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Our Thanks to You

Please enjoy some of our favorite Thanksgiving images from the collection of the National Gallery of Art. We hope it will inspire you and remind you of all the great art that awaits you on your next visit! 

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A mound of creamy, yellow butter sits to our left of center on a wooden table against an olive-green background in this horizontal still life painting. White cloth, presumably the wrapper or cover, is pushed down around the base of the mound to expose the heap of butter. The top of the mound has a few gouge marks and furrows. A long, narrow wooden paddle is stuck vertically into the right side of the mound, and is submerged almost up to the handle in butter. Two white eggs rest on the table in front of the white fabric, to our right of center. Loose brushstrokes are visible throughout, so the swipes of paint seem to almost become the butter. The artist signed the painting with black letters in the lower left corner: “A. Vollon.”
Our Thanks to You

Antoine Vollon, Mound of Butter, 1875/1885, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 1992.95.1
Our Thanks to You

Gordon Parks, Dinner Time at Mr. Hercules Brown's Home, Somerville, Maine, February 1944, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2015.19.4595
On a tabletop spread with an ivory-white cloth, plates, and white porcelain bowls containing sweets, fruit, olives, and a cooked fowl are arranged around the largest platter, which holds the head, wings, and tail of a peacock stuck into a tall, baked pie, in this horizontal still life painting. The front, left corner of the table is near the lower left corner of the painting, so the tabletop extends off the right side of the composition. The white tablecloth lies over a second cloth underneath, which is only visible along the right edge. The cloth underneath has a leafy, geometric pattern in burgundy red against a lighter, rose-red background. The peacock pie is set near the back of the table, to our right, so it fills the upper right quadrant of the composition. The bird holds a pink rose in its beak. In front of it, near the lower right corner of the painting, a white porcelain bowl painted with teal-green floral and geometric designs holds about ten pieces of pale yellow and blush-red fruit. A pewter plate next to it, to our left, holds dried fruit and baked, stick-like sweets, some covered with white sugar. A pile of salt sits atop a gold, square vessel between the sweets and the peacock pie. Another blue-patterned, white porcelain bowl filled with green olives sits near the back of the table next to a lidded, pewter pitcher with a long spout. Other pewter plates hold a baked fowl, like a small chicken, and, closest to us, a partially cut lemon with its peel curling off the plate. Nuts, more fruit, an ivory-handled knife, bread rolls, and flat biscuits sit on the white cloth among the plates. One glass with a wide stem covered in nubs and a flaring bowl sits near the back, left corner of the table, filled with a pale yellow liquid. An empty glass lies with the upper rim on another pewter plate, to our left. Also on the plate is a bunched up white napkin and a leather case for the knife. The background behind the still life is brown.
Our Thanks to You

Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Peacock Pie, 1627, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund , 2013.141.1
Our Thanks to You

Robert Frank, Men of Air/New York, 1947, gelatin silver print, Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.28.29.25
Our Thanks to You

Janet Fish, Grocery-wrapped Pears, 1971, pastel on brown wove paper, Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, 2007.6.97
Our Thanks to You

Andy Goldsworthy, Leafhorn, 1994, sweet chestnut leaves, Gift of Emily and Mitchell Rales in Honor of Victoria Sant, 2019.41.1
Facing away from us, a light-skinned woman blowing a silver horn stands in a grassy landscape in this vertical painting. The woman is lit brightly from the upper right, making her ankle-length, white dress glow. The sleeves are rolled back to her elbows, and a black ribbon fastens her blond hair in a net. We see the right edge of her cheekbone, and her skin is smooth and pale. She holds the horn up with her right hand and plants the back of her other hand on her hip. She stands with her heels together, wearing black boots. A strong wind from our right lifts and twists the hem of her dress and the thin ties at her waist. She stands on a patch of dirt within a leaf-strewn, grassy lawn. The edge of a building with wooden siding, presumably a house, runs parallel to the left edge of the painting. A vine grows up the corner of the house, and the very edge of a window frame is seen along the left side. At the corner of the house, two plants grow in pots, and an overturned, metal jug leans against the wall. An expanse of bright green grass stretches in front of the young woman. The land dips and rises a short distance away. A reddish-brown cow lies in the field beyond as black and white chickens peck the grass. The dark green canopies of trees growing to our left fill the top third of the painting. In the deep distance, a few dots of paint indicate people wearing white and red, working on a strip of brown land. One man works a plow pulled by a brown horse. A mounded, golden haystack sits farther back in that field. A strip of blue along the horizon could be water or distant hills. The turquoise sky above peeks through the canopies of the trees. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “WINSLOW HOMER. 1870.”
Our Thanks to You

Winslow Homer, The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside), 1870, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994.59.2
A silver butter knife rests across a slice of white bread so its rounded blade is covered with a layer of the vivid yellow spread, presumably butter, that covers the bread in this nearly square painting. The handle of the knife angles from near the bottom center of the composition up toward the top right corner. The handle is cropped by the bottom edge of the painting just below where it meets the blade. The bread on which it rests is also angled toward the upper right corner, so its curved top is cropped. Three more unbuttered slices of bread splay out like a fan beneath it, to our left and into the upper left corner. The bread is eggshell white with soft gray pockmarks to capture the air pockets in the crumb, and each slice has a deep, honey-brown crust. The glossy yellow butter glistens where the light catches it. The area around the slices of bread is the same vibrant yellow of the butter, along the bottom of the canvas.
Our Thanks to You

James Rosenquist, White Bread, 1964, oil on canvas, Richard S. Zeisler Fund, 2008.36.1
Our Thanks to You

