Past Exhibitions

Learn about past exhibitions going back as far as 1941 when the National Gallery of Art first opened to the public.

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American Masterworks from the Corcoran, 1815-1940
Closed May 3, 2015
We hover over the bottle-green surface of a river as it rushes toward a horseshoe-shaped waterfall that curves away from us in this horizontal landscape painting. The water is white and frothy right in front of us, where the shelf of the riverbed changes levels near the edge of the falls. Across from us, the water is also white where it falls over the edge. A thin, broken rainbow glints in the mist near the upper left corner of the painting and continues its arc farther down, between the falls. The horizon line is just over halfway up the composition. Plum-purple clouds sweep into the composition at the upper corners against a lavender-colored sky. Tiny trees and a few buildings line the shoreline to the left and right in the deep distance.
Focus on the Corcoran: Works on Paper, 1860–1990
Closed May 3, 2015
This painting shows a body of water in between wooded mountains. On top of the water there are several long wooden logs with people on them. One of the people stands atop a large log, while the other appears to sit or recline. The people both wear hats, and one of them holds a long stick with a pointed end. The water is a vibrant blue, and the logs are in shades of brown, tan, and yellow. The forest behind the water has trees in shades of dark and light green. The sky has clouds in white and gray against a blue background. The brushstrokes in the artwork are loose, and some of the colors bleed into one another.
From the Library: Florentine Publishing in the Renaissance
Closed August 2, 2015
Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence
Closed May 3, 2015

This exhibition brings together forty-four paintings representing all facets of Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo’s career, a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, including altar-pieces that still belong to the churches for which they were created.

Two women stand clasping hands between two seated men, all against a deep landscape with hills and a town in this nearly square painting. Dozens of people are gathered in the town to our right, and several cluster in front of a building to our left. All the people have pale, peachy skin. Close to us, the two women both have translucent, plate-like halos. They stand with their bodies angled toward each other, and they look at each other. The woman to our left, Mary, has smooth skin with a delicate profile. She wears a gold-edged, ultramarine-blue robe lined with forest green over a long-sleeved, ruby-red dress. Sandaled toes peek under the hem. An eggshell-white and gold scarf drapes over her blond hair, which is pulled back, and over her shoulders. Leaning toward her companion, Mary gazes directly into the eyes of the older woman, Elizabeth. They clasp their right hands, and Mary touches Elizabeth’s shoulder. They stand close together, so only a sliver of the background landscape is visible between their cloaks. Elizabeth wears a maroon-red dress mostly covered by a wine-red cloak that wraps around her body. Her opaque, white scarf drapes over her head and ties loosely on her chest. Her free, left hand is raised, the palm facing Mary. The women stand on a slightly raised platform as the elderly men sit on either side, their bodies angled toward the women. Both men have faint, barely visible halos floating over their balding heads. They have fringes of gray hair and long, gray beards. Their foreheads are deeply lined with wrinkles, and they look down long, straight noses at their laps. To our left, the man wears a scarlet-red cloak over a harvest-yellow garment with gray sleeves. He hunches over a book in his lap. Three gold balls lie next to him, near Mary’s feet. On our right, the second man wears black, round spectacles perched on his nose. The hood of his black robe lies across his shoulders, over an olive-green cape. The cape has gold trim, and the underside is scarlet red. He writes on a narrow piece of parchment with a quill on a closed, blue-covered book. He braces the book and an ink pot with one hand, and a leather pouch hangs from a cord in that hand. At his feet lie an iron-colored bell, a wooden cane, and a brown book. A single sprig of garnet-red flowers lies on the stone floor between the two men. Beyond the four people, the sand-colored land dips down between the town to our right and the building to our left. Dozens of women holding babies struggle against men with swords on a platform in the town. Four people look on from windows above, and buildings continue into the distance along high, steep hills. One of the buildings there is topped by a cross, and the side of that structure is painted with a scene showing a kneeling, winged angel holding a white lily toward a woman dressed in green, who kneels and crosses her arms over her chest. To our left and deep in the shadow cast by a tall building there, a woman and several men gather and some kneel around a baby. Beyond, the land extends to body of vivid blue water, which leads back to a pale blue mountain in the deep distance. A few puffy clouds float across the sky above, which deepens from powder blue along the top edge to nearly white along the horizon.
El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration
Closed February 16, 2015
Close to us, six people, all nude with light skin, stand or lie intertwined with snakes on a bank of rocks in this horizonal painting. Beyond them, the deep, distant landscape has a brown horse, tiny in scale, headed for a city of stone buildings beneath a vivid blue sky filled with twisting white clouds. The people’s bodies are sinewy and elongated, and their skin is painted in tones of ivory white, warmed with peach highlights and streaked with deep gray shadows. At the center, a man with a white beard and white, curly hair lies back on the charcoal-gray rock with his knees bent and his shins splayed out. With his body angled away from us to our right, he holds the body of a long, silvery-gray snake in his left fist, on our right, down by his hip. The snake curves behind the man’s body and he grips the snake behind its head. The man has high cheekbones and sunken cheeks, and rolls his eyes up and back to look at the snake, whose wide-open mouth nearly touches his hair. To our left, a cleanshaven young man stands with his body facing us but he arches back, holding an arcing snake in his hands. The young man’s right hand, on our left, bends at the elbow so he can grasp the snake’s tail and his other arm stretches straight back, holding the snake’s body as it curls around so its fangs nearly reach the young man’s side. To our right, next to the older man, a second, dark-haired young man lies on the rocks with his head toward us. His feet are on the ground, so we look onto the tops of his thighs. He lies with one hand resting on the ground, overhead. Three people seem to float, feet dangling, alongside the right edge of the painting. The person closest to us looks onto the writhing people in profile, back to us. A second person just beyond also looks to our left. A third head turns the opposite direction and looks off to our right. In the distance, the golden-brown horse is angled away from us, one front leg raised, on a path that moves from behind the rocky outcropping to the far-off town. Nestled in a shallow valley, buildings in the town are mostly painted with rose pink and red walls and smoke-gray roofs. The land dips to a deeper, green valley to our right, lining the horizon that comes two-thirds of the way up the composition. The standing people are outlined against the sapphire-blue sky and knotted, gray and white clouds.
Exhibition: Degas's Little Dancer
Closed February 8, 2015

