Thursday, December 28, 2017

Museums: National Gallery of Art #1

If you love great art, then one of the best museums to visit in DC is the National Gallery of Art.  

The original National Gallery of Art, the West Building, was completed in 1941.  The West Building is impressive, outside and in, and exhibits fine art over the centuries, including modern art.  


The East Building of the gallery was designed by famed I.M. Pei and was opened in 1978 and exhibits modern and contemporary works of art.  


We recently visited the National Gallery of Art and started in the West Building.  Check it out.

 A lovely work of art in the rotunda of the West Building.
When we visited, the museum was hosting a temporary exhibition featuring Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries. The exhibition provided a glimpse into daily life in Holland in the mid-1600's.  




When Greg looked at Woman Holding a Balance, he concluded the subject matter of the painting was deeply religious.  Perhaps 12 months of viewing Renaissance religious artwork has skewed Greg''s view.  You can decide the picture's deeper meaning for yourself.

The permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art has great works of art by the masters.  A few are pictured below.

The Japanese Footbridge by Claude Monet (1899)



It turns out that the National Gallery is now pet friendly.  Check out the painting below.

Some random hottie pointing to a pet pig in the painting.  
Next Up:  The East Building

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