Aside from seeing real paintings and sculptures - which are always much better than even the most excellent photos - the best reason to visit a gallery or museum in person…
This delightful painting is a relatively recent acquisition - too recent to be in my color-plate book of the National Gallery's highlights, so it was a serendipitous discovery when I visited. What…
I'll soon be visiting the National Gallery in D.C. for the first time in at least ten years. This batch of must-see favorites are portraits of fascinating women, 15th-19th centuries.…
Years ago when I first started to work on Innovators in Painting (it was called the Crash Cruise Course then), I found it difficult to appreciate Raphael. He didn't have Leonardo's…
After I've spent time looking at medieval art, this Italian Adoration of the Magi of the mid-15th century always makes me smile. Peacocks! Arches! Parades! Linear perspective! Lavish costumes and almost-naked men! There's…
Since it's the week of Christmas, here's two more of my favorite works from the National Gallery that happen to be on religious subjects. This one was done about 120…
I'm a fan of all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo), but this work at the National Gallery also made it to my favorites list. This is…
This is the fourth in a series of favorite paintings from the National Gallery in Washington: my favorite Frans Hals, ever. The sitter is confident, charming, debonair: he could give…
This is the third in a series of posts on favorite paintings from the National Gallery in Washington. It's certainly not the colors that are the appeal here: it's the confidence…
This is the second in a series of posts on my favorite paintings in the National Gallery in Washington. I don't feel strongly about many works by Gericault, which is odd…