National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art A place where everyone is welcome to explore and experience art, creativity, and shared humanity. Mellon in 1937. Pei, and the verdant 6.1-acre Sculpture Garden.
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About the Gallery:
Masterworks by the most renowned European and American artists, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder, await visitors to the National Gallery of Art, one of the world's preeminent art museums. The Gallery’s collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals,

and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Open to the public free of charge, the Gallery was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of Andrew W. The Gallery’s campus includes the original neoclassical West Building designed by John Russell Pope, which is linked underground to the modern East Building designed by I.M. Temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art are presented frequently.

During WWII, a team of National Gallery employees took part in the greatest treasure hunt in history: recovering stolen ...
05/26/2026

During WWII, a team of National Gallery employees took part in the greatest treasure hunt in history: recovering stolen art from the N***s. (Yep, the staff lore here is honestly unmatched.)

Uncover their story ⬇️

Long before World War II began, Hi**er had planned the systematic looting of museums and private collections throughout Europe.

During the war, N**i Germany seized over 6 million artifacts, hiding some for personal use and destroying others they deemed "degenerate."

To guard against N**i plunder, the US government recruited 335 museum curators, historians, archaeologists, and conservators from 13 countries to go to the front lines and help recover the stolen art. These men and women were called the Monuments Men.

Among them were several employees from the National Gallery: Lamont Moore, Charles P. Parkhurst, John D. Skilton Jr., Craig Hugh Smyth, E. Parker Lesley, and Perry Cott.

These individuals were not trained soldiers but found themselves in the midst of combat zones.

To recover art stolen throughout the continent, the Monuments Men had to conduct on-the-ground investigations. They traveled to suspected hiding places—such as mines, castles, and abandoned buildings. They risked capture and enemy fire, and two Monuments Men lost their lives while on duty.

One of their most famous missions was the discovery of a vast cache of art hidden in the Altaussee salt mine in Austria. This mine contained thousands of artworks and cultural objects that the N***s had planned to use for the Führermuseum, a massive museum Adolf Hi**er intended to build in Linz, Austria.

Thanks, in large part, to the Monuments Men, about five million artworks were returned to their countries and rightful owners. To this day, many stolen objects are still being found throughout Europe. The restitutions happening now are the continued legacy of the Monuments Men program.
📷 National Gallery of Art Archives. Manuscript Collections, World War II Monuments Men. Edith A. Standen Papers - Photographs

📷 National Gallery of Art Archives. Manuscript Collections, World War II Monuments Men. Frederick Hartt Papers - Wartime Photographs

📷 National Gallery of Art Archives. Manuscript Collections, World War II Monuments Men. Frederick Hartt Papers - Florence Flood Photographs

📷 National Gallery of Art Archives. Manuscript Collections, World War II Monuments Men. Edward E. Adams Papers - Photographs

📷 National Gallery of Art Archives. Manuscript Collections, World War II Monuments Men. Craig Hugh Smyth Papers - Photographs

05/22/2026

the museum clears the club so hard it’s not even funny.

📍 National Gallery of Art, DC
Art in video:
🖼 Gian Antonio Guardi and Francesco Guardi, “Erminia and the Shepherds,” 1750/1755, oil on canvas, 99 x 174 1/8 in., Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
📍 West Building, Main Floor, North Stair Landing West

🖼 Carlo Pittaluga, “Nymph of the Woods,” 1915, marble, 168.3 × 58.3 × 50.8 cm, 504 lb., Gift of the Honorable W.S. Stuckey, Jr.
📍 West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery G45

🩰 Edgar Degas, “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” 1878-1881, pigmented beeswax, clay, metal armature, rope, paintbrushes, human hair, silk and linen ribbon, cotton faille bodice, cotton and silk tutu, linen slippers, on wooden base, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
📍 West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery 3

🖼 Leonardo da Vinci, “Ginevra de’ Benci [obverse],” 1474/1478, oil on panel, 15 x 14 in., Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
📍 West Building, Main Floor, Gallery 6

05/17/2026

Georgia O’Keeffe was a woman before her time.

She took abstraction and made it personal. She found beauty in the small, the imperfect—in the curves of a flower, the vastness of a desert. But despite her profound talent, she faced skepticism from male critics who dismissed her work as overly feminine, sexualized, or decorative.

