National Art Gallery

If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know that Dave and I spent yesterday afternoon at the National Art Gallery. It's been years since we were there and we intend to get back soon, as there is far too much to see in just a few hours of one afternoon. The primary reason we went yesterday was to see a temporary exhibit of works by Itō Jakuchū, an 18th century Japanese artist. Here is an example of his exquisite work:

The fine details of his art are amazing. One can almost feel the soft textures of his birds' feathers, and the colors, especially the whites, nearly pop off the canvas. If you ever get a chance to see his work, do yourself a favor and go for it.

Dave and I also wandered through several other exhibits, such as the French Impressionist gallery (yes - we have some nice works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin,, etc., in Washington DC! Who knew?). I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! And I can't wait to see much more of the same in Paris this fall. The museum also has an impressive collection of paintings by Dutch masters (Rembrandt, Rubens, etc., again, I'm looking forward to seeing much more in Amsterdam) and some nice Spanish and Italian works. In fact, the gallery owns the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Western Hemisphere:

And I haven't even started on the sculptures. Nor have I seen the East Building, which is still under construction but open. Everything we saw yesterday - and we missed the vast majority of what is on display - was in the West Building. There's also a slew of other museums, most of which I haven't seen at all yet. All I can say is, I've got to get out of the house more often. Give me a call and we'll explore some art galleries together.