
religious art of the Middle Ages to the more secular art of the
Renaissance.
The usual technique for medieval religious art was egg tempera on wood
panels covered with a fine bone plaster, called gesso. Egg yolk mixed
with powdered pigments was applied to the gesso surface resulting in
pictures characterized by bright colors and clear outer contours. To
recall the radiant light of the heavenly kingdom and to heighten the
patterns typifying this art, the artist often used gold-leafed grounds
as well.
By the late fifteenth century, tempera gave way to oil paints that dried
more slowly, permitting the artist subtle modulations in his color and
allowing him to create realistic atmospheric effects. As the Renaissance
progressed, artists combined a renewed interest in nature, analytical
science, and classical humanism with the recently developed techniques
in media to bring about a corresponding realism in art.
[Illustration: GALLERY 1: Byzantine School, _Enthroned Madonna and
Child_, 13th century]
A medieval walled city is transformed into a throne by this imaginative,
unknown artist to symbolize the dominance of Christ and Mary, Queen of
Heaven, over the celestial city. To symbolize Christ’s rule on earth as
well, the artist included, in the rondels, images of angels bearing orbs
and scepters. So typical of the art of the Byzantine Empire, this
painting is an icon, or holy image, and reflects within its composition
a fusion of ancient Roman and medieval Oriental styles. A feeling for
classical solidity shows in the faces, which are modeled with cast
shadows to suggest three-dimensional forms, whereas a Near Eastern love
of decoration accounts for the flattened drapery patterns and their
dazzling highlights. The _Enthroned Madonna and Child_ and another large
Byzantine icon of the same subject, also in this room, are among the
earliest paintings in the collection.
[Illustration: GALLERY 3: Duccio, _The Calling of the Apostles Peter
and Andrew_, painted between 1308 and 1311]
Called to be “fishers of men,” the brothers Peter and Andrew pause in
their labors at the persuasive words of Christ. In him, their future as
apostles, or teachers, and the future of mankind hang momentarily
suspended—like the net in their hands. This panel is part of an
altarpiece commissioned for the high altar of the Cathedral in Siena and
called the _Maestà_ (“majesty”) because its central theme was the Virgin
splendidly enthroned with angels and saints. The purpose of this piece,
like so many medieval paintings, was to teach, and Duccio arranged
bright colors in simple shapes so that the story could easily be
recognized.
[Illustration: GALLERY 4: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippi Lippi, _The
Adoration of the Magi_, painted c. 1445]
Painted by two monks (_Fra_ means “friar”), this important painting
fuses the concerns and techniques of medieval and Renaissance artists.
The tapestrylike lawn, the decorative bright colors, and the inverted
perspective of the shed are elements common to medieval art. The
realistic rendering of birds and animals, the weight and volume given
the kneeling Magi in the foreground, and the classically inspired nude
figures at the distant left reflect the new-found interest of the
Renaissance in both classical antiquity and the external world. The
colorful, festive mood of the painting, moreover, is emphasized by the
bustling throngs of people arriving to worship the Christ Child.
[Illustration: GALLERY 4: Andrea del Castagno, _The Youthful David_,
painted c. 1450]
Not simply a work of art, this painted leather shield reflects the
uniquely nationalistic consciousness of the Florentine city-state. As a
public image carried in parades and ceremonies, its function was to
symbolize the Florentine struggle for freedom and, as a gruesome
depiction of victory against oppression, to warn all potential enemies
of Florence. On the shield, both main episodes of the Old Testament
story appear concurrently: David takes aim with his sling, while the
giant’s head lies already severed at his feet. The effective, although
awkward, foreshortening of the upraised arm and the sharply delineated
veins and muscles attest to Castagno’s Renaissance interest in the
realistic rendition of perspective and anatomy.
[Illustration: GALLERY 6: Leonardo da Vinci, _Ginevra de’ Benci_,
painted c. 1480]
With precise draftsmanship and an infinitely subtle manipulation of
light and shadow, Leonardo captures the character of a young Florentine
noblewoman of the fifteenth century. In her eyes he has drawn a look of
intelligence; in her bearing and the set of her mouth, there is a sense
of determination and conviction. Punning on the name of his sitter, the
artist has framed her head with a juniper bush—_ginepro_ in Italian—and
decorated the back of the panel with a juniper sprig. Commissioned just
after he completed an apprenticeship with Verrocchio, this early work is
the only painting in the Western hemisphere accepted by scholars as
indisputably by Leonardo, one of the true geniuses of the Renaissance.
[Illustration: GALLERY 8: Raphael, _The Alba Madonna_, painted c.
1510]
The solidity and serenity of the figures derive from the forms and poses
seen in ancient Roman sculpture and from the art of Raphael’s
contemporaries, Leonardo and Michelangelo. The equilibrium and stability
of the grouping provides not only a freshness and majesty suitable for
the religious moment but also a source of contrast to the subtle but
painful implications of the reed cross held by the two children. Named
for the Spanish Dukes of Alba who once owned it, the _Alba Madonna_ is
one of five paintings by Raphael in the National Gallery of Art.
Venetian and North Italian Art
(Galleries 19-29)
The splendor of Venetian art reflects the city’s prosperity during its
years as a major Mediterranean port. Typical of Venetian lavishness is
_The Feast of the Gods_ (gallery 22) by Giovanni Bellini, Renaissance
artist and teacher of Giorgione and Titian. This huge painting draws
from the fantasies of mythology, turning a Venetian picnic into a feast
for gods.