They failed to recognize the depth and complexity of her artistic vision. But O’Keefe persevered.

She refused to let gender norms and societal expectations define her art. She continued to assert her identity as a painter of unparalleled skill and vision.
📷 Alfred Stieglitz, “Georgia O’Keeffe,” 1929/1932, gelatin silver print, 4 x 3 in., Alfred Stieglitz Collection

🌺 Georgia O’Keeffe, “Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. 3, 5, and IV,” 1930, oils on canvas, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O’Keeffe

Dressed in black Saint Laurent with a towering top hat that looks like a pirate ship, nods to Carrington’s "The Temptat...
05/05/2026

Dressed in black Saint Laurent with a towering top hat that looks like a pirate ship, nods to Carrington’s "The Temptations of Saint Anthony Fragment II."

Carrington was born rich in England and was supposed to follow the rules, Catholic school, debutante balls...but she wasn’t interested.

She was into fairy tales, strange stories, and building her own reality. She got pulled into the Surrealist scene in the 1920s, but never really played by their rules either, especially not the part where women were just muses.

In the early 1900s, André Breton, who led the Surrealist movement, was drawn to the idea that women were naturally emotional and erotic. So artists like Carrington often got boxed into the role of muse, there to inspire men instead of being taken seriously.

But Carrington wasn’t having that. She once said, “I didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse…I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist.”

In 1942, she moved to Mexico City, where her creativity was valued among a growing community of expatriate artists, writers, and photographers, including Varo, Benjamin Péret, Kati and José Horna, and her new husband, Emerico “Chiki” Weisz.

She stayed there for the rest of her life, and went deeper into her own creative world filled with painting, writing, mythology, and cooking. When the Surrealist movement put her into a box, she decided to make her own world instead.

🖼️ Leonora Carrington, "The Temptation Of St. Anthony. Fragment II," 1945, 122×91 cm

In this painting, René Magritte does what he does best: he takes our familiar world, breaks it into pieces, and then rea...
05/01/2026

In this painting, René Magritte does what he does best: he takes our familiar world, breaks it into pieces, and then reassembles it…

As one of the leading figures of the surrealist movement in 1920s Paris, Magritte’s approach mirrors one of the group’s fundamental principles. The surrealist manifesto, a multi-page written declaration drawn up by André Breton in 1924, states their aim was to “liberate the mind by subverting rational thought and giving free reign to the unconscious.”

That’s why the figure and horse in this painting are somewhat familiar to us: Magritte ingeniously distorts what would be an ordinary scene by creating an optical illusion. He tricks your eye by combining separate elements into one complete image, transforming a horseback rider into a dreamlike vision. 😵‍💫💫

In doing this, Magritte not only takes us out of our world, but exposes how absurd our everyday world can be.
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🖼 René Magritte, “The Blank Signature,” 1965, oil on canvas, 32 x 25 in., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Have you ever experienced a moment so perfect you wanted to hold onto it forever? Claude Monet did with this family port...
05/01/2026

Have you ever experienced a moment so perfect you wanted to hold onto it forever?

Claude Monet did with this family portrait.

Monet’s 1875 painting Woman with a Parasol feels like an interruption of a casual family stroll. He painted from an unconventional point of view to capture this breezy moment—looking upward at Camille Doncieux, his beloved first wife, and Jean, their first son.

Monet worked quickly to convey the warmth, the movement, the feeling of the outing. He sketched the sky in chaotic strokes of blue and gray, leaving splotches of canvas exposed in his haste. His loose brushwork pulls you further into the moment—you can almost hear the wind tugging at the tall grass and catching Camille's skirt.

Camille posed for her husband countless times during their nine-year marriage. Their relationship wasn’t easy, starting with Monet’s family’s disapproval and continuing through the couple’s poverty and Camille’s illness. Yet, despite it all, Camille and Claude remained by each other’s side.

Time was precious for the Monets. Camille was only 32 years old when she died after battling uterine cancer, leaving Monet shattered.

In the spirited brushstrokes of Woman with a Parasol, their love lives on today.
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🖼 Claude Monet, “Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son,” 1875, oil on canvas, 39 x 31 in., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
📍 West Building, Main Floor, Gallery 85

04/22/2026

Our collection belongs to the American people. That’s why we’re sending some of our artworks out of DC, directly into communities across the country.

