National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art A place where everyone is welcome to explore and experience art, creativity, and shared humanity. Mellon in 1937. Pei, and the verdant 6.1-acre Sculpture Garden.
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About the Gallery:
Masterworks by the most renowned European and American artists, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder, await visitors to the National Gallery of Art, one of the world's preeminent art museums. The Gallery’s collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals,

and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Open to the public free of charge, the Gallery was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of Andrew W. The Gallery’s campus includes the original neoclassical West Building designed by John Russell Pope, which is linked underground to the modern East Building designed by I.M. Temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art are presented frequently.

In the 1800s, artist Lilly Martin Spencer rose to fame, while her husband supported her career as a stay-at-home dad to ...
08/02/2026

In the 1800s, artist Lilly Martin Spencer rose to fame, while her husband supported her career as a stay-at-home dad to their 13 children.

Lilly Martin Spencer was raised in Marietta, Ohio by forward-thinking parents who nurtured her artistic talent, even though 19th-century society discouraged women from pursuing art professionally. After she astounded the locals with her first solo exhibition at age 19, her father moved with her to Cincinnati so she could pursue more training and opportunities.

At 22, she married Benjamin Spencer and moved to New York City. There, her career flourished.

Lilly Martin Spencer drew inspiration from her family, often using her husband and children as models. She bore 13 children, with seven surviving to adulthood. Her profession made her the primary breadwinner. Benjamin, formerly a tailor, stayed home to look after the children and help his wife manage her business.

Lilly Martin Spencer was far from the only American artist producing blissful scenes of family life, but her work challenged mainstream representations of women homemakers. Instead of relegating women to the margins, she painted them as main characters with rich inner lives. They displayed a full range of emotion, whether they were poking fun at their husbands, admiring their sleeping children, or weeping with exasperation in the kitchen.

Spencer was not only an exceptionally skilled artist but also a savvy businesswoman. She had her paintings engraved for reproduction as affordable prints, allowing her art to hang in homes across America and Europe. As a result, she became a household name throughout the 1840s and ‘50s.

While Spencer is best known for her domestic scenes, her technical skills truly shine in her still lifes. In “Raspberries,” on view in our West Building, each berry is painted with such precision that you can almost taste them.
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🖼️ Lilly Martin Spencer, "Conversation Piece," 1851–52, oil on canvas, 28 x 22 in., Maria DeWitt Jesup and Morris K. Jesup Funds, 1998, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

🖼️ Lilly Martin Spencer, "Young Wife: First Stew," 1854, oil on canvas, 30 × 24 in., Gift of Bruce and Susan Lueck, 2017, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

🖼️ Lilly Martin Spencer, "Raspberries," 1859, oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in., Gift of William and Abigail Gerdts, National Gallery of Art

07/30/2026

chat, you’ll never know the scream i scrumpt when i saw the back of this medal. wait for it twin.

luv yall,
ur girl Ali Luchs

🖼️ Antonio Abondio, “Jacopo Antonio Sorra,” 1561, bronze, overall (diameter): 1 15/16 in., Samuel H. Kress Collection
📍 West Building, Ground Floor, G16
⭐️ Alison Luchs, Curator of Early European Sculpture and Deputy Head of Sculpture

07/28/2026

Illusionist Nate Baranowski transformed one of the oldest objects at the National Gallery into a lifelike 3D mural using only chalk and pastels.

The Chalice of the Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis dates all the way back to the 1st century BCE. The stone cup was carved from a single piece of sardonyx over 2,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. And the gold and gem-studded mounting was made in a French monastery around 1140.

“In order to achieve the illusion, I split the chalice into two separate pieces so I could pour the water into the gap in between,” said Nate. “From one viewpoint the artwork comes together to create the illusion of a standing 3D chalice.”
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🏆 French 12th Century (cup Alexandrian 2nd/1st Century B.C.), “Chalice of the Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, 2nd/1st century B.C. (cup),” 1137-1140 (mounting), sardonyx cup with heavily gilded silver mounting, adorned with filigrees set with stones, pearls, glass insets, and opaque white glass pearls, 7 x 1 in., Widener Collection
📍 West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery G18

07/23/2026

A museum masterpiece but make it butter 🧈

In 1875, Antoine Vollon painted Mound of Butter, a surprisingly iconic still life that’s become one of the National Gallery’s most beloved paintings.

Nearly 150 years later, New York photographer RUTHIE • NYC CREATIVE painstakingly recreated the entire scene using real butter under hot studio lights (essentially a race against physics). Then she reimagined the painting as a modern grocery product: wrapped it in plastic, added an ingredients label, and slapped on a price tag.

