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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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    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
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  • Exhibitions & Events

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    • 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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    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 young woman wearing a white robe and teal-blue cape is held aloft on the shoulders of three floating angels, surrounded by clouds crowded with cherubs above a group of people looking up from below in this vertical painting. All the people have light skin. The woman, Mary, lifts her arms, palms open. Her pink lips are parted, and her brown eyes look up toward light shining through a patch of blue sky from the top left corner of the painting. Her white robe has voluminous, long sleeves and is belted and tied with a strip of cloth. A gold clasp secures her cape, which is rimmed at the neck with gold. Her long, blond hair and her cape swirl around her. Above her, in the top right corner, four winged faces with round, chubby cheeks and tousled hair look around the scene. Other winged angels are faintly outlined in a coral-pink cluster in the white clouds beyond the woman. One of these angels strums the strings of a harp. The sky around them swirls with patches of hazy of sapphire and celestial blue mixed with wispy, white clouds. Three winged angels support Mary’s legs with their arms intertwined. The angels have chin-length, wavy blond hair and they wear robes in rose pink, mint, or moss green. Their hair and drapery flutters as if in a breeze as they look down onto the crowd of people below. In the lower right corner and closest to us, a balding man with a gray beard and hair is shown from about the waist up, facing away from us. He wears a dark blue robe with mustard-brown fabric draped over his left elbow and across his back. He looks up at Mary with his right hand raised to shield his eyes. He reaches down with his left hand to touch a book on a brown rock beside him. A slip of paper under the book reads, “BALDSLEA,” with the “BAL” intertwined as a monogram. Just beyond him to our right, a young woman with long, curly brown hair clutches her breast as she stares up. Beyond this pair, a group of people robed in muted pastel yellow, green, blue, or pink, gather around a white stone box, a tomb. On the side of the tomb facing us, a sculpted frieze shows a child-like cherub among stylized waves and swirls. To our left, two bearded men stand looking at the people leaning over and gathered near the tomb. The man closer to us gestures with his left hand and holds a large book or tablet tucked along his right side. The head of a third man, white-bearded and stooped, appears behind them. The scene is loosely painted so some details are indistinct, especially in the group gathered around the tomb and the onlookers below.
    Juan de Valdés Leal, The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1658/1660, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.46

    The Assumption of the Virgin

    The Assumption of the Virgin

    Juan de Valdés Leal · c. 1658/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.46

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