Aware of the subtle reflections of light and shadow playing in the misty
air over the lagoons of Venice, sixteenth-century artists such as
Titian, Veronese (gallery 28), and Tintoretto (gallery 29) strove to
capture the illusion of surface texture and tangible atmosphere through
their paints. Because oils blended easily together and because one could
thicken these paints with pigments, artists soon established a more
flexible technique. At the same time, they abandoned rigid wood panels
for canvas supports, which allowed larger, lighter pictures. These
innovations, combined with worldly subjects, soon had a significant
impact on the rest of Europe.
[Illustration: GALLERY 21: Giorgione, _The Adoration of the
Shepherds_, painted c. 1510]
Dominated by a placid landscape bathed in the half-light of dawn,
Giorgione’s composition focuses on the small group placed off-center in
the foreground. Rendering the Holy Family in luminous colors, the artist
has silhouetted them against the dark mouth of a cave, a traditional
nativity setting borrowed from Byzantine art that here reflects the
strong cultural ties between the city-state of Venice and the empire to
the east. This composition, one of the very few existing paintings by
the master, demonstrates Giorgione’s mastery of color and control of
mood, elements which helped him to achieve fame during his short life of
thirty-three years.
[Illustration: WEST SCULPTURE HALL: Jacopo Sansovino, _Venus
Anadyomene_, cast c. 1527-1530]
One of the rare, life-sized bronzes of the Renaissance now in the United
States, the _Venus Anadyomene_ is of unparalleled elegance. While the
softness of the modeled forms and the vertical sweep of the curving
silhouette invest the nude with a heightened grace, her twisting pose
invites the viewer to move around the statue, following the fluid line
of her encircling arms. Shown holding a seashell, a reflection of Venus’
birth from the sea, this statue is appropriately entitled _anadyomene_,
“rising from the waters.” The artist, Jacopo Sansovino, was trained in
Florence and Rome. Moving to Venice in 1527, this major high Renaissance
sculptor and architect designed or remodeled many important private and
public buildings including several palaces and the Library of Saint
Mark.
[Illustration: GALLERY 28. Titian, _Doge Andrea Gritti_, painted c.
1535/1540]
Typically Venetian was Titian’s method of starting with a dark
preparatory ground, then building up the forms with thin layers of oil
paint. Choosing the pose that best focuses our attention, Titian has
captured his sitter’s restless vitality in the turn of the doge’s head
and the penetrating glance. By accentuating the size and grasp of the
hand and the bulk of the body beneath the sumptuous ceremonial robes,
the artist has drawn a massive and commanding presence befitting this
renowned admiral and doge, or duke of Venice. As seen here, the figure
seems to emerge quite powerfully from the shadow, and the predominant
hues of red and yellow have a rich, smoldering quality.
Italian Art of the 17th and 18th Centuries
(Galleries 33, 34, 36, 37; Lobby A, West Stair Hall, and Rotunda Stair
Hall)
The baroque period began around 1600, when the Church was engaged in a
movement to curb the spreading of the Protestant Reformation. To appeal
to the large numbers of ambivalent Christians torn between the two
theologies, the Catholic clergy commissioned and supported a realistic
but dramatic art designed to involve the populace in the teachings and
the authority of the Church. Indeed, so appealing was the baroque style
that it was quickly adapted to the worldly subjects of the secular arts.
Representative of the Counter-Reformation era is Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
an enormously successful and influential architect and sculptor. As
world trade shifted to the Atlantic nations, however, Italy’s economic
position declined, and by the eighteenth century many Italian painters
had to search for commissions elsewhere in Europe. Through their
travels, decorative painters and muralists, such as Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo, soon established an international style filled with brilliant
colors and virtuoso brushwork.
[Illustration: LOBBY A: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, _Monsignor Francesco
Barberini_, carved c. 1624/1625]
A masterful example of the immediacy of baroque art, this bust of the
uncle of Matteo Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII, captures the
textural qualities of living flesh. Through Bernini’s virtuosity, the
highly polished forehead gives the illusion of glossy skin, whereas the
starched fabric has been left with a rough, light-absorbing surface. To
create a thoughtful expression, Bernini has exaggerated the depth of the
eye sockets, casting deep shadows. Such a convincing portrayal of aging
flesh and stern character—commissioned by the pope as a tribute to his
uncle—is all the more impressive since Bernini had never seen the
long-dead Francesco Barberini. The bee on the pedestal is the emblem of
the Barberini, a wealthy Roman family.
[Illustration: GALLERY 33: Orazio Gentileschi, _The Lute Player_,
painted c. 1610]
The most casual elements of this intimate portrait of human activity
combine to create a masterful composition of complex and dynamic parts.
The pose of the girl, shown with arm and head poised as she tunes her
lute, generates a feeling of sustained movement. The intricate still
life fading into shadowy depths at the left is in deliberate contrast to
the brightly lit costume and solid figure of the lute player. The
combination of abrupt spotlighting and suggested deep space was
characteristic of baroque painting in seventeenth-century Rome, and
Gentileschi, an international court artist, transmitted this robust
style to Genoa, Paris, and London.
[Illustration: GALLERY 36: Giovanni Paolo Panini, _The Interior of
the Pantheon_, painted c. 1740]
In an era of travel, when men and women of wealth toured the continent
as part of their education, factual renderings of interiors and
cityscapes became important souvenirs. A major attraction on the Grand
Tour during the eighteenth century was Rome; and in Rome, the Pantheon,
a circular temple built in the second century. Converted to a Christian
church, it became the burial spot of Renaissance authors and artists,
such as Raphael, and has proved the source of inspiration for many later
structures, including the central rotunda of the National Gallery.
