Upcoming Exhibitions

From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington—January 31, 2010–July 31, 2011

From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection Henri Matisse, The Plumed Hat, 1919, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection

Henri Matisse, The Plumed Hat, 1919, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection

When Chester Dale bequeathed his remarkable collection of paintings to the National Gallery of Art in 1962, it became one of the most important repositories in North America of French art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some 75 of the finest French and American paintings―among the Gallery’s most beloved masterpieces― explore the collector’s passion and talent for acquiring great art as well as his tastes in modern art. This installation will allow visitors to discover the rich array of Dale’s bequest to the Gallery in the format of a special exhibition.

The range of paintings on view includes Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s Forest of Fontainebleau (1834), August Renoir’s A Girl with a Watering Can (1876), Mary Cassatt’s Boating Party (1893/1894), Pablo Picasso’s Family of Saltimbanques (1905), George Bellows’ Both Members of This Club (1909), and George Braque’s Still Life: Le Jour (1929). Several sculptures, such as Amedeo Modigliani’s Head of a Woman (1910/1911) and Paul Gauguin’s Pére Paillard (1902), will also be on view. Among other artists represented are Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh.

Dale was an astute businessman who made his fortune on Wall Street in the bond market. He thrived on forging deals and translated much of this energy and talent into his art collection. He served on the boards of several museums that hoped to be the beneficiary of his collecting, but his greatest devotion was to the National Gallery of Art, where he served on the board of trustees from 1943 and as president from 1955 until his death in 1962. Two portraits of Dale, by Salvador Dali and Diego Rivera, and two portraits of Dale’s wife Maud (who greatly influenced his interest in art) by Fernand Léger and Bellows, are included in the show.

A fully illustrated catalogue will present a study of the collection, with a biographical essay on Chester Dale as a collector, an exploration of the context of collecting in America from the1920s to the 1960s, and a chronology of the Chester Dale Collection.

A 15-minute documentary film will profile Chester Dale.

A selection of books from the Chester Dale Collection and related documentary material from the Gallery Archives will be installed in Gallery G-21 of the West Building.

American Modernism: The Edward and Deborah Shein Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington—May 16, 2010–January 2, 2011

American Modernism: The Edward and Deborah Shein Collection John Marin, Sunset, 1922, watercolor, graphite, and charcoal on paper, Collection of Deborah and Ed Shein

John Marin, Sunset, 1922, watercolor, graphite, and charcoal on paper, Collection of Deborah and Ed Shein

This exhibition explores the advent of modernism a century ago through twenty important paintings, sculptures, and drawings by the first-generation American avant-garde. Among the artists represented are Patrick Henry Bruce, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marcel Duchamp, Marsden Hartley, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Man Ray, Morton Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, Joseph Stella, John Storrs, and Max Weber. All works are from the Edward and Deborah Shein Collection, which is distinguished by its remarkable quality and rigorous focus on early American modernism.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with contributions by leading scholars of American modernism.

German Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington—May 16–October 3, 2010

German Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection Adolph Menzel, The Artist's Sister Emilie, 1851, pastel and black chalk on brown paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection

Adolph Menzel, The Artist's Sister Emilie, 1851, pastel and black chalk on brown paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection

This stunning exhibition of 120 of the finest German drawings from the Ratjen Collection will showcase major works from the 17th-century baroque, the 18th-century rococo, early 19th-century romanticism, and late 19th-century realism. Passionately assembled by Wolfgang Ratjen (1943–1997) over three decades, drawings on view will include rare, evocative, and influential examples by Hans von Aachen, Johann Rottenhammer, and Adam Elsheimer; studies for soaring religious ceilings by some of the greatest Bavarian artists, for example Cosmas Damian Asam, Matthäus Günther, and Franz Anton Maulbertsch; delightful Augsburg designs for rococo prints by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, Johann Esaias Nilson, and Gottfried Eichler; landscape watercolors by Johann Georg von Dillis and Caspar David Friedrich; architectural watercolors by Balthasar Neumann, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and Rudolf von Alt; and an exciting group of realist drawings by Hans Thoma, Otto Greiner, and Adolph von Menzel.

Edvard Munch: Master Prints
National Gallery of Art, Washington—July 31–October 31, 2010

Edvard Munch: Master Prints Edvard Munch, Madonna, 1895, color lithograph and woodcut [1902 printing] on oriental paper: lithograph printed from 3 stones in beige, red, and black; woodcut printed from 1 block in blue, The Epstein Family Collection

Edvard Munch, Madonna, 1895, color lithograph and woodcut [1902 printing] on oriental paper: lithograph printed from 3 stones in beige, red, and black; woodcut printed from 1 block in blue, The Epstein Family Collection

The central ideas and accomplishments of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) will be illuminated in an exhibition that brings together 60 of his rare color prints and hand-colored variations of these prints. Munch’s greatest artistic legacy is his series of prints depicting the basic human themes of attraction, love, and union, jealousy and separation, birth and awakening, anxiety and death. His stylistic approach to each of these themes was to transform ideas into an evocative image and to explore the image through numerous variations over a lifetime. Major loans from two of the world’s finest private collections will be joined by exquisite works from the Gallery’s permanent collection.

A fully illustrated catalogue written by Elizabeth Prelinger, Keyser Family Professor of Art History, Georgetown University, will accompany the exhibition.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov. The Gallery is now on Facebook—become a fan at www.facebook.com/NationalGalleryofArt.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

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