National Gallery — Some highlights

These paintings are in the permanent collection, on display in the West Building. The quotes are from the National Gallery website.

(1) Leonardo da Vinci, Ginerva de' Benci (c. 1474/1478). "She was the daughter of a wealthy Florentine banker, and her portrait — the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas — was probably commissioned about the time of her marriage at age sixteen."

(2) Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Two Women at a Window (c. 1655/1660). "A standing woman attempts to hide a smile with her shawl as she peeks from behind a partially opened shutter, while a younger woman leans on the window ledge, gazing out at the viewer with amusement. The difference in their ages might indicate a chaperone and her charge, a familiar duo in upper-class Spanish households."

(3) Lucas Cranach the Elder, A Prince of Saxony (c. 1517).

(4) Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Evening (1939). "The sense of eerie calm is due, in part, to the serene effect of the golden twilight sun that illuminates the grass in front of the Victorian house, but fails to penetrate the dense forest beyond."

(5) Andrew Wyeth, Wind from the Sea (1947). "Two well-worn tire tracks running across the dirt lead the viewer's eye toward the sea in the distance. The close vantage point and the tightly cropped window frame at the edge of the painting create the illusion that the viewer is actually looking out a window."

In response to Lulu's comment (posted 6 Dec 2011), I've added this 6th image, which I downloaded from Wikipedia. The painting is by a Danish artist, Vilhelm Hammershøi and is called Dust Motes Dancing in Sunbeams (1900). The painting is on display at Ordrupgaard, a gallery near Lyngby (north of Copenhagen) in Denmark. I also see the connection between Hammershøi and Wyeth in their portrayal of the quality of light faintly scattered, either by dust or by fine threads of fabric.