Panini was the greatest view painter in Rome during the 1700s, although
his precise manner of painting was paralleled by his Venetian
contemporaries, Canaletto and Guardi.
Flemish and German Art
(Galleries 35, 35A, 39-43)
At the beginning of the fifteenth century, northern European art was
caught up by the same spirit of empirical inquiry and technical
innovation that predominated in Italy during this period. Northern art,
however, reflects neither the influence of classical art nor the
development of a single-point perspective that are the hallmarks of the
Italian Renaissance. Rather, Netherlandish artists such as Jan van Eyck
achieved mastery in the new technique of oil painting. The use of oil on
wood panel permitted an extraordinary increase in the depth and richness
of color, which, in turn, was coupled with the tradition of minute,
craftsmanly detail established in late medieval manuscript illumination.
Around 1500, Italian humanism and Renaissance science had a discernable
effect upon northern European painting. Albrecht Dürer (gallery 35A) and
Francois Clouet (gallery 41) both profited from their exposure to
Italian art. The Renaissance influence carried over into the work of
Rubens in the seventeenth century despite the religious and political
upheaval of the Reformation which affected so much European art of the
mid-1500s. Catholic Flanders, the home of Rubens, remained relatively
untouched by the changing times and maintained a continuity of political
and economic ties to the Spanish monarchy. Rubens, who drew heavily from
the work of earlier Italian masters, at the same time developed a
baroque preference for large-scale canvases and bravura brushwork,
transmitting this style to his associate van Dyck.
[Illustration: GALLERY 39: Jan van Eyck, _The Annunciation_, painted
c. 1425/1430]
The sacred setting of a medieval church provides the backdrop to van
Eyck’s interpretation of the Annunciation. The archangel Gabriel,
dressed in jewels and rich fabrics, greets Mary: “Hail Mary, full of
grace.” The simply gowned young virgin lifts her hands in wonder and
replies, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.” The two Latin phrases
(Mary’s is written upside-down) reinforce the contrast and balance
between these two important figures: Gabriel in his sumptuous attire and
with wings in rainbow colors stands slightly in front in a partially
turned position, whereas Mary in her subdued glory sits slightly behind
the angel and faces forward. Following the established tradition of the
story, van Eyck added a lily, symbol of purity, and a dove, symbol of
the Holy Spirit. He also decorated the floor tiles with Old Testament
scenes prefiguring the life and triumph of Christ—Samson destroys the
Philistine temple and David slays Goliath. This subtle integration of
religious history into the background of the painting is indicative of
the late medieval belief that objects of the external world are imbued
with religious symbolism.
[Illustration: GALLERY 35A: Mathis Grünewald, _The Small
Crucifixion_, painted c. 1510]
One of the few surviving paintings by Grünewald, this crucifixion amply
displays the emotional power of this German Renaissance artist. Set
against a sky darkened by an eclipse of the sun, the scarred and haggard
body of Christ makes the scene painfully and physically immediate. With
the agonized gesture of the hands, the ragged loincloth, the dislocated
shoulders, and twisted feet, little remains to soften the tension of the
painting; rather, the artist emphasizes the human suffering necessary
for Christ to redeem mankind. Painted on the eve of the Protestant
Reformation, this panel reflects the growing insistence in northern
Europe upon the reality and importance of private religious experiences.
[Illustration: GALLERY 41A: Peter Paul Rubens, _Daniel in the Lions’
Den_, painted c. 1615]
Scholar, collector, diplomat, and one of the finest artists of his
century, Rubens was famed for the boundless enthusiasm and technical
wizardry of his paintings. This monumental piece was executed early in
Rubens’ career. Its impact depends not only upon its large scale but
also upon the baroque combination of the theatrical—the dramatic
lighting and Daniel’s expressive pose—with a convincing realism—the
lifelike postures and superbly rendered lions’ fur.
[Illustration: GALLERY 42: Sir Anthony van Dyck, _Queen Henrietta
Maria with Her Dwarf_, painted probably in 1633]
Painted in London, this depiction of Henrietta Maria, wife of Britain’s
Charles I and sister of France’s Louis XIII, is a prime example of the
baroque “Grand Manner” portrait. Analysis of character is sacrificed in
favor of a stately and essentially flattering mode of presentation; the
glittering crown, for example, recalls Henrietta Maria’s station as a
queen and the sumptuous fabrics declare her wealth. The large size of
the canvas and the lack of expression on the queen’s face are both
devices that engender a mood of aloof formality and grandeur; animation
and warmth are limited to the minor figures of the dwarf Geoffrey
Hudson, who was to become a trusted ambassador, and his pet monkey Pug.
With seventeen paintings by van Dyck, the National Gallery has one of
the finest and most representative collections of portraits by this
master.
Dutch Art
(Galleries 44-49)
The United Netherlands was founded in 1609 as a Protestant nation
following bitter wars of liberation from Catholic Spain. The combination
of excellent seaports, a powerful navy, and strong mercantile interests
made Holland a flourishing economic center. Dutch patrons, predominantly
Calvinist and middle class, demanded not religious or mythological
pictures, but landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and genres, or scenes
of daily life. Their demands were met by an ever-increasing number of
Dutch artists who, perhaps in response to a burgeoning and competitive
market, specialized in a single type of subject. Thus Frans Hals was
famed for his portraits, Kalf for his still lifes, and Ruisdael and
Hobbema for their landscapes. The one exception was Rembrandt, whose
penetrating insight into the human condition and whose superb technical
facility enabled him to explore successfully a variety of subjects.
