National Gallery of Art

I was pleased to see recently that the West Building of the National Gallery of Art has reopened. As many of you know, I was fortunate enough to grow up in the Washington DC area and enjoy the many treasures there. As a young boy, my mother frequently took me to the museums and galleries and often to the National Gallery of Art, which she called the ‘Mellon Art Gallery’ after the man who made the initial contribution to the collection. I thought I would share some of the paintings that I really like there.

You will note that I have not included any recent paintings and that is simply because, due to copyright restrictions, it’s hard to get a high quality image. All of the images below are in the public domain and many are provided by the NGA as a part of their open access program.

Aelbert Cuyp, The Maas at Dordrecht, c. 1650, NGA 576.jpg
Aelbert Cuyp, The Maas at Dordrecht, c. 1650

Cuyp was one of the Dutch Golden Age painters. I love how he catches the morning light in this painting.

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Red Hat, c. 1665-1666, NGA 60.jpg
Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Red Hat, c. 1665-1666

Vermeer was another Dutch artist who lived mostly in Delft. This is a rather small painting and is a part of the original collection donated by Andrew Mellon. Again, the light…and the expression on the girl’s face.

Mary Cassatt - The Boating Party - Google Art Project.jpg
Mary Cassatt – The Boating Party

I like a lot of Mary Cassatt’s work. She was an American painter who lived most of her life in France and was a friend of Edgar Degas. A lot of her paintings are images of women in private and social settings and particularly with children. This painting was a part of the Chester Dale collection.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Cassatt_Mary_Children_on_the_Beach_1884.jpg
Cassatt Mary Children on the Beach 1884
File:Self-portrait by Judith Leyster.jpg
Self-portrait by Judith Leyster ca 1630

Judith Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter whose work was highly admired while she was alive but who was almost forgotten after her death. Most of her work was attributed, until recently, to Frans Hals. This particular work was attributed to Hals until it was acquired by the NGA in 1949. I really like the sense of closeness in this painting.

Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project (719161).jpg
Vincent van Gogh, Self Portrait 1889

I love so much of his work. This is about the time he became most famous as an artist.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric", 1895-1896, NGA 72012.jpg
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in “Chilpéric”, 1895-1896

One of his many Moilin Rouge paintings.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Childe_Hassam%2C_Allies_Day%2C_May_1917%2C_1917%2C_NGA_30115.jpg/630px-Childe_Hassam%2C_Allies_Day%2C_May_1917%2C_1917%2C_NGA_30115.jpg
Childe Hassam Allies Day, May 1917

Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist painter. He did a lot of flag paintings and I like this one. One of his others is in the White House permanent collection.

Georges de La Tour 006.jpg
Georges de la Tour, The Penitent Magdalene

This is apparently one of many paintings of Mary Magdalene that he did, but the only one I’ve seen. I really like the chiaroscuro effect with her features brightly lit by the candle and the rest of the painting dark.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Auguste_Renoir_-_A_Girl_with_a_Watering_Can_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Auguste Renoir – A Girl with a Watering Can 1876

Finally, for today, this wonderful work by August Renoir. It was apparently painted at Claude Monet’s garden at Argenteuil. This just seems like a wonderful painting to me and I admired it when I was a six-year old boy. I think this is enough for now. I might do more later.

1 comment

I really enjoyed this post; seeing the paintings and reading your comments, Tom. Love the ships and admire people’s ability to paint human faces. Wish we’d gone to a few museums back then. It was always on my weekend list and cooking cleaning seemed to take precedence. Thanks for posting these. Real treat.