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    A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”

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    Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
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    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
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    Only have an hour to spend?

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  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events
    A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”

    Featured exhibition:

    Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

    Now on view

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    Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
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    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Only have an hour to spend?

    We've got you covered.

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events
    A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”

    Featured exhibition:

    Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

    Now on view

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    A refreshed experience for our puzzle game

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    Marie-Anne Daguerre Harader

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    From floor level, we look toward a semicircular apse of a window-lined, light-filled church in this vertical painting. We are situated near the left wall, so we look along that wall into the apse, where there is a painting set in an elaborate frame over an altar. Soaring above us, the cream-white walls are divided into three zones, with arched openings at the bottom level, a narrow, shallow walkway above, and a row of tall, arched windows at the top. Vertical, rose-pink ribs between the windows in the top level converge just off the top center of the painting, in a curved, ribbed vault. Five tall windows line the semicircular apse, and two windows in the hall-like nave that we stand in extends to the right and off the edge of the composition. The sky beyond is powder blue with soft, billowing clouds. In the middle, clerestory level below the windows, two dark brown tapestries hang over two of the openings above the altar. There are square, brown pennants on long rods at each of the upper corners, and lighter brown shapes on the tapestries could be coats of arms. One tapestry is dated 1598 and the other 1621. The latter is inscribed with “ALBERTO AVSTRIA CO” and “PATRI PATRIAE SILVA DVCIS DICAT CONSECRAT.” On our level, the lowest level, more light-filled windows peek out from an outer wall that runs behind the arched openings. Stone sculptures of men and women, painted in the same creamy tones as the walls, stand on shallow platforms high on the face of the columns separating the openings. Along the floor, wooden choir stalls are tucked between the columns. The slate-gray floor has brick-red and putty-gray squares and rectangles set at irregular intervals. At the end of the apse, across from us, the stone-gray altar is covered with lace-edged cloths, four tall candlesticks, and two pots of flowers. Above it, the painting is about as tall as the windows around it. It is flanked by a pair of columns marbled with carnation pink and white to each side, and is set into brown and white architectural framework. The painting shows people and cattle gathered around an infant in a manger, with angels floating above. Near or above the choir stall to our left, a solitary, bald man wearing a voluminous white garment kneels facing away from us, looking toward the altar. The artist inscribed the painting with his name, date, and location as if written on the end of the choir stall to our left: “Ao 1646 pieter Saenredam dit geschildert de sintjans kerck in shartogenbosch.”
    Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Cathedral of Saint John at 's-Hertogenbosch, 1646, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.33

    Cathedral of Saint John at 's-Hertogenbosch

    Cathedral of Saint John at 's-Hertogenbosch

    Pieter Jansz Saenredam · 1646 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.33

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