Holland’s artistic boom was soon ended, however, for as quickly as it
arose, the economic and artistic Golden Age declined during the last
years of the seventeenth century.
[Illustration: GALLERY 44: Jan Vermeer, _A Woman Weighing Gold_,
painted c. 1657]
One aspect of Vermeer’s genius was his ability to create a poetry of the
obvious, to transmute a mundane scene into an evocative moment. In what
appears at first to be a simple depiction of a woman holding a pair of
scales, a framed painting of the Last Judgment included on the back wall
of the scene suggests a more serious, allegorical meaning. Weighing the
souls of mankind serves as a point of comparison to the woman weighing
her worldly possessions. Vermeer’s incomparable sensitivity in rendering
effects of light can be seen in the careful modulation of the cool,
muted daylight that fills the room. Especially striking are the touches
of pure white paint that highlight the fur collar and the pearls on the
table. The stable, geometric gridwork formed by the table, picture
frame, and window reinforce the calm and serious mood.
[Illustration: GALLERY 44: Jan Davidsz. de Heem, _Vase of Flowers_,
painted c. 1645]
This still life reveals more than a study of inanimate objects
positioned in light and shadow; it also betrays the artist’s interest in
the lively microcosmic worlds unnoticed in our daily life. Using more
than twenty varieties of blossoms, including roses, tulips,
morning-glories, and candytuft, de Heem weaves the blooms, overflowing
in the insect-inhabited shadows, into the arrangement of sunlit flowers
thriving in the central area of the painting. Since none of the flowers
bloom concurrently, the artist portrayed them either from illustrations
in botanical texts or from his own studies made during different times
of the year. Such interest in the cycle of the seasons and the
transience of life, as reflected in this symbolic bouquet, is frequently
seen in Dutch flower painting.
[Illustration: GALLERY 47: Aelbert Cuyp, _The Maas at Dordrecht_,
painted c. 1660]
Cuyp was a marine and landscape painter, noted for his delicate
atmospheric effects. A major portion of this composition is taken up by
the sky, which is painted in translucent washes of thinned oils. The
scene, bathed in the gentle golden light of early morning, shows the
Maas River and, at the left, the unfinished church tower of Cuyp’s home
city of Dordrecht. The fleet of boats on the left, arranged on the
diagonal, serves both to create deep space and to contrast with the
single massive ship on the right. As cannons salute in the middle
distance, a figure in a vivid red, black, and white uniform prepares to
board ship.
[Illustration: GALLERY 48: Rembrandt, _Self-Portrait_, dated 1659]
The some sixty self-portraits painted by Rembrandt during his long
career form a unique visual autobiography. In early life, he was
Amsterdam’s leading portraitist and narrative painter and a wealthy man.
Later, ravaged by bankruptcy and personal misfortunes, Rembrandt became
increasingly introspective. In this self-portrait, painted when he was
fifty-three, all but the essential forms are concealed in shadow. Light
appears to emanate from the face itself, although the eyes are veiled in
a mysterious half-shadow. Rembrandt’s technical genius enabled him to
create subtle nuances even within a restricted range of color; the
golden light glistening from his forehead merges with the blue-gray at
the temples. All of Rembrandt’s painterly skill was used, ultimately, to
confront us with a candid self-appraisal that neither flatters nor
disparages. (The National Gallery has a wide range of Rembrandt
paintings in galleries 45 and 48.)
Spanish Art
(Galleries 30, 38, 39, 50, 51 and 76)
Imported by the royal courts or commissioned by the Church, foreign
artists dominated the arts of Spain during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Juan de Flandes, a Flemish painter (galleries 38 and 39),
served the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and El Greco (gallery 30), a
Greek who studied in Venice and Rome, settled and worked in Toledo. By
the 1600s, Spain had become an economic and cultural force in Europe,
her power sustained in large part by the wealth of her vast American
colonies. Seville was then the artistic capital of Spain; Zurbarán,
Valdés Leal, Murillo, who founded an academy there in 1660, and
Velázquez all worked in Seville. After moving to Madrid, Velázquez
served Philip IV as court painter and director of the royal museum. The
greatest Spanish artist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries was Francisco de Goya, who was court portraitist to a
succession of corrupt monarchs and French conquerors. It should not be
forgotten, too, that the twentieth-century artist Pablo Picasso (gallery
76) was first active in Barcelona before emigrating to France.
[Illustration: GALLERY 30: El Greco, _Laocoön_, painted c. 1610]
Unnatural color, particularly in the weightless, elongated figures,
combines with a mannered representation of landscape in this unearthly
vision from Homeric legend. Shown is the priest Laocoön, who, with his
sons, is attacked and destroyed by serpents for having offended the gods
during the course of the Trojan War. Beyond the wooden horse lies the
city of Troy, a distant and stormy image based on the artist’s adopted
city of Toledo. Born in Greece, Domenikos Theotokopoulos was nicknamed
El Greco, “the Greek,” when he moved to Spain in 1576.
[Illustration: GALLERY 50: Francisco de Goya, _Señora Sabasa
García_, painted c. 1806 or 1807]
Acutely sensitive to the ignorance, hypocrisy, and cruelty in all levels
of society, Goya often worked in a satirical mode to capture the
realities of war and the tyranny and decadence of court life. Yet, in
depicting the niece of a high-ranking government official, the artist
has given us a marvelously direct and sympathetic portrait. The innate,
peculiarly Spanish sense of pride and self-discipline is evident in
Sabasa García’s aristocratic posture and bold, unflinching gaze. Equally
direct is Goya’s manner of painting, which captures the rough texture of
the shawl as well as the gossamer quality of the mantilla lace. The
result is a portrait of great intensity heightened by feminine beauty.
