Floor plan

Time and placeThe 19th century

The 19th century

In a dance studio, two ballerinas wearing knee-length tutus and ballet slippers sit on a bench and stretch to our right while four more pose at the back of the space, to our left, in this long, horizontal painting. The scene and dancers are loosely painted so many features are indistinct. All the women have light skin and dark brown hair. Each pale, robins’ egg-blue costume has a low-cut, tightly fitting, sleeveless bodice and a full skirt. Dabs of off white, teal, and blue suggest flowers lining the deep U of the neckline at the front and down the back of each bodice. Closest to us and nearly brushing the edges of the lower right corner of the canvas, one dancer sits on the end of a wooden bench and leans down between her legs, her feet widely planted. She rests her torso on an elbow folded onto one knee as she reaches for her left foot, farther from us, with her other hand. Her hair is pulled up and her face, looking downward, is deep in shadow. Sitting behind her on the bench, to our left, a second dancer lifts her right leg, toe pointing, as she pulls on her pale pink tights. Her other leg stretches straight, pointed toe brushing the floor, in front of her. This woman’s hair hangs loose around her shoulders. The pair is brightly lit from a source to our right, and an arched area of electric blue and mustard yellow behind them is difficult to interpret. The floor, which takes up about two-thirds of the composition, is painted with dabs of teal blue, pale fuchsia pink, and caramel brown. It leads us back to the upper left corner of the painting where four more four ballerinas stand in a line. The pair to our left stands with their backs to us, facing the wall with their right legs raised to shoulder height, toes pointed. The pair to our right faces us. They also stand with their right legs raised, creating a wide angle with their standing legs. All four ballerinas bend their arms gently at the elbow, and some tip their heads toward the raised legs. The rightmost dancer is illuminated by a pair of French doors at the back corner, at the top center of the painting. The wall behind the bench is streaked with mint green over honey brown, and the wall at the back of the room is leather brown. The visible, soft brushstrokes give the image a blurred, ethereal appearance in the dimmed studio. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “Degas.”
Capri, by William Stanley Haseltine, 1869
LOCUST BLOSSOMS
Across a short stretch of sand in front of us, waves of bottle-green water break over two boulders on the shoreline, with sailboats in the water beyond, in this wide, horizontal painting. One boulder is at the left edge of the painting; the other is a short distance away, about a quarter of the way across. The water cascades down between those large rocks. Across the rest of the beach, the waves flare up to break toward us in white, foamy surf. The land curves back into view on both sides of the canvas with muted, sage-green hills and, to our left, dark green trees on more craggy boulders. A more distant finger of land to our left stretches nearly halfway across the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. Minuscule in scale there, smoke pours out of a chimney, which is surrounded by pale yellow buildings. A mound emerges from the horizon to our right of center. About ten sailboats float on the water. The closest one to us is near the center of the painting, and the tiny forms of people aboard can just barely be made out. The other boats become smaller as they move back to the horizon, and some are only a touch of white or gray on the canvas. White and pale lavender-purple clouds sweep up from the horizon into the sky, which glows butter yellow along the left edge. The sky cools to mint green in the upper right corner. Several white or brown birds fly across the sky or low over the water. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “M. J. Heade 1864.”
A work made of oil on canvas.
Irises, by Vincent van Gogh, 1890
A leafless, ash-white tree trunk has fallen from a broken stump into the wide V of a neighboring tree at the edge of a body of water near a verdant forest in this horizontal landscape painting. The fallen trunk creates a diagonal from near the lower left corner to the upper right. As it fell, it sheared off a substantial branch from a neighboring tree with a dark trunk. The bark where the damaged branch has pulled away is honey-orange, the same color as the leaves at the canopy, which has been pinned under the fallen trunk. Trees, vines, and other vegetation fill the space around and beyond this pair. In the lower right corner of the painting, vines grow over a broken stump, which deep in shadow. Between the stump and fallen tree, the peanut-brown surface of the water is smooth. Tiny in scale beneath the fallen tree and easily overlooked, there are two men and a dog in a boat. One man stands at the back of the boat and pushes it along with a long pole. He wears a tall, brown, cloth hat, a white shirt rolled up to the elbows under a blue vest, and loose-fitting pants. A second man wears a flat-topped, white hat with a black brim, a long, forest-green jacket, and tight-fitting slate-blue pants. He braces a rifle against one shoulder and shoots into the forest. The dog is white with brown spots, and it stands with its front paws on the edge of the boat, presumably ready to spring after the target. A patch of blue sky with puffy white clouds is seen above the trees in the upper left corner. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower right corner: “H. Vernet Rome 1833.”

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Works made in the 19th century, anywhere in the world.

