Wednesday, October 30, 2024

THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ART MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON DC - SON'S PHOTOS

 Our son was in DC and had about a hour to use up, so he came here. He said I could share his photos when I asked. I will have more eventually, as he also went to the Air and Space Museum. Thank you son! 

I have cropped explanations from larger photos, so they are a little bit fuzzy. You should be able to read them better if you enlarge each photo.  There is older and more contemporary art in no particular order.







Son had to contend with reflections in the glass. He told me it was painted by Grandma Moses. I don't know the name of the painting. When I have more time I will go back over these pieces and provide links to each artist.



















I have a more detailed description of the following painting at this link, which I shared recently. If you missed it and would like to see, you can click there.


Ginevra de' Benci
Oil on Panel c. 1474-1478
Leonardo da Vinci
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund


Son got some close-ups of several of the paintings.














I am not familiar with those at each side of the Jackson Pollock painting, and when I tried to zoom in on their id cards, they were too blurry.


Except for this one.






This very large, 14-foot sculpture is on the roof of the art museum. You can see the Capitol Building in the distance at the edge in the wall on the left. Its sculptor is Katharina Fritsch and you can read all about her work at this website
When I saw this sculpture, it rang a bell. Years ago in 2015, we were on vacation spending a few days in London. Sitting on the top of a double-decker tour bus, we were driven by Trafalgar Square and I saw a large blue cockerel at the top of one of the Collums, on the fourth plinth. I might as well slip a 'Word of the Day' in here as I haven't done one for a long time. A plinth (noun) is a square block, especially of stone, on which a column or statue stands. And yes, you may already know this, but I had to refresh my memory and look it up. There is a duplicate of this statue on display at the Walker Art Center's Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, but our friend here is the one I actually saw in London. It debuted in July 2016 on the East Building’s new Roof Terrance, a year after I had first seen it. Small world! A nice feature is that the statue is illuminated nightly so that it can be seen from a distance.


Thanks again son!








50 comments:

  1. My favorites are Green Wheat Fields and the path thru the sunflower fields. How odd and whimsical the blue rooster is!

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    1. Those are lovely choices Ginny and the blue rooster is definitely whimsical but I do enjoy it :)

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  2. Replies
    1. You are very welcome from both of us Sue, thank you :)

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  3. These paintings are so exquisite and beautiful

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    1. That's wonderful Roentare, so glad you feel that way :)

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  4. What a fun place to visit. I would enjoy strolling through and looking at all the paintings. I think my favorite might be the second one

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    1. Thanks Ann, and the nice thing about the Smithsonian Museums are that they have no entry fees. It's a great place for the family :) We used to go to them all the time when we first moved here. The Mall is a lovely part of Washington DC.

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  5. These art works are wonderful and so good to see, Denise.
    Love the rooster.

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    1. Very happy you like them Margaret, thank you :)

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  6. Lovely paintings. I like the Monet particularly. The blue cockerel is wonderful.

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    1. Monet is my favorite also Jan. I love the old traditional paintings, but I try to be open to all art forms. With some I always wish I could ask the artist about their work, so that I can understand them more. And I do love that blue cockerel :)

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  7. Beautiful art and I like the cute chicken! Take care, have a great day!

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    1. So glad Eileen and thank you. You take care and have a great day also :)

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  8. I love Monet's artwork. That painting of the sunflowers is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your son's visit to the art gallery.

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    1. Hello Linda, Monet's paintings are beautiful. It was lovely to read that the lady with the parasol and the young boy were his wife and son :)

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  9. I am totally shocked there is no Doodle by MadSnapper showing in your sons photos. I can live with that! ha ha... I have seen a few of these at one time or another, because they swamp them out to Ringling Musuem sometimes. Your son and you would love Ringling Museum, its been a while since I was there and I do love the place
    glad he had some time to visit with you and share the photos

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    1. No doodle? I was shocked too MadSnapper!!! ;) Glad you can live with it my dear friend, lol! The Ringling Museum sounds very, very interesting. I will have to put that on my list whenever we get down to Florida again. Thank you, I enjoyed his company very much and we both have a love of taking photos.

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  10. 💙 Love Monet. And the blue chicken! 😀

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  11. Thank you and your son Denise.
    I had a good chuckle at the blue chicken
    Hugs cecilia

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    1. You are very welcome from both of us Cecilia :) Isn't that blue chicken great?

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  12. It was nice to see these works of art, Denise. Fun connection to the blue cockerel, too. Happy day to you!

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    1. I am happy you enjoyed them Ellen. I was delighted to learn that it was what I had seen in London. Happy day to you also :)

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  13. Raphael is one of my favorites!
    hugs
    Donna

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    1. His paintings are magnificent Donna. Thank you and sending hugs :)

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  14. I had about six hours to visit the Smithsonian when I was in Washington. I rushed through the Museum of art and space. You need much more time and visit over and over to understand what you're seeing.

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    1. I am glad you got to experience them Red but you're right, you would need a very long time to enjoy them all :)

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  15. Very nice, and Y hope your week is going well.

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    1. Thank you e, and it is. I hope the same for you :)

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  16. I thoroughly enjoyed this post. I was surprised to see a Van Gogh as I thought most of his work was in native city. I enjoyed it all even though I am not an Andy Warhol fan. I love the Raphael Madonnas.

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    1. I understand, I have my favorites and not so favorites :)

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  17. Thank you for sharing your son's photos Denise and thanks to him as well! He certainly shared some illustrious works of art! And your connection to the blue cockerel is quite interesting. The National Gallery of Art is a gem. We need to visit again.

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    1. So glad you enjoyed them Martha Ellen. I will pass on your thanks to our son. I am always grateful to him for sharing his photos. There are quite a few more and I will do another post sometime. It is a beautiful gallery, I look forward to the time I can go again also :)

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  18. Thanks for sharing his experience!

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    1. You are very welcome Christine, happy you found it enjoyable :)

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  19. I love European art, which is different from Asian art.

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    1. Both beautiful in their different ways :) Thanks Gigi!

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  20. Replies
    1. Gracias, me alegro que lo hayas disfrutado. Te mando un beso.

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  21. Many thanks to your son.
    I thoroughly enjoyed this post and seeing the paintings.

    All the best Jan

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    1. I will let him know Jan, thank you so much! I am very happy you enjoyed seeing his photos of those beautiful paintings. All the best to you too :)

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  22. These were fun to see....I love the first Monet and the Van Gogh...and thank you for the definition of the word Plinth...I would have had to go look it up.

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    1. Hi Rose :) and thank you. Those are beautiful paintings for sure and you are welcome about the definition. I always like to know these words myself.

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  23. Marvelous! I read that that is the only Leonardo in the US.

    There are apps that take photos without glare. I use Photoscan to copy a picture under glass.

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    1. I didn't realize that Linda, or if I did I had forgotten. Thank you so much. Thanks also for the tip on Photosan. I shall let him know and will look into this myself. Much appreciate that.

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  24. That was a really fun museum tour! Thanks to Denise and Son! Washington DC~ so high on my travel wish list. I like your word of the day feature, think I would have known plinth had something to do with sculptures/art but wouldn't have been sure exactly how.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed Sheri. I hope you get to DC one of these days Sallie. And I am the same way about plinth :)

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  25. I love the Monet and Van Gogh paintings and I can see why the lady in your previous post was so entranced by the painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

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    1. Thanks Beverley, I understood too as it was kind of overwhelming for me to see this amazing painting for real. I felt totally drawn to it :)

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