“Vollon painted butter when butter was just butter,” Ruthie says. “Now it’s artisanal. It’s heritage. It’s small-batch churned. It somehow has seventeen ingredients. Butter didn’t get better in 150 years. It got corporate.”
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🖼 Antoine Vollon, “Mound of Butter,” 1875/1885, oil on canvas, 19 x 24 in., Chester Dale Fund

07/22/2026

This giant sculpture is unlike anything else on Earth. And this year, you’ll finally be able to climb it.

One daring artist has spent almost half a century building “Star Axis,” a massive land sculpture and observatory deep in the New Mexico desert. To reach the top of Charles Ross’ 11-story-high pyramid, you climb a 147-step staircase precisely aligned with Earth’s axis. Look through the hole at the summit, and you’ll experience the full 26,000-year orbit traced by the North Star.

Watch the full documentary on our YouTube channel (linked in bio), produced in collaboration with RAVA

07/22/2026

This artist wants you to see this painting differently.

Artist Rebecca Rose (Rebecca Rose) transformed John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark into a layered 3D animation that shines a spotlight on a figure many viewers have overlooked.

Rebecca was inspired by the painting’s “historic depiction of a Black main character as the painting’s central hero, whose identity was originally lost to history yet reimagined here as the only figure whose identity remains intact.”

In her reinterpretation, “the sailor and drowning boy are kept in color,” while many of the surrounding figures fade into grayscale with their faces intentionally obscured, encouraging viewers to focus on the Black sailor’s role in the rescue.

To bring the scene to life, Rebecca “separated action layers as images to build a 3D collage of the painting,” creating depth and movement that invite viewers to look again.
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🖼 John Singleton Copley, ”Watson and the Shark,” 1778, oil on canvas, 71 x 90 in., Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund

07/16/2026

Food replica artist Deanna Shaver (Sweet Replica) just turned Robert Seldon Duncanson’s “Still Life with Fruit and Nuts” into a real-life sculpture, recreating every single morsel by hand.

From the wrinkled grapes to the rough peanut shells, she matched every color, texture, and tiny detail until the painting looked like it could’ve been picked up off the table.

Which detail made you do a double take? 👀

🖼 Robert Seldon Duncanson, “Still Life with Fruit and Nuts,” 1848, oil on board, 12 x 16 in., Gift of Ann and Mark Kington/The Kington Foundation and the Avalon Fund
📍 West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M69

07/14/2026

Turning a 400-year-old painting into a ballgown 🩷

Costume designer Alexandra Sorenson (alexandra.louise) turned one of the hardest fits of 1640 into wearable art.

Stitch by stitch, she transformed the portrait’s dramatic silhouette, towering feathers, and shimmering satin into pure historical drip.

“With my work I simultaneously reinterpret not only the clothing worn, but the confidence in Stilte’s gaze and posture that Verspronck depicts in his work,” Sorenson says.

Lore drop: When this portrait was painted, only unmarried men could wear an outfit this bold in the subject’s role. Knowing he was about to get married, he commissioned the portrait so this legendary look could live rent-free in history.
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🖼️ Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, “Andries Stilte as a Standard Bearer,” 1640, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in., Patrons’ Permanent Fund
📍 West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M46

07/13/2026

No, this is not AI. Humans really cooked here.

Artist Chakaia Booker transformed thousands of discarded tires into this massive sculpture. And animator Christian Holland brought her process to life by hand. 🔥

Stretching over 20 feet, Booker’s sculpture is made from thousands of pounds of salvaged rubber that might have otherwise ended up in a landfill. She fused curled bands, jagged shards, loops, and inner tubes into a striking new form that transforms everyday waste into art.

AI could never.

See the sculpture in our East Building exhibition, In the Tower, now on view through August 2.
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🖼️ Chakaia Booker, “It’s So Hard to Be Green”, 2000, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of Artist Chakaia Booker and David Nolan Gallery
📍 East Building, Tower Level

07/09/2026

A Van Gogh painting made entirely of sugar 🍪

To celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day, artist Karen Thi transformed Vincent van Gogh’s “Farmhouse in Provence” into a handmade lavender and lemon sugar cookie inspired by the lavender fields of southern France.

To recreate the thick, textured paint that makes Van Gogh’s work so recognizable, Karen “used a few different methods: brushing royal icing like paint for the sky, making strokes with it, and wafer paper for the grass.”

“The color palette made for a really playful cookie.” 
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🖼 Vincent van Gogh, “Farmhouse in Provence,” 1888, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in., Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

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