National Gallery of Art, Washington_Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces (1)

National Gallery of Art, Washington

Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces

(1)

LEONARDO da VinciPortrait of Ginevra de' Benci1474-78Oil on wood, 38,8 x 36,7 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

LEONARDO da VinciPortrait of Ginevra de' Benci (detail)1474-78Oil on wood, 38,8 x 36,7 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

RUBENS, Peter PaulPortrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria1606Oil on canvas, 152 x 99 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

RUBENS, Peter PaulPortrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (detail)1606Oil on canvas, 152 x 99 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

WEYDEN, Rogier van derPortrait of a Ladyc. 1455Oil on oak panel, 37 x 27 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

WEYDEN, Rogier van derPortrait of a Lady (detail)c. 1455Oil on oak panel, 37 x 27 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

DAVID, Jacques-LouisNapoleon in his Study1812Oil on canvas, 204 x 125 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

DAVID, Jacques-LouisNapoleon in his Study (detail)1812Oil on canvas, 204 x 125 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanMarchesa Elena Grimaldic. 1623Oil on canvasNational Gallery of Art, Washington

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanMarchesa Elena Grimaldi (detail)c. 1623Oil on canvasNational Gallery of Art, Washington

VERMEER, JohannesWoman Holding a Balancec. 1664Oil on canvas, 42,5 x 38 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

VERMEER, JohannesWoman Holding a Balance (detail)c. 1664Oil on canvas, 42,5 x 38 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

MANET, EdouardThe Railway1873Oil on canvas, 93 x 112 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

MANET, EdouardThe Railway (detail)1873Oil on canvas, 93 x 112 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

RENOIR, Pierre-AugusteYoung Girl with a Watering Can1876Oil on canvas, 100 x 73 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

RENOIR, Pierre-AugusteYoung Girl with a Watering Can (detail)1876Oil on canvas, 100 x 73 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

National Gallery of Art, WashingtonPaintings Collection, The Masterpieces (1)

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RENOIR, Pierre-AugusteYoung Girl with a Watering Can

In 1876, Renoir began to paint anecdotal depictions of women and children, subjects in which he excelled. A Girl with a Watering Can, typical of these works, displays a mature impressionist style attuned to the specific requirements of figure painting. Renoir's colors reflect the freshness and radiance of the impressionist palette, while his handling is more

controlled and regular than in his landscapes, with even brushstrokes applied in delicate touches, especially in the girl’s face. Brilliant prismatic hues envelop the child in an atmosphere of warm light and charmingly convey her innocent appeal.

Specific identifications have been proposed for the girl, but none is convincing. More likely, Renoir depicted a neighborhood child whose pretty features pleased him. A girl with similar curly blond hair, sparkling blue eyes, plump pink cheeks, and smiling red lips appears, dressed the same way in other paintings by Renoir, suggesting she was a favorite figure in the

artist’s repertory. A Girl with a Watering Can is a showcase of the grace and charm of the artist's work.

LEONARDO da VinciPortrait of Ginevra de' Benci

One of Leonardo's earlier works completed while he was apprenticed to Andrea Verrocchio in his Florentine workshop. Here, Leonardo learned a variety of skills that he would master later on in his career. Although this painting is rather traditional, it includes details such as Ginevra's curling hair that only Leonardo could achieve.

Although a portrait of Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo is mentioned by three sixteenth-century writers, the attribution of the Washington painting to that artist has been the cause of much debate. It is now accepted by virtually all Leonardo scholars. The date of the portrait, generally given as c. 1474, and its commission, however, are still discussed. The sitter, born into a wealthy Florentine family, was married to Luigi Niccolini in 1474 at the age of sixteen. It was a customary practice to have a likeness painted on just such an occasion.

Recently, however, the humanist Bernardo Bembo has been identified as a possible patron. He was the Venetian Ambassador to Florence from 1474-76 and again in 1478-80, dates that have been suggested for the portrait. Bembo and Ginevra, both married to others, were known to have had a platonic affair, an accepted convention at the time.

The heraldic motif on the painted porphyry reverse side of the portrait, with the motto "Beauty adorns Virtue," praises her, and juniper plants symbolize chastity, considered an appropriate choice for a marriage portrait. The juniper bush, ginepro in Italian, is also a pun on her name.

Leonardo has painted a sensitive and finely modeled image of Ginevra. The undulating curls of her hair are set against her pale flesh, the surface of the paint smoothed by the artist's own hands. Leonardo's portrait was cut down at the bottom sometime in the past by as much as one-third. Presumably the lower section would have shown her hands,

possibly folded or crossed, resting in her lap.

RUBENS, Peter PaulPortrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria

The painting was done while Rubens was in Genoa in 1606. It was cut down from a full-length portrait in which the young Marchesa (age 22) appears in the porch of a villa. We know this from a study drawing for the portrait, which is in the The Morgan Library and Museum, New York.

WEYDEN, Rogier van derPortrait of a Lady

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. Her costume and severly plucked eyebrows and hairline are typical of those favored by highly placed ladies of the Burgundian court.

The stylish costume does not distract attention from the sitter. The dress, with its dark bands of fur, almost merges with the background. The spreading headdress frames and focuses attention upon her face. Light falls with exquisite beauty along the creases of the sheer veiling over her head, and gentle shadows mark her fine bone structure. In contrast to the

spareness of execution in most of the painting, the gold filigree of her belt buckle is rendered with meticulous precision. The scarlet belt serves as a foil to set off her delicately clasped hands.