Section 1, north wall

  1. In a dance studio, two ballerinas wearing knee-length tutus and ballet slippers sit on a bench and stretch to our right while four more pose at the back of the space, to our left, in this long, horizontal painting. The scene and dancers are loosely painted so many features are indistinct. All the women have light skin and dark brown hair. Each pale, robins’ egg-blue costume has a low-cut, tightly fitting, sleeveless bodice and a full skirt. Dabs of off white, teal, and blue suggest flowers lining the deep U of the neckline at the front and down the back of each bodice. Closest to us and nearly brushing the edges of the lower right corner of the canvas, one dancer sits on the end of a wooden bench and leans down between her legs, her feet widely planted. She rests her torso on an elbow folded onto one knee as she reaches for her left foot, farther from us, with her other hand. Her hair is pulled up and her face, looking downward, is deep in shadow. Sitting behind her on the bench, to our left, a second dancer lifts her right leg, toe pointing, as she pulls on her pale pink tights. Her other leg stretches straight, pointed toe brushing the floor, in front of her. This woman’s hair hangs loose around her shoulders. The pair is brightly lit from a source to our right, and an arched area of electric blue and mustard yellow behind them is difficult to interpret. The floor, which takes up about two-thirds of the composition, is painted with dabs of teal blue, pale fuchsia pink, and caramel brown. It leads us back to the upper left corner of the painting where four more four ballerinas stand in a line. The pair to our left stands with their backs to us, facing the wall with their right legs raised to shoulder height, toes pointed. The pair to our right faces us. They also stand with their right legs raised, creating a wide angle with their standing legs. All four ballerinas bend their arms gently at the elbow, and some tip their heads toward the raised legs. The rightmost dancer is illuminated by a pair of French doors at the back corner, at the top center of the painting. The wall behind the bench is streaked with mint green over honey brown, and the wall at the back of the room is leather brown. The visible, soft brushstrokes give the image a blurred, ethereal appearance in the dimmed studio. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “Degas.”
    Before the BalletEdgar Degas, 1890/1892Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. Capri, by William Stanley Haseltine, 1869
    CapriWilliam Stanley Haseltine, 1869Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. LOCUST BLOSSOMS
    Locust BlossomsSamuel Colman, June 6, 1877Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  4. Across a short stretch of sand in front of us, waves of bottle-green water break over two boulders on the shoreline, with sailboats in the water beyond, in this wide, horizontal painting. One boulder is at the left edge of the painting; the other is a short distance away, about a quarter of the way across. The water cascades down between those large rocks. Across the rest of the beach, the waves flare up to break toward us in white, foamy surf. The land curves back into view on both sides of the canvas with muted, sage-green hills and, to our left, dark green trees on more craggy boulders. A more distant finger of land to our left stretches nearly halfway across the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. Minuscule in scale there, smoke pours out of a chimney, which is surrounded by pale yellow buildings. A mound emerges from the horizon to our right of center. About ten sailboats float on the water. The closest one to us is near the center of the painting, and the tiny forms of people aboard can just barely be made out. The other boats become smaller as they move back to the horizon, and some are only a touch of white or gray on the canvas. White and pale lavender-purple clouds sweep up from the horizon into the sky, which glows butter yellow along the left edge. The sky cools to mint green in the upper right corner. Several white or brown birds fly across the sky or low over the water. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “M. J. Heade 1864.”
    Rio de Janeiro BayMartin Johnson Heade, 1864Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Section 1, south wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    The LaundressPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1877–79Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Irises, by Vincent van Gogh, 1890
    IrisesVincent van Gogh, 1890Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. A leafless, ash-white tree trunk has fallen from a broken stump into the wide V of a neighboring tree at the edge of a body of water near a verdant forest in this horizontal landscape painting. The fallen trunk creates a diagonal from near the lower left corner to the upper right. As it fell, it sheared off a substantial branch from a neighboring tree with a dark trunk. The bark where the damaged branch has pulled away is honey-orange, the same color as the leaves at the canopy, which has been pinned under the fallen trunk. Trees, vines, and other vegetation fill the space around and beyond this pair. In the lower right corner of the painting, vines grow over a broken stump, which deep in shadow. Between the stump and fallen tree, the peanut-brown surface of the water is smooth. Tiny in scale beneath the fallen tree and easily overlooked, there are two men and a dog in a boat. One man stands at the back of the boat and pushes it along with a long pole. He wears a tall, brown, cloth hat, a white shirt rolled up to the elbows under a blue vest, and loose-fitting pants. A second man wears a flat-topped, white hat with a black brim, a long, forest-green jacket, and tight-fitting slate-blue pants. He braces a rifle against one shoulder and shoots into the forest. The dog is white with brown spots, and it stands with its front paws on the edge of the boat, presumably ready to spring after the target. A patch of blue sky with puffy white clouds is seen above the trees in the upper left corner. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower right corner: “H. Vernet Rome 1833.”
    Hunting in the Pontine MarshesHorace Vernet, 1833Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Section 2, south wall

  1. Mother and Son, by Thomas Sully, 1840
    Mother and SonThomas Sully, 1840Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A work made of hanging scroll; ink and color on paper.
    Hibiscus and MagpiesBaiitsu Yamamoto, 1847Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. The Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey (study for series, The Cross and the World), by Thomas Cole, ca. 1846-1848
    The Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey (study for series, The Cross and the World)Thomas Cole, ca. 1846-1848Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  4. The image shows a landscape with a waterscape. The horizon separates the water and the sky. In the distance, there are buildings, structures, and ships with tall masts. Close to us, there are reflections of the ships and structures in the water with fine brushstrokes. The style is impressionistic with thin lines conveying details. The color palette is monochromatic with sepia tones.
    Long LagoonJames McNeill Whistler, 1880Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Section 2, north wall

  1. "King Lear," Act I, Scene I, by Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898
    "King Lear," Act I, Scene IEdwin Austin Abbey, 1898Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Descent into the Plain of Granada, by David Roberts, 1834
    Descent into the Plain of GranadaDavid Roberts, 1834Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Tobacco Pouch and Pipe, by Kubo Shunman, 1813
    Tobacco Pouch and PipeKubo Shunman, 1813Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Section 3, north wall

  1. Artist: Ezra Ames, Sitter: Betsey Colt Foot, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
    Betsey Colt FootEzra Ames, 1815Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
  2. A work made of pen and brown ink, with traces of graphite, on tan wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper.
    Sketches of Algerian MenEugène Delacroix, c. 1832Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago