Museum Thursday- Impressionism to Modernism @ The National Gallery of Art

This is quickly becoming the lunchtime museum tour post.  As I get busier and busier with work I find less time to actually get to a museum on Thursday, which means this post may change titles and perhaps posting days.  But don’t worry the content will remain consistent and relevant to dc arts.

Today I took a spin through the National Gallery of Art to see the Impressionism to Modernism exhibition.  I have been meaning to see this exhibition for months now, and just haven’t gotten around to it.  Luckily for me and for me and for you the exhibition runs until July 31, 2011. You heard that right you have a whole year to get yourselves to the museum and walk through the 3 rooms of the exhibit.

For those of you who don’t know the impressionists are far and away my favorite.  This may be cliché but Van Gogh is without a doubt my favorite painter, and quite possibly my favorite artist of all time.  The texture, color, and emotion within his work will never cease to amaze me.  So naturally the highlight of the exhibit for me was seeing a few Van Gogh’s I have never seen before in person such as Girl in White (1890).  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The exhibition features pieces from the Chester Dale Collection.  Dale was a successful businessman on Wall Street in the Bond Market who began collecting art in the early 1920’s.  His collection is extremely impressive featuring work by all the greats

• Vincent Van Gogh
• Claude Monet
• Edgar Degas
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Mary Cassatt
• Pablo Picasso
• Jean Baptiste Camille Corot
• Henri Fantin-Latour
• Gustave Courbet
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• George Bellows
• Robert Henri
• Cammille Pissarro
• Paul Cézanne
• Paul Gauguin
• Eugéne Boudin
• Amedeo Modigliani
• Félix Vallotton
• Georges Braque
• André Derain

Some of these artists were new to me to be perfectly honest, but their work did not disappoint.

If you have been to the NGA before you know that the Monet’s and Van Gogh’s were housed within the main hallways off the rotunda.  They have been moved for the duration of the exhibition.  So all the familiars are down here too.  My favorite Monet is down here Rouen Cathedral along with Le Parlement de Londres, soleil couchant, 1903.

Refreshingly some of the Picasso’s are not from his Cubism period, although there are a few here as well.  I have always enjoyed the evolution of Picasso.  A piece from his Blue Period Le Gourmet (1901) is here along with The Tragedy (1903)

One artist that I was not familiar with prior to this show was George Bellows.  His piece Blue Morning (1909) is interesting.  The thick paint strokes and fluid movements of his subjects caught my eye, turning a somewhat mundane setting of industrial workers into something interesting and engaging.  I like!

There is of course Pissaro’s Boulevard des Italians, Morning, Sunlight (1897) this for me may be one of his most recognizable pieces.

Well that May be all the time I have for now, I wish I could spend the whole day here.  I’m sure I will be back before July of next year.  I would definitely recommend coming.  And who knows, maybe next time I’ll see you there.