Raphael was born in Urbino, a central Italian duchy noted for its elegant gentility and Renaissance scholarship. He moved to Florence toward the end of 1504.
America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation.
A play and a painting appear to have merged in Jan van Eyck’s dramatic Annunciation , which is rich with Christian symbolism. The rainbow-winged archangel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that God has chosen her to bear his son.
"Mellon to Give Gallery and 19,000,000 of Art to Nation."
Van Gogh found inspiration for this portrait in the bold complementary colors and contrasting patterns of the Japanese woodblock prints he collected. He fantasized about Japan as a utopia of bright light and color different from the dark, crowded western capitals he lived in.
America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation.
"Pictures lost to the Nation."
When The White Girl debuted in London in 1862, it puzzled viewers. At the time, portraits of this scale usually featured well-known people.
Art for the Nation no. 65 (Spring 2022): 26-27, repro. 2023 Murphy, Paul Thomas
This group portrait represents George Washington’s military, political, and family life. The president, in a Revolutionary War uniform, rests his hand on a plan for Washington, DC, the site for the new US capital.
household depended on the labor of enslaved people, as did the economy of the young nation
The people and animals in this colorful procession are on their way to see the infant Jesus and honor his birth. The procession winds around a hill, under an ancient arch, and to the manger.
"Pictures lost to the Nation."
This painting is an outstanding example of the abstract elegance characteristic of Rogier’s late portraits. Although the identity of the sitter is unknown, her air of self–conscious dignity suggests that she is a member of the nobility.
America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation.
After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), a famous history painter. Upon completion of his training Rembrandt returned to Leiden.
America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation.
Pieter de Hooch excelled in the sensitive depiction of people going about their daily lives, be it inside their houses or in the sheltered environment of an urban courtyard. His masterly control of light, color, and complex perspectival construction can be compared to the work of Johannes Vermeer, his contemporary and colleague in Delft.
Ohio, 1939: 106. 1940 "Famous Widener Collection of Old Masters Given to the Nation