Rogier excelled as a portrait painter because he so vividly presented the character of the persons he portrayed. The downcast eyes, the firmly set lips, and the tense fingers reflect this woman's mental concentration. Rogier juxtaposed the strong sensation of the sitter's acute mental activity to his rigid control of the composition and the formality of her costume and

pose, presenting the viewer with an image of passionate austerity.

DAVID, Jacques-LouisNapoleon in his Study

David did paint Napoleon once more, in 1812, but this commission came from a most unexpected source. Britain and France had been at war since 1803 but such was the emperor's fame that a Scottish aristocrat, Alexander Douglas, later Duke of Hamilton, paid David the enormous sum of 1,000 guineas (18,650 francs) for a full-length portrait.

This was not Napoleon the athletic and heroic warrior, but Napoleon the statesman and lawgiver who, as the burnt-down candle and the clock with a time of 4-13 am show, works far into the night for the benefit of his subjects. A scroll of paper in the bureau bears the word 'Code", which refers to the new Civil Code, actually in operation since 1804 but which

was renamed the 'Code Napoleon' in 1807 in an obvious propaganda move to promote him as a legislator. In the portrait the emperor has evidently just stopped work and, as the sword on the chair indicates, now prepares to review the troops wearing the uniform of a colonel of the Foot Grenadier Guards.

Although he did not pay for it, Napoleon liked the picture and said: 'You have found me out, dear David; at night I work for my subjects' happiness, and by day I work for their glory.'

DYCK, Sir Anthony vanMarchesa Elena Grimaldi

The Genoese noblewoman is shown on the terrace of her palace. The soaring columns and cloud-swept sky add a sense of height and dignity to the majestic figure, while the brilliant red parasol relieves the otherwise somber colour scheme. The Genoese nobility, wealthy from the trade of its powerful merchant marine, had many ties with members of the

Spanish court and adopted many customs from them, including the sumptuous but sober fabrics of courtly dress. Van Dyck, in these portraits of his Genoese period, has immortalized the dignity and splendid scale of living of his patrons.

VERMEER, JohannesWoman Holding a Balance

A woman dressed in a blue jacket with fur trim stands alone before a table in a corner of a room. She holds a balance in her right hand and with lowered eyes waits for it to come to rest. Behind her, on the back wall of the room, is a large painting of The Last Judgment framed in black. On the side wall is a mirror. A blue cloth, some open boxes, two strands of pearls, and a gold chain lie on the table. A soft light, which passes through a window and its orange–yellow curtain, illuminates the scene. While the woman is

psychologically removed from us, her graceful figure and serene face suggest an inner peace that one often experiences at unexpected and fleeting moments in one's life.

Woman Holding a Balance is an allegorical scene that urges us to conduct our lives with temperance and moderation. The painting within the painting offers an important clue in that Christ's Last Judgment is echoed by the woman's own actions. Before her are earthly treasures; behind her is the symbol of the eternal consequences of her actions here on earth. In waiting for the balance to rest at equilibrium she acknowledges the importance of judgment in weighing her own actions in anticipation of the life to come.

MANET, EdouardThe Railway

The Gare Saint–Lazare, in 1873 the largest and busiest train station in Paris, is unseen in this painting. Advances in industrial technology and train travel, intrinsic to most contemporary depictions of the site, remain in Manet's painting the almost invisible background for a genre depiction of a woman and child. Confined to a narrow space backed by the black bars of an iron fence and isolated by clouds of steam sent up from a train passing below, Manet's two models are enigmatic presences. The woman is Victorine Meurent, Manet's favorite model in the 1860s, and the child was the daughter of a fellow painter who allowed Manet to use his garden to create The Railway. The composition is a complex contrapuntal apposition of the two figures: one clad in a white dress trimmed with a blue bow and the other dressed in dark blue trimmed with white; one with hair bound by a narrow black ribbon and the other with flowing tresses under a black hat; and one a child standing and looking at anonymous trains and buildings in the background and the other a seated adult staring forward to confront

viewers directly.

Manet submitted four works to the Paris Salon of 1874. Of the four, only two were accepted, The Railway and a watercolor. Reviewers were critical of the unfinished appearance of The Railway and that the rail station itself was not well–defined in the picture. Although Manet never chose to associate himself officially with the impressionist group, this painting’s scene

of modern life, as well as its loose, abstract effects, show the influence of the younger artists on his work.

National Gallery of Art, Washington

The National Gallery of Art is an American museum of art, part of the federally operated Smithsonian Institution system, located at the east end of the Mall, Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1937 when

the financier and philanthropist Andrew W. Mellon donated to the government a collection of paintings by European masters and a large sum of money to construct the gallery's Neoclassical building, which was designed by the architect John Russell Pope and opened in 1941. That structure came to be known

as the West Building after 1978, when it was connected by plaza and underground concourse to the new East Building, which was designed by I.M. Pei and Partners.

The National Gallery now houses a very extensive collection of European and American paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and graphic works from the 12th to the 20th century. The museum has

especially rich holdings of works by Italian Renaissance painters, as well as by Dutch and Spanish Baroque and French Rococo artists.

National Gallery of Art, Washington_Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces (1)

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