Art, Part 1

This week our "See Every Museum and/or Art Gallery in the Greater DC Area Tour" brought us to the National Gallery of Art. Its quite an expansive collection, housed in two buildings: the West building, a John Russell Pope building finished in 1941 and the East building, an I.M. Pei designed building opened in 1978. The West Building, which houses more of the classic art and sculpture, was all that we got through on this first trip.



Symphony in White, No. 1: the White Girl by James Whistler - I'm sure most of you are familiar with the painting Arrangement in Grey and Black: the Artist's Mother, more commonly called Whistler's Mother. Well, its not at this art gallery, but this other portrait by Whistler is. Its quite interesting, maybe a little unnerving. The way Whistler paints the forest context gives the girl a ghost-like, eerie quality.

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin - When I first saw this sculpture, I thought "no way, the Thinker is in DC? I thought it would be in Europe somewhere." Well, it turns out it is, at some museum in Paris. This is one of twenty casts made of the original sculpture. Still pretty neat though.

The Four Dancers by Edgar Degas - My big discovery at the National Gallery of Art was Edgar Degas. I had been somewhat familiar with his ballet themed paintings, but what they had here blew me away. And they had a lot of Degas, probably ten finished paintings and dozens of sculptures and drawings. This Four Dancers painting is particularly enchanting. Its mostly an impressionist painting until you get to the figures in the foreground. There Degas outlines them with a dark, wide line both heightening their realism and their kinetic poses.

Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas

Woman with a Parasol by Claude Monet - The interesting thing about this Monet painting is what the artist chose to do with the subject's face. Its as if the simulated wind drew the brush across her face. Or maybe she's just homely.

This whole room was just Monets. Probably about a dozen or more of them. Now think about the recent auction at Christie's of a Monet painting for $80 million. Quite the expensive room, isn't it?


Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh - This is one of the many self portraits painted by van Gogh. This is one of those paintings that is fun to see in person because you see it so often in books.

The van Gogh/Gauguin room was a popular place to be.


Roses by Vincent van Gogh - Kinsey's big discovery at the National Gallery of Art was a new appreciation of van Gogh. We had seen a couple of his paintings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, but this collection really set him apart as the great artist that he was.

Kinsey was quite taken with the textural quality and depth of his paintings.


Self Portrait by Paul Gauguin - Gauguin was an artist that I was really unfamiliar with. The National Gallery's collection was both wide ranging in artistic style and a little out there. I still don't know what I think of him.

Seascape at Port en Bessin, Normandy by Georges Seurat - This painting by Seurat, or as my Mom likes to call him "Seurat the Dot," isn't as intriguing as the famous Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte that we saw at the Art Institute of Chicago, but it is always fun to look at pointillism.
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves by Rembrandt van Rijn - There were several rooms full of the works of the famous portrait artist. Kinsey thought he was overrated and that we should pile all his paintings onto a huge bonfire and dance around the cathartic burning like a bunch of crazy people. Well, the first part's true anyway.


A Lady Writing by Johannes Vermeer - McKinsey much prefers the rich interpretation of light by Dutch painter Vermeer. There were a couple of surprisingly small Vermeer paintings at the gallery.

We took a coffee break about midway through our excursion and discovered this interesting fountain in the lower level concourse connecting the East and West buildings. The fountain is actually outside, then cascades down a slope and ends up running against the floor-to-ceiling glass.

This video of the fountain has a surprise guest appearance at the end.

The obligatory Wade and McKinsey self-portrait, this time it's a reflection!

While we were at the gallery we thought we found the Holy Grail! But it turned out it was just a beacon, which unfortunately was grail-shaped. And there's only one punishment for lighting the grail-shaped beacon...

Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci - The piece de resistance. The only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the western hemisphere. On first viewing, it seems to be nothing more than a plain ol' portrait. But on closer inspection, it's depth is revealed. It's detail, precision and portrayal of light create an almost 3D effect. Like the entire National Gallery of Art, quite impressive.