Articles

May 13, 2026

INTERACTIVE ARTICLE

The Feminine Enigma of Cecilia Beaux’s Sita and Sarita

It’s just a picture of a woman and her cat—or is it?

By Annie Yi

A woman with pale skin and dressed in white sits on a couch gazing into the distance to our left as she raises one arm to stroke a black cat perched on her shoulder in this vertical portrait. Shown from the lap up, the woman’s dress has voluminous, puffed, elbow-length sleeves and a high collar, and her narrow waist is cinched with a white sash. Her dark brown hair is parted down the middle and tied back, and she has pale blue eyes and pink lips. She reaches up to the cat with her left hand, on our right, and her other hand, farther from us, rests flat in her lap. The black cat looks at us with greenish-yellow eyes as it almost disappears into the dark brown background above the white couch, which is decorated with a blue pattern. The artist signed the work with dark letters in the lower left corner: “Cecilia Beaux.”

May 6, 2026

ARTICLE

The Ghost Army’s Artists at War

Learn how artists like Ellsworth Kelly fooled the Nazis with inflatable tanks and painted shadows.

By Abby Whitlock

Four Allied soldiers lift one of the dummy tanks used in Operation Viersen

April 17, 2026

ARTICLE

Artistic Visions of Our Nation’s Nature

See how artists interpret our nation’s natural beauty—from a fluttering Baltimore oriole to a towering redwood tree.

By Alex Dean

The top three-quarters of this horizontal landscape painting is filled with roiling, deeply shadowed clouds that tower over a line of buffalo crossing a grassy meadow below. Small in scale, the buffalo form a line that extends away from us at a diagonal into the distance to our right. Sunlight creates a bright reflection on the stream where the frontmost buffalo crosses, but the other animals are nearly backlit in the raking light. Trees, with branches whipping in the wind, rise along the left side of the painting, and the mountainous landscape to our right is lost in darkness under heavy clouds. The clouds above lighten from navy blue in the lower right corner of the sky to slate blue and white at the center of the painting. Small patches of blue sky are visible between a few breaks in the clouds, and sunlight falls on a cliff-like mountain face in the distance beyond the trees to our left. Another bank of parchment-colored clouds in the upper left corner, closer to us, contrasts with the glimmering light highlighting some of the clouds nearby.

April 2, 2026

ARTICLE

Who Is Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome? 5 Things to Know

The Hudson River School painter created landscapes that captured America’s natural splendor.

By Angelica Hankins

The painting features a valley with purple and brown mountains in the distance, surrounding a reflective body of water with a small rowboat floating on it. Closer to us, there are gray rocks, brown tree trunks and branches, and lush green vegetation at the edge of the water. The sky above is painted in warm shades of yellow, peach, and orange, which transition to pale greenish-blue at the top. The water below reflects these colors, as well as those of the distant mountain and surrounding trees.

March 19, 2026

INTERACTIVE ARTICLE

The Exceptional Emotion of Artemisia Gentileschi’s "Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy"

One of the Italian baroque painter’s finest works recently joined our collection.

March 6, 2026

INTERACTIVE ARTICLE

Understanding Van Gogh Through One of His Final Self-Portraits

The artist painted the turbulent work as he recovered from a mental health crisis.

By Alex Dean

Shown from the chest up, a man with short, orange hair and green-tinted, pale skin looks at us, wearing a vivid blue painter's smock in this vertical portrait painting. His smock and the background are painted with long, mostly parallel strokes of cobalt, azure, and lapis blue. His shoulders are angled to our left, and he looks at us from the corners of his blue eyes. He has a long, slightly bumped nose, and his lips are closed within a full, rust-orange beard. He holds a palette and paintbrushes in his left hand, in the lower left corner of the canvas. The background is painted with long brushstrokes that follow the contours of his head and torso to create an aura-like effect.

February 27, 2026

ARTICLE

Create with Us: How Drawing Can Teach You to See Your Belongings in a New Light

Sketch everyday objects, inspired by the Index of American Design.

By Annie Yi

A black and white drawing of a Sony Walkman with wired headphones

February 26, 2026

ARTICLE

10 Ways to Cultivate Everyday Awe

Our quick tips for finding awe in art and the world around you.

February 26, 2026

ARTICLE

Who is Emily Kam Kngwarray?

One of Australia's most revered artists only began making art in her 60s. Her works are portals into her Country.

By Annie Yi

February 25, 2026

ARTICLE

7 Ways to Celebrate Spring at the National Gallery

Usher in the new season with floral displays, art making, films, and more. Here’s our guide to the top spring activities.

This print shows a river scene with a green hill on the left. Trees with pink blossoms, light blue banners, and crowds of indistinct people dressed in white, pink, and blue are visible on top of the hill in the distance. Closer to us, different types of boats drift along the blue river with people sitting or standing on them. The people wear robes or tunics in shades of gray, green, red, or blue, and they appear to have skin in shades of white and peach. On the right, more vessels with white sails are seen in the distance as the river extends into the horizon. The sky is mostly white, although around the horizon it is a peachy-orange color. On the right side of the print are vertical lines of characters.

The Feminine Enigma of Cecilia Beaux’s Sita and Sarita

The Ghost Army’s Artists at War

Artistic Visions of Our Nation’s Nature

Who Is Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome? 5 Things to Know

The Exceptional Emotion of Artemisia Gentileschi’s "Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy"

Understanding Van Gogh Through One of His Final Self-Portraits

Create with Us: How Drawing Can Teach You to See Your Belongings in a New Light

10 Ways to Cultivate Everyday Awe

Who is Emily Kam Kngwarray?

7 Ways to Celebrate Spring at the National Gallery

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