Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo da Vinci: Glynn Wilson
By Glynn Wilson –
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Where else in America can you see in person a painting by Leonardo da Vinci?
No where.
Ginevra de’ Benci is a portrait painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci. The oil-on-wood portrait was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1967 for $5 million — an absolute record price at the time. The funds came from the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and was paid to the Princely Family of Liechtenstein.
It is the only painting by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.
When I arrived back in the nation’s capital region back in May and saw the story in The Washington Post about the museum finally opening again after a year of being closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it made the list of things to do once I figured out a day and time to make it back downtown.
The Green Line on the DC Metro has been closed for repairs the entire time and it doesn’t appear it will open anytime soon, so this Sunday I decided, “what the heck?” Maybe it won’t be crowded and hot on a Sunday morning, I thought, with cooler temperatures and some rain showers in the forecast, so I simply drove downtown and found a free parking space not far from the museum in a line of metered parking spots marked as needing repairs.
Over the past seven years, since I first made it here for an opening at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian in which one of our photographs had been picked up for display in an exhibit, I’ve pretty much visited all the sites I could think of to see here.
Related Coverage: Smithsonian Opens ‘Nation to Nation’ Treaty Exhibit in National Museum of the American Indian
Related Coverage: Explore Washington, D.C. from Greenbelt National Park’s Campground
You can’t get a tour of the White House now, or get into the Capitol, since Trump’s right-wing militia tried to overthrow the government in a coup on Jan. 6 by staging a violent insurrection at his behest. But the Biden administration has taken down some of the ugly fencing erected by Trump.
I’ve already toured the White House and the Capitol anyway, and got my library card at the Library of Congress and viewed the books from Thomas Jefferson’s library, and photographed most of the monuments in the city by day and night. But I never made it to the National Gallery of Art before.
The National Gallery of Art: Glynn Wilson
According to the Post story, the museum unveiled a whole new colorful look this year with a new director, Kaywin Feldman, who has also undertaken to diversify the museum’s collection and staff after being criticized for being 97 percent white and 92 percent male, according to another story in Washingtonian magazine.
“When I was hired, I had one primary mandate from the Board of Trustees. They described it as putting the national back in the National Gallery of Art,” Feldman said. “That’s been the focus of the work.”
So I wanted to see for myself what $820,000 in rebranding money paid for.
Not having all day to wander around in the 16,000 square foot space from gallery to gallery, I decided to focus on seeing paintings by the most famous artists, starting with da Vinci. The museum also owns several paintings by Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Johannes Vermeer, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Renoir, Albert Bierstadt and many others. It would be hard to see and study them all in one day.
Here are a few of the paintings we saw. The museum was a bit crowded, and mask requirements were back in force. So be careful if you decide to visit, since the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is surging again.
More Photos
Self Portrait, Vincent Van Gogh: Glynn Wilson
Roses, Vincent Van Gogh: Glynn Wilson
A Girl with a Watering Can, Auguste Renoir: Glynn Wilson
Self Portrait, Rembrandt: Glynn Wilson
The Philosopher, Rembrandt Workshop: Glynn Wilson
The Mill, Rembrandt Van Rijn: Glynn Wilson
The Girl with the Red Hat, Johannes Vermeer: Glynn Wilson
Landscape near Paris, Paul Cézanne: Glynn Wilson
The Bridge at Argenteuil, Claude Monet: Glynn Wilson
Woman with a Parasol, Claude Monet: Glynn Wilson
The Artists Garden at Vétheuil, Claude Monet: Glynn Wilson
The Japanese Footbridge, Claude Monet: Glynn Wilson
Mount Corcoran, Albert Beirstadt: Glynn Wilson
The Last of the Buffalo, Albert Bierstadt: Glynn Wilson
Editor’s Note: I purposely cropped these photos imperfectly. They are copyrighted works of art not to be used for commercial purposes, so these are just personal photos taken with an iPhone camera. No Google ads are added to this story. If you want to see better photos, go to the Gallery website, Wikipedia or Google.
Enjoyed reading your article about touring the National Gallery of Art. Thanks for the pictures as well…