French Art of the 17th, 18th, and Early 19th Centuries
(Galleries 33, 44, 52-56, East Sculpture Hall, and Lobby C)
Troubled by the Catholic-Huguenot wars and civil wars of the previous
century, seventeenth-century France followed a course of aggression
against foreign monarchies and of consolidation within the French state.
Most heavily supported by the royal court, French artists were sent to
Rome to study the arts of the Italian Renaissance and classical
antiquity; some, like Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin (gallery 52),
chose to remain in Italy. In Paris, an Academy, which rapidly became the
ruling body for French art, was established in 1648. To enhance the
brilliance of his reign in the latter part of the century, Louis XIV
sponsored a ceremonial art—more idealistic than realistic in style—and
built near Paris the largest palace in Europe, Versailles. The fountains
in the National Gallery’s East and West Garden Courts once stood in the
gardens of Versailles and still bear traces of the lavish gold leaf that
originally covered them.
Under Louis XV and Louis XVI in the eighteenth century, French society
became more relaxed and informal. Most apparent in the decorative arts,
the move to a lighter, more graceful style affected painting as well.
The new style, rococo, was first developed by Watteau (galleries 53 and
54), who used a carefree delicacy, pastel colors, and gracefully curving
lines. After the French Revolution of 1789, a school of neoclassical
artists dominated painting, using themes of patriotic heroism and
stressing severe beauty of line and firm modeling, over light and color.
[Illustration: GALLERY 44: Georges de La Tour, _The Repentant
Magdalen_, c. 1640]
Within the melancholy darkness of this painting, the dim light reveals
emblems of the vanity and brevity of life: a skull, book, and mirror.
Eliminating unnecessary detail, La Tour makes us focus on the inward,
spiritual aspect of his themes, through monumental shapes and a nearly
abstract geometry of forms. Mary Magdalen’s fingers touching the skull,
for instance, are emphasized in stark angularity against the light from
the hidden flame. Like Vermeer, La Tour is a rediscovery of recent
years. Although highly respected in his lifetime, La Tour slipped into
obscurity, and only thirty-eight of his paintings survive today. A court
painter to Louis XIII, La Tour was noted for his “nocturnes,” which
generate a mood of isolation by their dense shadows that envelop the
composition.
[Illustration: GALLERY 52: Claude Lorrain, _The Judgment of Paris_,
painted 1645/1646]
In a landscape of such serenity and beauty as this, the figures almost
play a secondary role. The perfectly blue sky with light cloud
formations enhances the golden tones of the foreground; the distant
Trojan citadel on the right balances the figures at the near left, where
three goddesses gather round the Prince of Troy, Paris. Chosen to judge
the women on their beauty, Paris is bribed by Venus, here accompanied by
her son Cupid, and accepts her aid in abducting Helen, Queen of Sparta.
Claude’s vision of this episode, which eventually touched off the Trojan
War, is a fine example of his ability both to ennoble and to idealize
nature, and it was this mode of painting which was to dominate European
landscape painting for the next two centuries.
[Illustration: EAST SCULPTURE HALL: Jean-Louis Lemoyne, _Diana_,
dated 1724]
Girlish and slightly awkward, her skirts disheveled by the breeze, Diana
is shown as though embarking on a woodland jaunt. The turning figure of
the goddess, the poised, expectant look of her dog, and the lightness of
her simple drapery lend a sense of buoyancy and delicacy to the
ponderous weight of the marble. Lemoyne’s surviving masterpiece, this
statue formed part of a group executed by several eighteenth-century
French sculptors for the gardens of the Château de la Muette at Marly, a
royal retreat and hunting lodge near Paris. This sculptural series
helped to generate a new interest in graceful vitality, replacing the
earlier ideals of serene monumentality in European statuary.
[Illustration: GALLERY 55: Jean-Honoré Fragonard, _A Young Girl
Reading_, painted c. 1776]
The delicate rococo style of the 1700s culminates in the work of
Fragonard, court painter to Louis XVI. Indeed, an intimate portrayal
such as this typifies rococo taste. Stabilized only by the straight wall
and armrest, curving lines wind through the composition. Fragonard’s
fascination with the irregular extends to the positioning of the girl’s
hand and the boneless curl of her little finger, to the interlacings of
her hair ribbons and the bows on her gown. The radiant golden quality of
the light and the frothy texture of the paint add to the picture’s
sensuous warmth.
[Illustration: GALLERY 56: Jacques-Louis David, _Napoleon in His
Study_, dated 1812]
Sensitive to the political aspirations of his sitter, David has here
chosen an activity, a time, and a setting that subtly but pointedly
illuminate the tenacity and drive of the conqueror Napoleon. With the
clock pointing to 4:13 and with candles guttering, Napoleon is
presumably rising from a night of work; his dress uniform is wrinkled
and his face unshaven. The study is littered with symbols of power, the
sword alluding to Napoleon’s military conquests and the scroll on the
desk representing the Napoleonic Code, still the basis of French law.
The crisp silhouettes and dark colors typify the neoclassical style that
followed the French Revolution of 1789.
British Art
(Galleries 57-59 and 61)
The history of sixteenth-century England was characterized by unstable,
often short-lived alliances made with her several continental neighbors.
