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  • Visit

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    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
    • Tours and Guides
    • Explore the Campus

    Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

    Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights

    Through September 5

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    America’s 250th

    Celebrating American art and artists

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Fun and Games
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Open Call

    Artists Reimagining the Collection

    Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Utility

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  • Shop
  • Become a Member

  • Visit

    • Plan Your Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
    • Tours and Guides
    • Explore the Campus

    Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

    Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights

    Through September 5

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    America’s 250th

    Celebrating American art and artists

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Fun and Games
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Open Call

    Artists Reimagining the Collection

    Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

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  • Shop
  • Become a Member

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    3. Marta Langbehn
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    Marta Langbehn

    active mid 20th century

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    Artwork

    A dozen people surround a woman reclining in a bed in front of a gleaming gold background in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin. Red curtains drape from a shallow awning hanging over the head of the bed to our right, and the foot of the bed almost reaches the left side of the panel. The woman on the bed, Saint Clare, lies back against pillows with her hands crossed over her chest and her eyes closed. A white cloth covers her body from the waist down. She and two women attending to her from behind the head of the bed wear nun’s habits with black robes and head coverings over high-necked white collars. A row of five women line up along the far side of the bed, looking at Saint Clare. They all have blond hair, pointed noses and rounded cheeks, and they all have crowns surrounded by halos, which have been punched into the gold leaf background. Their dresses are in shades of vivid blue, forest green, white, or burgundy red and gold. Each holds a different object, including one with what looks like the model of a castle tower and another a small basket of flowers. The woman closest to Saint Clare holds the nun’s face in her hands. On our side of the bed, two more blond women kneel and lean onto the bed. One near the foot of the bed wears a maroon-red and gold brocade robe and holds a tiny dragon. The other kneels near Saint Clare, wearing royal-blue robes, and is accompanied by a minuscule sheep. Two smaller, seated women flank the woman in blue on our side of the bed. They are about half the size of the other people, and they wear nun’s habits but with gray robes rather than black. Both look at open books in their laps. Two blond, winged angels hover within the awning over Saint Clare’s head swinging incense burners. A bearded, haloed man in a blue field at the top center of the panel and holds a tiny, crowned person, and looks down at Saint Clare. The gold background is punched and incised with a decorative band at the inner edge of the panel, and also to create regiments of musicians and winged angels along the top quarter of the composition.
    Master of Heiligenkreuz, The Death of Saint Clare, c. 1400/1410, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.83

    The Death of Saint Clare

    The Death of Saint Clare

    Master of Heiligenkreuz · c. 1400/1410 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.83

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