One of our most popular works of art, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen will be presented with 14 additional works from our collection, including the pastel Ballet Scene, the oil painting The Dance Class, monotypes and smaller original statuettes by Degas that are related to Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

Sculpted with rich brown wax, a young ballerina stands with her arms straight, hands clasped behind her back, and one foot in front of the other on a square wooden base. Her body is angled to our left in this photograph. Both feet are splayed outward, and her right foot is placed far in front of her left. Bangs cover her forehead, and she has a heart-shaped, upturned face with a squat nose and slightly pursed lips. Her heavy-lidded eyes are nearly closed and her hair is pulled back and tied with a wide, cream-white ribbon. She wears a fabric costume with a sleeveless, gold-colored bodice, a gray tulle skirt, and ballet slippers. Her body is sculpted from dark brown wax, and a layer of wax covers her hair, bodice, and ballet slippers.
A Subtle Beauty: Platinum Photographs from the Collection
Closed January 4, 2015
This is a photograph of an interior of a Gothic cathedral. The space features towering pointed archways with detailed stone carvings and traceries. There is an elaborately crafted arched window on the left side, allowing light to shine through intricate panes, casting shadows on the floor. A stone effigy rests on a raised platform to the right, surrounded by railings. The image conveys a sense of reverence and solemnity, with light and shadow accentuating the stillness of the space.
Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1862
Closed January 4, 2015
From the Library: The Book Illustrations by Romeyn de Hooghe
Closed January 25, 2015
From Neoclassicism to Futurism: Italian Prints and Drawings, 1800–1925
Closed February 1, 2015
The image features a person viewed from the back. The individual is standing with one hand on their hip and the other hand hanging by their side, looking towards a village in the distance. The person's face is not visible as it is turned away, with their hair covered by a headscarf tied at the nape. They are wearing a long dress with a fitted bodice, long sleeves, and a cinched waist, along with detailed designs on the bodice and shoulders. The background shows a rural landscape with rolling hills, scattered vegetation, rustic buildings, and a clear sky.
Modern American Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Closed February 1, 2015
The image shows a composition of geometric shapes and bold lines creating depth and movement. Shapes such as circles, triangles, and rectangles interlock and overlap. There are zigzag lines on the left, a curved form resembling a fire hydrant, and a heart-shaped form with eye-like circles in the center. Vertical shapes resemble buildings, some with striped patterns and signs saying "Shop" and "Cafe."
The Color of Nature: Recent Acquisitions of Landscape Watercolors
Closed September 14, 2014
The painting depicts a hillside village viewed from an elevated perspective. The horizon is high in the image, with the village atop the hill, individual buildings distinguishable by warm color tones. Behind the village, the sky is clear blue, the mountains fading into darker tones. Delicate, fluid brushstrokes are used, especially in the foliage and winding path. The color palette is earthy and natural, with greens and browns predominant, the village's architecture and vibrant greenery offering lighter contrasts. The landscape shows rolling terrain rising towards the top of the hill.

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