No wonder then that the influx and influence of foreign artists during
this and the following century reflects the diversity of political ties
between England and Europe. In the 1500s, the German Hans Holbein the
Younger (gallery 40) was court artist to Henry VIII soon after that
monarch’s audacious break with the Church, and in the 1600s the Fleming,
Anthony van Dyck (galleries 42 and 43), was in the employ of Charles I.
In the eighteenth century, however, when England became a leading
maritime and industrial nation under George III and George IV, a large
group of native British painters emerged, and in 1768 the Royal Academy
was founded in London. The portraitists were led by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
first president of the Royal Academy, and Thomas Gainsborough, noted for
his virtuoso brushwork. Among their contemporaries and followers were
Romney, Hoppner, Raeburn and Lawrence. In the early 1800s, England
produced two landscapists who achieved international reputations.
Constable was basically a realist in his study of scenes in natural
light; Turner, however, was a romantic who interpreted the moods of
nature.
[Illustration: GALLERY 59: Thomas Gainsborough, _Mrs. Richard
Brinsley Sheridan_, painted probably 1785/1786]
With a feeling for theatricality, Gainsborough interplays the frail
figure of a young woman and the powerful mood of nature to establish a
perfect setting for this celebrated actress and wife of the playwright
and politician Sheridan. Born Elizabeth Linley, she was Gainsborough’s
lifelong friend. A motif common to the eighteenth century, the Age of
Enlightenment, was the use of nature and an informal pose to achieve
unaffected simplicity. In this portrait, however, early signs of
romanticism are clearly seen in the dramatic quality of the blowing
trees and windswept figure contrasted with the calm features of the
finely modeled face. Gainsborough normally painted under candlelight to
give a glow and flickering liveliness to his sitters and sometimes used
six-foot-long brushes to avoid finicky detailing.
[Illustration: GALLERY 57: Joseph Mallord William Turner, _Keelmen
Heaving in Coals by Moonlight_, painted probably in 1835]
Turner’s exaggerated rendition of moonlight was criticized by
conservatives when this night scene on the River Tyne was exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1835. Cutting through the center of the painting,
the arched curve of brilliant light transforms the reality of a gritty
industrial scene into an appealingly romantic seascape and brings the
world of man into accord with nature. Through the misty English air and
against the thinly painted sky, the moon shimmers forth as a disk of
thick white paint.
American Art
(Galleries 60, 60A, 60B, 62, and 64-68)
Established as a subculture of the mother country, the American colonies
looked to England for leadership in the arts. Ambitious painters,
finding no opportunity for formal training in the colonies, went to
study in Europe. Benjamin West, a Pennsylvania Quaker, after three years
in Italy, in 1763 established himself in London, where he achieved such
renown that he became History Painter to King George III and was later
appointed second president of the Royal Academy of Arts. Until after the
Civil War, the best training was still abroad, but usually the American
students returned to the United States, where a growing urban society
with more leisure was providing a market for works of art.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, many untrained artists,
working in the cities but more often traveling about the countryside,
provided naïve or primitive pictures for the ever-increasing middle
classes. Up to this time the artist had been mainly a portraitist; but
with the invention of the camera in 1839 he had to shift his emphasis,
and by mid-century America had a thriving school of landscape painters,
whose works fed a national pride in the great wild terrain of the New
World. After the Civil War, however, these landscapes also appealed to a
populace seeking relief in the ideal world of a quiet countryside away
from the humdrum of dirty cities that were springing up everywhere, the
result of the Industrial Revolution.
Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer were the great turn-of-the-century
artists. They portrayed American life and scenery with straightforward
candor. Their example has been carried on by some modern American
artists who, fascinated with the urban growth of the 1900s, have
emphasized the vitality of city life. These include painters such as
Henri, Bellows, and Sloan. More recently abstract art has been in the
forefront of American painting.
[Illustration: GALLERY 64: John Singleton Copley, _Watson and the
Shark_, dated 1778]
Unusual in European art, the sense of immediacy in this rescue scene was
an American innovation, and it assured Copley’s reputation in Britain
while furthering the importance of realism in narrative painting. The
successful merchant and former English sailor Brook Watson commissioned
the young American artist, who had settled in London, to depict an
adventure that occurred in the sailor’s youth. Watson had been attacked
by a shark while swimming in Havana, Cuba, in 1749. Using a fresh
approach, Copley recaptured the horror of that event by lending vivid
emotions to the rescuers—cowardice, fear, compassion—and by catching the
helpless fright of the boy.
[Illustration: GALLERY 60B: Gilbert Stuart, _The Skater_, painted in
1782]
Artist and subject, while breaking from the first posing session for
this portrait, took to the fresh air and exercise of skating on the
frozen Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park. The sport gave Stuart a novel
idea, which he translated with a free-spirited freshness and vigor.
Commissioned by Mr. William Grant, this, Stuart’s first full-length
portrait, was a triumph at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1782. Unlike
West, under whom he studied, and Copley, another American artist,
Gilbert Stuart eventually returned to the United States, achieving
further fame with his innumerable portraits of George Washington.
Painted in 1795, the famous portrait in gallery 62 is believed to be his
first life study of the president.
[Illustration: GALLERY 60: Thomas Cole, _The Voyage of Life:
Childhood_, dated 1842]
One of the earliest American landscapists, Thomas Cole produced
imaginary, symbolic scenes as well as glorified panoramas of native
wilderness. In the first of four fantasies, _Childhood_, a baby’s ship
of life, steered by a guardian angel, floats at the source of a river
toward a promising dawn. In the other three pictures completing _The
Voyage of Life_ series, Youth sets off on a meandering stream, striving
toward a castle in the clouds, while Manhood weathers a storm on a
tumultuous river and Old Age drifts into a quiet ocean where heavenly
messengers wait to receive him.