We’re excited to continue our Across the Nation program, a long-term loan initiative bringing masterpieces from the National Gallery to a museum near you. Our goal is to make art more accessible than ever before.

Recently, some of the most celebrated works from our collection took a special journey to the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, where young artists can now study and savor them in person. This program is made possible through the generous support of the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation, which will bring works of art like these to Americans around the country for generations to come. 💙

04/21/2026

And just a week after filming this...we cleared every Webby category we were nominated for and even snagged two People’s Voice Awards 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Huge love to everyone who voted for the museum and the Rizzler. Yall really showed up and left no crumbs 💖

You may have seen Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE design. But do you know the bittersweet story behind it?Before Robert Ind...
04/19/2026

You may have seen Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE design. But do you know the bittersweet story behind it?

Before Robert Indiana was Robert Indiana, he was Robert Clark, born in 1928 and adopted by an Indianapolis couple.

During the Great Depression, he watched as his adoptive parents’ finances cratered and their marriage fell apart. By the age of 17, he had lived in over 20 different homes across Indiana, long after his parents had divorced.

Even as he endured a tumultuous childhood, Robert Clark showed signs of being something special.

Despite moving from home to home, he held on to a steady passion for art. And when he graduated high school, he offered a gift to his teachers: intricate watercolor illustrations on parchment, in the style of medieval illuminated Bibles.

After high school, he enlisted in the Air Force—it was a door to opportunity. After three years of service, through the GI Bill he was able to study art and literature. He then moved to New York City, soon changing his last name to stand out from the crowd and honor his roots.

Now Robert Indiana, he found success as an early creator of Pop Art, exploring the power of words, numbers, and bold geometric forms. But he had no idea what kind of fame was on the horizon.

Indiana’s LOVE design began as a simple Christmas card he sent to friends. Then he spent years reworking it into drawings, paintings, and sculptures—eventually scoring the opportunity to create one for the Museum of Modern Art.

But why LOVE? It wasn’t just a clever design. It was personal.

Around that time, Indiana was grieving the loss of his father and going through the end of a relationship with fellow artist Ellsworth Kelly.

Robert Indiana’s LOVE design went mainstream in 1973 when the U.S. Postal Service released a Valentine’s Day stamp—over 425 million were printed. The design became an international icon, leading to large-scale sculptures worldwide. One version, in Spanish, stands in our Sculpture Garden.

In the art world, Indiana faced some accusations of “selling out.” But he reminded people that he wasn’t the one cashing in—he made just $1,000 for the stamp. Meanwhile knockoffs flooded the market.

He eventually left New York and spent the final years of his life creating art in small-town Maine. He passed away in 2018, leaving behind a legacy built on yet exceeding one simple, profound word: LOVE.
🖼️ Robert Indiana, “LOVE," 1966–1999, Polychrome aluminum, 18 × 18 × 9 in., Artwork: © The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

🖼️ Robert Indiana, “AMOR,” 1998, polychrome aluminum, 96 × 96 × 48 in., Gift of Simon and Gillian Salama-Caro in memory of Ruth Klausner 📍 National Gallery Sculpture Garden

📷 Indiana at 25 Coenties Slip, New York, with, left, Two Golden Orbs (1959) and, right, Twenty Golden Orbs (1959), each in an early state, summer 1959. Photo: John Ardoin

🖼️ Robert Clark, Second Chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, King James Bible, 1946. Watercolor on parchment, dimensions unknown. Latin Department, Arsenal Technical High School, Indianapolis

🖼️ Robert Clark, LOVE Christmas card, printed by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965, Artwork: © The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

🖼️ Robert Indiana, US Postal Stamp, January 26, 1973, National Postal Museum

John Singer Sargent was fascinated by high-intensity sleeping long before it was a trend. It was theme he painted many t...
04/17/2026

John Singer Sargent was fascinated by high-intensity sleeping long before it was a trend. It was theme he painted many times throughout his long career.

And his extraordinary technical skill and access to elite society made his portraits some of the most talked about in the late 1800s Victorian era.

But in 1909, he got sick of the “vanities of prominent sitters.” He gave up his thriving portraiture career and decided to travel around the world painting landscapes.
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🖼 John Singer Sargent, “Nonchaloir (Repose),” 1911, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in., Gift of Curt H. Reisinger
📍 Our West Building, Main Floor, Gallery 70

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