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Public domain

Ginevra de' Benci [obverse]

Leonardo da Vinci

0:001 of 43

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C.

Leonardo's only painting in the Americas hangs here, in Washington, and admission has never cost anything. Andrew Mellon gave the collection and the building to the nation on one condition: that it carry no man’s name.

What to see

A first visit to the National Gallery usually comes down to three things: the only Leonardo painting in the Americas, the American rooms of the West Building, and the Sculpture Garden across the lawn. If you have an hour, these are the works to spend it on.

Ginevra de' Benci [obverse] — Ginevra de’ Benci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci, and the only Leonardo painting in the Americas.

The American galleries
A Sioux Chief, His Daughter, and a Warrior · George Catlin
Catlin, Stuart, Whistler, Homer, in the West Building.

The Alba Madonna
Raphael painted it around 1510, in the round, for a chapel in Nocera.

Watson and the Shark
John Singleton Copley
Copley’s 1778 rescue in Havana harbour, painted from a survivor’s account.

Woman with a Parasol
Monet’s wife and son on a windy day at Argenteuil, 1875.

The Sculpture Garden
Free, outdoors, and open late through the summer.

Collections

The National Gallery collects across eight curatorial areas, from thirteenth-century altarpieces to photographs made this century. The paintings hang in the West Building, the modern and contemporary work in I. M. Pei’s East Building, and the works on paper come out in rotation to protect them from the light.

European paintings
Tavern Scene · David Teniers the Younger
The Middle Ages through the nineteenth century, including the Leonardo and Raphael’s Alba Madonna.

American art
Harvest Scene in the Delaware Valley · George Inness
Copley’s Watson and the Shark through the twentieth century.

Modern and contemporary art
Nora McMullen Mellon (Mrs. Andrew W. Mellon) · James Jebusa Shannon
The East Building, designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1978.

Sculpture
Orpheus with a Lyre and a Long Scroll [reverse] · Giovanni Boldù
From Renaissance bronzes to the Sculpture Garden, added in 1999.

Prints
Boats · Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest
Around 75,000 of them, one of the largest holdings anywhere.

Drawings
Street at Night, Meudon · Gwen John
Works on paper shown in rotation to limit light exposure.

Photographs
Portrait of a Young Man · Isaac Rehn
The nineteenth century to the present day.

Artists

The Gallery has collected European masters since Mellon’s founding gift and American painters ever since, from colonial portraitists to the Ashcan School. These are the artists whose work you can stream on Momentable, deepest holdings first.

Portrait of a Woman — Alphonse Legros
French · 1837–1911 · French Realism

Lot and His Daughters [reverse] — Albrecht Dürer
German · 1471–1528 · German Renaissance

Internegative for Horses. Trotting. Abe Edgington. No. 28 — Eadweard Muybridge
English · 1830–1904

The Petition — Jean-Louis Forain
French · 1852–1931

A Young Man Seated at a Table (possibly Govaert Flinck) — Rembrandt van Rijn
Dutch · 1606–1669 · Dutch Golden Age painting

The Trap — Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French · 1864–1901 · Post-impressionism

Sioux Village - Lac du Cygne — George Catlin
United States · 1796–1872 · realism

The Last Supper — William Blake
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · 1757–1827 · Romanticism

The Visit - Couple and Newcomer — Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
German · 1880–1938 · Expressionism

Bedspread — Majel G. Claflin
United States · 1893–1941

Toleware Coffee Pot — Mina Lowry
United States · 1894–1942

Explore artist guides →

Artworks

The Birth, Naming, and Circumcision of Saint John the Baptist
Giovanni Baronzio

Two McLaughlin Pears
Jeremiah Pearson Hardy

Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers
Sebastiano del Piombo

Marble Tabletop with Fruit and Wineglass
Milne Ramsey

The Edge of the Forest at Les Monts-Girard, Fontainebleau
Narcisse Diaz de la Peña

The Feast of Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Benozzo Gozzoli

Niccolo Todini of Ancona, Captain of Castel Sant'Angelo, 1585-1591 [obverse]
Domenico Poggini

Thomas Jefferson
George Peter Alexander Healy

Poor Artist's Cupboard
Charles Bird King

Sources

NGA: nga.gov

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