Articles

January 12, 2023

ARTICLE

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Table: Breaking Bread in Troubled Times

A deeper look at how photography became a tool for the Civil Rights leader.

By Marcia Chatelain

The image depicts a dining room scene with people seated around a table. The dining table is covered with a white tablecloth and set with dishes and glasses. A man in a dark suit and tie sits at the head of the table, with a woman across from him. Other individuals, including a woman with medium-length hair and a child drinking from a cup, are seen around the table. The background includes a china cabinet filled with dishes, curtains framing a window, and diffused light entering the room.

January 4, 2023

ARTICLE

Introducing the Food for Thought Series

In this series, chefs, farmers, historians, scholars, and other thinkers share their takes on food, consumption, cooking, and eating.

By Cynthia Greenlee

December 20, 2022

ARTICLE

Calder’s Mobile Breathes Life into the East Building

See how the massive moving sculpture was made and recently reinstalled.

By Paul Schmelzer

December 15, 2022

ARTICLE

Enjoy Winter Art Favorites at the National Gallery

Explore some of our favorite snowy scenes.

A person and dog trudge through ankle-deep snow to approach a barn and farmhouse under a heavy, lead-gray sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The person has pale-toned skin and wears a brown hat and suit. He carries a sack over one shoulder and a handled basket looped over his other forearm. He walks away from us and to our right so the side of his face is painted with a triangular touch of peach. The dog is mostly brown with some gray spots. The pair approach a break in a stone wall built with light and dark gray boulders. Snow sits in the crooks of branches in barren trees and bushes to the left and right. A short distance away, six cows stand looking off to our left or nuzzle through the snow to find grass. A gray-sided, snow-topped barn is just beyond them to the right of center. More trees and other smaller structures are around and behind the barn. Another stone wall stretches from the right side of the barn and off the right edge of the painting. The main section of the three-story house to the left is butter yellow. A single-story structure jutting off the right side of the house is pale terracotta red. Laundry hangs on a line outside the house, and a person, also wearing brown, stands nearby. On the roofs, the snow is painted white where the low sun falls and mauve-pink where it falls into shadow. The distant horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this composition, is lined with slate-gray hills. A strip of warm yellow light lines the horizon beneath piles of gray clouds that mostly obscure a lavender-blue sky. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed a boulder in the lower right corner, “DURRIE N HAVEN.”

December 6, 2022

ARTICLE

Enjoy a Poem Inspired by Emien Etting’s “Flying Fruit”

Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil sees a love story in this print by American artist Emien Etting.

By Aimee Nezhukumatathil

This print shows a stylized blue vase or bowl holding various rounded fruits, including what appear to be an apple, a peach, and a lime. There are also two dark green leaf-like shapes. Above the vase, two fruits are floating, one that looks like a lemon and one that is round and tan. The blue vase has a wavy rim and a narrow base. The background is pale blue.

December 1, 2022

ARTICLE

Entering the Lively World of John Singer Sargent’s Brushwork

Brush up on Sargent with Richard Ormond, great-nephew of the artist and cocurator of the exhibition Sargent in Spain.

By Richard Ormond

December 1, 2022

ARTICLE

Dressing for Dinner in the Gilded Age

This 19th-century dinner dress captured in the Index of American Design gives us a glimpse of how the wealthy dressed for dinner.

By Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

This is a drawing featuring a woman's historical dress design, likely from the 18th century. The dress includes a fitted bodice with buttons down the front, a full-length skirt, and a floral pattern with large leaves and flowers. Lace trims the cuffs and neckline. The drawing includes a faint sketch of the back of the dress, showcasing pleats and a similar style. The illustration demonstrates a detailed and precise design commonly found in fashion drawings.

November 22, 2022

ARTICLE

Food Art Favorites to Feast Your Eyes On

Feast your eyes on our top 10 favorite food paintings at the National Gallery and download your favorites for free. See still lifes and pop art by Paul Cézanne, James Rosenquist, Robert Seldon Duncanson, and more.

By Alan Manton

November 21, 2022

ARTICLE

Birds, Trees, and Shining Armor: What Symbols and Objects Tell Us in Carpaccio's "A Young Knight"

What can we learn from a close look at the details in Carpaccio’s mysterious painting?

By Nancy Eickel

November 16, 2022

ARTICLE

Who Is Vittore Carpaccio? Seven Things to Know

Carpaccio has been celebrated in Venice for centuries, but many of us are getting to know him for the first time.

By John Strand

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Table: Breaking Bread in Troubled Times

Introducing the Food for Thought Series

Calder’s Mobile Breathes Life into the East Building

Enjoy Winter Art Favorites at the National Gallery

Enjoy a Poem Inspired by Emien Etting’s “Flying Fruit”

Entering the Lively World of John Singer Sargent’s Brushwork

Dressing for Dinner in the Gilded Age

Food Art Favorites to Feast Your Eyes On

Birds, Trees, and Shining Armor: What Symbols and Objects Tell Us in Carpaccio's "A Young Knight"

Who Is Vittore Carpaccio? Seven Things to Know

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