Several insects such as a bees, butterflies, moths, ladybugs, beetles, and more, crawling on and around a fig branch.
Jan van Kessel the Elder, Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, 1653, oil on copper, The Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, Barry D. Friedman, and Friends of Dutch Art, 2018.41.1

Current Exhibition

Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery 23

  • Ticketing Information

    Admission is always free and passes are not required

Experience the wonder of nature through the eyes of artists. Look closely at art depicting insects and other animals alongside real specimens.

Art played a pivotal role during the dawn of European natural history in the 16th and 17th centuries. Advancements in scientific technology, trade, and colonial expansion allowed naturalists to study previously unknown and overlooked insects, animals, and other beestjes, or “little beasts.”  Artists such as Joris Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel helped deepen and spread knowledge of these creatures with highly detailed and playful works that inspired generations of printmakers, painters, decorative artists, and naturalists.

A delight for all ages, this exhibition features nearly 75 of these paintings, prints, and drawings in a unique presentation alongside specimens and taxidermy from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Learn about the rich exchange between artists and naturalists that sparked a fascination with earth’s living creatures, big and small. See how this intersection of art and science continues to inspire us today in a new film by artist Dario Robleto.

Explore selected works

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.”
Jan van Kessel the Elder, Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, 1653, oil on copper, The Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, Barry D. Friedman, and Friends of Dutch Art, 2018.41.1
From the Department of Entomology Collections, Smithsonian Institution. Photo by James Di Loreto.
Jacopo Ligozzi, A Groundhog or Marmot with a Branch of Plums, 1605, watercolor and ink with white gouache over traces of graphite on burnished laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Purchased as the Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke, 2007.111.121

Marmota monax (Marmot/woodchuck), loan courtesy of National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, USNM 612505. NMNH USNM 612505, Division of Mammals, Smithsonian Institution. Photo by James Di Loreto.

Dario Robleto, Until We Are Forged: Hymns For the Elements, 2023-2025, single-channel UHD video, color, courtesy of the artist.

Jan van Kessel I, Study of Insects and Reptiles [center], c. 1660, oil on copper, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon.

Megasoma elaphus (Elephant Beetle), Loan courtesy of National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. USNMENT00990181, Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution. Photo by James Di Loreto.

Pavo cristatus (Indian Peafowl) (peacock), loan courtesy of National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. NMNH USNM 662890, Division of Birds, Smithsonian Institution. Photo by Brittany M. Hance.

Jan van Kessel the Elder, Noah’s Family Assembling Animals Before the Ark, c. 1660, oil on panel, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland (Museum purchase, 1946), 37.1998.

Teodoro Filippo di Liagno, Skeleton of a Heron, 1620-1621, etching on laid paper, Gift of Funds from Virginia Mars, 2023.5.14
Adriaen Collaert, Hoopoe and Owl, c. 1600, engraving on laid paper, Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art, 1993.32.1.f

Related stories

Interactive Article:  The Marvelous Details of Joris Hoefnagel’s Animal and Insect Studies

Scroll to discover tiny brushstrokes, hidden meanings, and the immense impact on our understanding of the natural world.

Video:  D.I.Y. Art: Clay Insects Inspired by Jan van Kessel

This miniature masterpiece is inspired by Jan van Kessel the Elder’s 1653 Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, which features over ten insect species with impressive precision.

Video:  How to Style a Still Life Inspired by Jan Van Kessel's “Vanitas Still Life”

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to style a still life through key lessons on composition, lighting, and more, inspired by Jan van Kessel’s Vanitas Still Life.

Events

Birds either standing or flying, a monkey, and two trees.

Talks & Conversations:  Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

-

film series :  By Land, Sea, and Lens: Creatures on Film

This film series celebrates the exhibition through historic and contemporary international videos and films inspired by the incredible insects, sea creatures, birds and other animals who share the world with us.

Publication

Little Beasts

Joris Hoefnagel, Jan van Kessel, and the Dawn of Natural History, 1570–1700

A beautifully illustrated publication traces the connections between artists, naturalists, and collectors in an age of scientific discovery and broadening horizons.

Read more

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington with special cooperation from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Curated by Alexandra Libby, senior advisor for curatorial and conservation initiatives; Brooks Rich, associate curator of old master and nineteenth-century prints; and Stacey Sell, associate curator of old master drawings, all of the National Gallery of Art.

Sponsors
Major support for the exhibition has been provided by Barry D. Friedman.

The exhibition is also made possible through the generosity of the Virginia Cretella Mars Endowment Fund, the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust, and the Director’s Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

Additional support is provided by Denise Gwyn Ferguson and Daniel W. Hamilton.

The accompanying publication is supported through a generous grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation.

You may also like

Exhibition:  In the Library: Animal Illustration in Europe, 1550–1750

Exhibition:  With Passion and Purpose