Thomas Hart Benton, Corn and Winter Wheat, 1948, oil on canvas, Gift (Partial and Promised) of Helen Lee Henderson in memory of Helen Ruth Henderson, Founder, HRH Foundation, 2001.122.1
A cartoonish tooth-like form and a fork float against a roughly oval field in this abstracted wooden sculpture. Presumably the shirt front of the sculpture's title, the tooth-like form takes up the left half of the composition. It has a rounded top with two pointed root-like legs below, and has two dots like eyes near the top. The fork to our right points downward and the four tines are cut off by the bottom edge of the composition. The shirt front, dots, and fork are carved and painted nickel gray so they look like thick outlines in low relief. The background to our left and over the shirt front is black. The area between the shirt front and fork is dark gray, and the field to our right of the fork is silvery gray. The sculpture hangs on a white wall, and it casts a narrow shadow from the bottom edge.
Our Thanks to You

Jean Arp, Shirt Front and Fork, 1922, painted wood, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1983.3.1
Our Thanks to You

Margaret Watkins, Domestic Symphony, 1919, printed 1920s, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2018.155.1
Several pieces of fruit, a bunch of green grapes, a stem of raisins, and several types of nuts in their shells are piled on a putty-brown tabletop or ledge with rounded corners against a dark background in this horizontal still life painting. The food is brightly lit from the front, and we look slightly down onto the table. There are two round red apples and two pieces of small yellow fruit, perhaps quinces, flanking a golden yellow pear at the back center. The bunch of grapes drapes over the fruit to our right and the raisins lie between the apples. Thirteen walnuts, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and perhaps a brazil nut are scattered in a loose band in front of the fruit. The surface on which the still life sits becomes swallowed in shadow behind the fruit, and blends into the dark brown background. The artist signed and dated the work in dark paint in the lower right corner, almost lost in shadow under the ledge: “R.S. Duncanson 1848.”
Our Thanks to You

Robert Seldon Duncanson, Still Life with Fruit and Nuts, 1848, oil on board, Gift of Ann and Mark Kington/The Kington Foundation and the Avalon Fund, 2011.98.1
Our Thanks to You

Walt Kuhn, Green Apples and Scoop, 1939, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.14
In a darkened room, two women sit at a round table near a man who stands leaning against a fireplace mantle, all illuminated only by a soft, yellow light from a ceiling lamp hanging over the table in this nearly square painting. All the people are light skinned and have brown or dark hair. The brushwork throughout is loose and details are indistinct. The brightest object in the room, the light, has a flaring shade over a spherical body, and hangs from three curling, scrolling arms. Painted in butter and golden yellow, it seems to be made from brass. The table is bare except for a white teapot and two small, white teacups on saucers near the women who sit to our right. The women have turned their wooden chairs to face each other next to the table, so the one closer to us sits with her back to us. Both have brown hair pulled up in buns, and they look down at their hands. The woman farther away wears a pine-green dress with white trim at the cuffs, and the one facing away from us wears a slate-blue, high-necked dress with a white collar. The one who faces us wears holds something white in her hands, presumably needlework. A third chair at the table, closest to us, is turned toward the women, but is empty. The man stands in semi-darkness behind the two women next to a glowing fireplace. He has a full beard and wears a black suit. He leans on the mantel with his left arm, on our right, with his other hand on his hip. Though his eyes are deeply shaded, he seems to look down at the woman in the blue-gray dress. A large mirror over the fireplace reflects the heads of the man and the woman facing us, as well as the back of a blue-gray lidded vase on the mantel and a clock hanging on the opposite wall, out of our view. A curtain runs along the wall beyond the fireplace and is painted with the suggestion of a floral pattern in strokes of forest green, burnt orange, gray, and tan. The rest of the room is swallowed in shadowy areas of dusky browns, grays, and tans. The artist signed the work in red letters in the lower left corner: “Claude Monet.”
Our Thanks to You

Claude Monet, Interior, after Dinner, 1868/1869, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.26
More than a dozen light-skinned men, women, and children eat, drink, talk, and make music around a dancing couple under an arbor in this horizontal painting. Most of the people are dressed in muted tones of green, gray, and black. The patio-like space is enclosed by a railing along the back and a half wall to our right. Sage-green vines and leaves covering the roof-like trellis hang down. Ten men and women sit or stand closely around a long table along the left, next to the exterior wall of a red brick building. A woman sitting in a wooden chair at the end of the table closest to us wears a flax-yellow gown with a wide white collar and a starched white cap. She smiles up at the child she braces in her lap. The child stands and holds a toy in both hands and looks over one shoulder to our right. The child wears a carrot-orange gown with a white pinafore. Two men lean out of open windows at the far end of the brick building, and the people along the table drink, smile, or look on as a man in the center leads a woman by the hand to an open spot under the arbor. He wears a charcoal-gray suit, and a muted pink cap is pulled low over his eyes. He has a long, hooked nose, and light glints off teeth in his smiling mouth. The woman is pulled behind the man, so she stands flat-footed to our left of him. She faces our right but turns to looks at us from the corners of her dark eyes. Her light brown hair is gathered at the back of her head under a pearl-lined covering. She wears a dusty rose-pink gown with a sheer black shawl around her shoulders and white apron at her waist. Beyond the back rail, a man smiles widely as he balances a covered basket containing a gray chicken with one hand on his head. Nearby, a boy on our side of the rail talks with a little girl across the railing, who smiles back. Two men and a woman wearing a black head covering talk a short distance away. Close to us, a man, woman, and child in the lower right corner sit near two young men perched on the half wall, one playing a violin and the other a flute. A gleaming pewter ewer, a wooden barrel with a square opening, a white pipe, a terracotta bowl, broken eggs, a spoon, and an overturned pail of flowers lie scattered across the foreground of the patio. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “JSteen. 1663,” with the J and S overlapping.
Our Thanks to You

Jan Steen, The Dancing Couple, 1663, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.81