Johaness Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance
This site examines Vermeer's use of light, proportion, symbolism, and other techniques in this 17th century masterpiece. How the museum restored the painting is also explained.
Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran was one of the major landscape painters of his day, and painted some of America's most prominent natural treasures, including the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone. He also arranged for the first government-sponsored survey of Yellowstone, and his images were later reported to have played a decisive role in the debate that led to the establishment of Yellowstone as the first national park in March 1872.
Gilbert Stuart: Works
Stuart portrayed virtually all the notable men and women of the Federal period in the U.S., and was declared the Father of American Portraiture by his contemporaries. Stuart portrayed American and European figures, including George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, John Jay, and Robert Liston. In 1805 he painted the Gibbs-Coolidge Set, the only surviving depiction of the first five presidents.
Dan Flavin: A Retrospective
This pamphlet for students looks at works of an artist whose career-long exploration of light established him as a progenitor and chief exponent of minimalism. His use of fluorescent light is featured in this exhibit, the first comprehensive retrospective on one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century.
Byzantine Art and Painting in Italy
This site tours Italian Byzantine paintings of the 1200s and 1300s. The site includes an overview of the genre, historical background, and information on the featured artists, the paintings, their provenance, a bibliography, exhibition history, and full-screen images.
Islamic Art and Culture: A Resource for Teachers
In this packet we look at works that span nearly a thousand years—from shortly after the foundation of Islam in the seventh century to the seventeenth century when the last two great Islamic empires—the Ottoman and the Safavid—had reached their peak. Although the definition of Islamic art usually includes work made in Mughal India, it is beyond the scope of this packet. The works we will look at here come from as far west as Spain and as far east as Afghanistan.
Italian Painting of the 16th Century
This tour looks at the different styles of Raphael, Titian, and other artists and examines how their artwork differed from the next generation of Italian painters.
Frederic Remington: The Color of Night
Frederic Remington (1861–1909) has long been celebrated as one of the most gifted interpreters of the American West. Initially, his western images appeared as illustrations in popular journals. As he matured, however, Remington turned his attention away from illustration, concentrating instead on painting and sculpture. About 1900 he began a series of paintings that took as their subject the color of night. Before his premature death in 1909 at age forty-eight, Remington completed more than se
Teaching Arts Since 1950
This teaching packet is designed to help teachers, primarily in the upper grades, talk with their students about art produced since 1950 and some of the issues it raises. The focus is on selected works from the collection of the National Gallery of Art.This site provides a printable overview of mid to late twentieth-century art in the National Gallery's collections. Topics include abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism, conceptualism, performance art, process art, neoexpressionist, and post
Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art
This in-depth study traces Homer's extraordinary career from the battlefields, farmland, and coastal villages of America, to the North Sea fishing village of Cullercoats, the rocky coast of Maine, the Adirondacks, and the Caribbean. Includes zoom option for close study, video clips, and an interactive slide show.
The Drawings of Annibale Carracci
This presents the first exhibition devoted solely to the powerful and evocative drawings of Annibale Carracci (1560-1609). From his early experiments with naturalism to his late, almost abstract, style, Annibale revolutionized our way of looking at the world around us and at the art of the past.
Sir Anthony Van Dyck
Paintings and descriptions of the National Gallery of Art's holdings of the famous Flemish painter. With elaborate settings, symbolic accessories, and suggestions of movement, Van Dyck made his models seem at once grand and alive, inaugurating a style of formal portraiture that is still emulated today.
Painting in the Dutch Golden Age: A Profile of the Seventeenth Century
Painting in the Dutch Golden Age: A Profile of the Seventeenth Century examines the culture and art of one of the world's greatest periods of creativity. The sheer volume—and outstanding quality—of the paintings produced can scarcely be paralleled. A 164-page book provides background information about the newly independent Dutch Republic and the nexus of its art and civics. Chapters look at landscape, still life, portraiture, and genre and history painting. Also included are artist biographi
Selections from Audubon's The Birds of America (1827-1838)
The site shows 34 paintings from John James Audubon's The Birds of America, one of the greatest picture books ever produced.
Who Am I? Self Portraits in Art and Writing
Who am I? is a set of art and writing activities designed to help middle school students begin to answer this important question. Students will look carefully at self-portraits in the National Gallery of Art's collection by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Judith Leyster, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Andy Warhol and respond to questions online. They will also make a variety of self-portraits and write poetry, a speech, and a letter about themselves—all to be placed in their self-portrait portfol
Monumental Sculpture from Renaissance Florence
The exhibition at the National Gallery of Art celebrates the completion of the conservation of the statues, performed under the supervision of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence. Freed from centuries-old accumulations of grime, they now reveal much of their original surfaces, remnants of their resplendent gilding, and long-concealed details of their facture. On their return to Florence the statues will be exhibited in the Museum of Orsanmichele.
Nineteenth Century America in Art and Literature
In the United States, the nineteenth century was a time of tremendous growth and change. The new nation experienced a shift from a farming economy to an industrial one, major westward expansion, displacement of native peoples, rapid advances in technology and transportation, and a civil war. In this lesson, works of art from the nineteenth century are paired with written documents, including literary selections, a letter, and a speech. As budding historians, students can use these primary source
Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting
The word "Renaissance" in the exhibition title refers, in the traditional sense, to the rebirth of antiquity—the revival of interest in classical art, literature, and philosophy. But here it also signifies that Venetian painting was transformed—reborn—in the opening decades of the sixteenth century. The exhibition focuses on the period from 1500 to 1530, which represents, visually and intellectually, the most exciting phase of the Renaissance in Venice, when three great masters, the old Be
Tilman Riemenschneider: Master Sculptor of the Late Middle Ages
This site exhibits over 50 works of an artist (W'rzburg, Germany, 1483-1531), who demonstrated proficiency -- at the beginning of his career -- in a variety of media, sculpting limewood, alabaster, sandstone, and marble with equal facility.
Counting on Art
In Counting on Art, students will explore the paintings of Horace Pippin and Wayne Thiebaud and the mobiles of Alexander Calder to discover and practice math and visual art concepts.In Pippin's Story, young children (grades K–3) focus on a painting by African American artist Horace Pippin. They will learn how to "read" the clues in a painting and write a story about the work. Students will also solve counting and time problems and create their own "secret number" painting.Calder's Balancing Ac
