National Gallery of Art: The guidebooks I bought did a tremendous disservice to this world-class gallery. They wrote about it, but what they chose to focus on wasn't sufficient. I went pretty early in the morning to the gallery and managed to cover only the West Building before it closed for the day. The rooms in the West Building - over 80 of them - were devoted to American and European Masterpieces from the gallery's permanent collection.
As I made my way slowly through the rooms, keeping an eye on the 12 must-see works (check them out at the gallery website), I found to my joy and delight that there were some other treasures that were not highlighted in the guidebooks.
Almost all of the museums and galleries in Washington D.C. permit photography. Being trained in the European museum discipline of not even daring to stand too close to a painting for fear of my breath damaging it, much less take a photograph and in particular with a flash, I found it extremely difficult to start snapping away at the paintings on display in the National Gallery of Art. In fact, I started taking photographs only about an hour into my visit. Even so, I refrained from flash photography because that is extremely damaging to paintings.
I've an extremely soft spot for for French impressionist artist Claude Monet and you could imagine how elated I felt when I realised that the gallery devoted close to two rooms for his paintings. Here are my shots for the Monet fans out there.
Banks of the Seine, Vetheuil
oil in canvas, 1880
Claude Monet
Jerusalem Artichoke Flowers
oil on canvas, 1880
Claude Monet
The Houses of Parliament, Sunset
oil on canvas, 1903
Claude Monet
The Seine at Giverny
oil on canvas, 1897
Claude Monet
Waterloo Bridge, Gray Day
oil on canvas, 1903
Claude Monet
Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlightoil on canvas, 1894
Claude Monet
Rouen Cathedral, West Facadeoil on canvas, 1894
Claude Monet
The Japanese Footbridgeoil on canvas, 1899
Claude Monet
Palazzo da Mula, Venice
oil on canvas, 1908
Claude Monet
The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil
oil on canvas, 1880
Claude Monet
The Artist's Garden in Agenteuil
(a corner of the garden with dahlias)
oil on canvas, 1873
Claude Monet
The Bridge at Argenteuil
oil on canvas, 1974
Claude Monet
Woman with a Parasol -
Madame Monet and Her Son
oil on canvas, 1875
Claude Monet
No comments:
Post a Comment