[Illustration: GALLERY 66: Edward Hicks, _The Cornell Farm_, dated
1848]
After an 1848 Pennsylvania agricultural fair, James Cornell commissioned
this record of his prize-winning livestock and acreage. In addition to
carefully detailing each cow, horse, pig, sheep, and building, the
artist Edward Hicks has also emphasized the decorative patterning of the
group. This so-called naïve piece does not present a sophisticated
rendering of anatomy or landscape, but it does present a study in
contrast between the rhythmic row of animals and the geometric
background. Lacking formal artistic schooling, Hicks was a sign and
coach painter, who did pictures as a sideline or as favors for friends.
[Illustration: GALLERY 67: James McNeill Whistler, _The White Girl
(Symphony in White, No. 1)_, dated 1862]
Painted in Paris, this canvas caused a scandal at an 1863 exhibition.
The lack of personality in the face infuriated critics; they failed to
realize that this was not intended as a portrait. Whistler, an American
expatriate, was exercising his artistic theories by exploring a single
tone—white. The starched cuffs, striped sleeves, cambric skirt, brocade
curtain, and fur rug create a “Symphony in White,” as Whistler once
titled this work. The fullness of the girl’s lips, the thick richness of
her chestnut hair, and her wide blue eyes, however, mark a subtle but
uneasy contrast to the purity of the white color. This tension is
carried further by the presence of the bearskin and the garish flowers
wilting on the floor, symbolic, perhaps, of a bestiality of nature and
an innocence lost. To emphasize the color relationships around this
woman, his mistress Joanna Hiffernan, Whistler flattened the space and
avoided strong lights and shadows.
[Illustration: GALLERY 68: George Bellows, _Both Members of This
Club_, painted in 1909]
When public boxing was illegal in New York, fights were held in private
clubs with fighters elected as members for only the night of the match.
The black boxer may be Joe Gans, lightweight champion from 1901 to 1908;
his opponent has not been identified. Once a professional athlete
himself, George Bellows understood the violence of the sport. Brutality
is conveyed by the angular lines of the fighters’ bodies, the boldly
slashing brushwork, and the lurid glare of spotlights within the gloomy
arena.
French Art of the 19th Century
(Galleries 72, 77, and 83-93)
French art during the second half of the 1800s is noted for its
innovation and its diversity. Yet, although the paintings produced
during this period differ in their visual effects, the artists of these
works were all largely concerned with the same problem: how to treat
nature and how to define reality. Thus, in reaction to the
neoclassicists, who stressed line and color, and the romantics, who
favored lush hues, exotic or unusual subject matter, and emotionalism,
the realists sought to paint only what was before them, free from
embellishment. Other artists such as Monet and Renoir concentrated upon
recording the fleeting and subtle color impressions created by changes
in sunlight. Because their technique was rapid and sketchy, these latter
artists gave less attention to studiously modeled form, and their
paintings, although “realistic” in their rendition of light and space,
do not have the solid, tangible qualities so evident in Academic
painting. (The Gallery’s collections are particularly comprehensive in
the works of Manet, Renoir, and Degas. Included also is Mary Cassatt,
the only American who exhibited with the impressionists.) Still other
artists rejected impressionism’s concern with transitory moments in
order to express either their intuitive reactions to the natural world
or their personalized interpretation of the physical laws that order
appearances. Reality was redefined by these artists, such as Gauguin,
van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Cézanne, who were known as
post-impressionists. It was their work which prepared the way for
twentieth-century expressionism and abstraction.
[Illustration: GALLERY 93: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, _Forest of
Fontainebleau_, painted c. 1830]
Amid the controversies of nineteenth-century French art criticism, Corot
was a transitional figure. Popular with conservative patrons, he was
also a champion of the younger, radical painters. This scene in a forest
near Paris is composed of traditional elements: the overlapping planes
of light and dark foliage and a deep perspective established by the path
of light and space running through the painting’s center. Corot’s
treatment of light, studied directly from nature, is quite modern,
however, as he exactly captures the harsh glare and heavy shadow caused
by strong sun.
[Illustration: GALLERY 83: Edouard Manet, _Gare Saint-Lazare_, dated
1873]
Overlooking Paris’ Saint-Lazare railroad yards, this sun-drenched scene
is the first major picture Manet executed out-of-doors. Though
influenced by his friends, the impressionists Monet and Renoir, Manet’s
disciplined temperament rejected impressionism’s less structured
effects. The rigid lines of the iron fence, for example, act as a foil
for the figures’ curves. The little girl, whose interest lies on the
rail yards behind, forms a subtle tension with the woman who gazes out
at the viewer. The color scheme, with its reversal of colors, serves
both to unify the pattern and to underscore the separation of the two
figures: the full womanly figure is dressed in blue accented with white,
whereas the childish figure is in white accented with blue.
[Illustration: GALLERY 90: Auguste Renoir, _A Girl with a Watering
Can_, dated 1876]
Wanting to capture the dazzling colors found in strong sunlight, the
impressionist painter Renoir intensified the natural hues of reality to
a greater vibrancy on canvas. The green of the grass depicted here is
more intense in hue than that which one might expect to find in nature,
and the gravel path sparkles like gems. In calculating the juxtaposition
of color, the artist placed pale blue-green shadows on the child’s face
to heighten her rosy complexion. In addition, the blurred impressionist
brushstrokes create the effect of shimmering sunlight dissolving form
and detail. Once in response to criticism about his work, Renoir said,
“There are enough things to bore us in life without our making more of
them.”
[Illustration: GALLERY 86: Claude Monet, _Rouen Cathedral, West
Facade_, dated 1894]
Monet, a founder of impressionism, became obsessed with the variations
with natural light. From 1892 to 1895, he recorded in a series of
paintings a medieval French cathedral as it appeared at different times
of day or under different weather conditions. In over thirty canvases of
Rouen Cathedral, Monet’s analyses of light on the cathedral’s surfaces
resulted in iridescent colors and thick paint textures that are visually
sensational yet highly naturalistic. Here, in early morning, the church
shimmers lavender and violet, the stone of the upper portions glowing in
the rich red-orange of the rising sun. Another from the Rouen series,
showing the church in the yellow-white heat of the afternoon, is also in
this room.
[Illustration: GALLERY 85: Edgar Degas, _Four Dancers_, painted c.
1899]
One of Degas’ own favorite works, this, his last major oil painting, has
a chalky texture reminiscent of the pastels he frequently used. Studying
the strong patterns in Japanese prints as well as the snapshot effects
of photography, this superb draftsman often designed his paintings with
an angled point of view or created an off-center balance, cutting off
figures by the frame edge. With the increasing abstraction of his late
style, Degas here used a black outline which not only separates the
gestures of the dancers but also accents their red apparel, intensifying
the theatrical effect.
[Illustration: GALLERY 85: Paul Cézanne, _Still Life_, painted c.
1894]
Most evident in this painting is the tension between what is, on the one
hand, a rendition of nature and, on the other, Cézanne’s deliberate
organization of the shapes into a rhythm of forms. The swirls and eddies
of the blue drapery are reflected in the curves of the apples,
peppermint bottle, white linen, and carafe. At the same time, horizontal
or vertical lines dominate along the edge of the table, the molding of
the back wall, and the neck of the bottle, creating a linear grid that
offsets and balances the curving lines. The blue-green tonality, in
addition to the geometric patterning, further demonstrates the artist’s
intent to visually organize and unify. Indeed, for the sake of unity,
Cézanne has even distorted the carafe by swelling it out on one side,
pulling it deeper into the folds of the fabric.
20th-Century Art
(Gallery 76 and West Stair Hall)
Flattened shapes, strong outlines, unmodulated hues, and pronounced
pigment textures have been among the central devices of many
twentieth-century painters. Artists have often abandoned the direct
imitation of reality, preferring instead to work through complex
problems of pictorial design to express human feelings. A tremendous
diversity of artistic styles has resulted, emerging in tempo with the
rapid changes of modern society and technology. The National Gallery’s
present collection of modern art concentrates on the French school prior
to World War I, the period when Paris was the cultural center of Europe.
With the opening of the East Building, the National Gallery will have
increased space for the display of contemporary art.
[Illustration: GALLERY 76: Pablo Picasso, _Family of Saltimbanques_,
painted in 1905]
Obsessed in 1905 with the theme of the circus, Picasso sought the
company of performers not only as potential subjects for his paintings
but also as companions. Their agility and grace delighted him; their
gypsy lives intrigued him, as did their professional pursuit of the fine
art of illusion. The circus family in this painting is assembled in a
lonely landscape devoid of any living thing. Their static poses suggest
that each member, caught up in reverie, is unaware of the others. A
sense of equilibrium is maintained, however, in the compact shape of the
five figures at the left balanced against the single figure in the right
foreground. The pastel tints of red, violet, and blue, moreover, create
an aura of elegiac melancholy. Although Picasso has abandoned the
predominantly blue palette of his earlier, more pensive work, the
_Family of Saltimbanques_ still exudes a feeling of pathos and
isolation. (The thirteen paintings by Picasso in the National Gallery
represent the major phases within the first half of Picasso’s career.)
[Illustration: GALLERY 76: Georges Braque, _Still Life: Le Jour_,
dated 1929]
Although common, everyday items, the objects in this painting are not
shown in an everyday arrangement. Rather, through a precise, rational
manipulation of shapes, the artist has so structured the objects as to
arrive at a fresh understanding of their reality. The pitcher and the
wineglass, for example, are each shown as an overview of the rim
(presenting one angle of vision) and a profile view of the object’s body
(presenting a second angle of vision); these and other aspects of the
objects are combined to reveal a new, but nonetheless accurate,
perception of the object. And, as Braque intended, it is this flattened
perception that, throughout the composition, constantly reminds us of
the two-dimensional surface of the canvas. Braque’s geometric
compositions—which to outraged critics were nothing more than
“cubes”—were one aspect of a style known as cubism which developed
shortly after the turn of the century.
[Illustration: WEST STAIR HALL: Salvador Dali, _The Sacrament of the
Last Supper_, dated 1955]
Known neither for his Christian themes nor for simplicity of
organization, Dali has in this painting moved away from the surrealism
that preoccupied him during his earlier years. The composition of the
_Last Supper_ is clearly defined in two main planes: foreground action
and background scenery. The placement of the figures is symmetrical with
a mirror-image repetition of the same figures from one side of the
painting to the other. The men, their faces hidden, are more the
idealized participants in a timeless Eucharist than specific men of a
specific time and place. The strange translucent enclosure—a geometrical
dodecahedron—is meant to be understood as part earthly, part celestial.
The enigma of this intellectual and complex painting centers finally in
the all-embracing arms—symbolic of the heavens and of the creator, who
is seen as youthful rather than patriarchal but whose face is hidden.