Floor plan

Time and placeBritain

Britain

The image displays a landscape with a high vantage point. The horizon is low, with a row of trees. A church tower is off-center to the left. The church is surrounded by trees and buildings. A line of trees is on the right side. The sky has large, expressive clouds. A monochromatic palette of gray is used. A path winds through the scene, with two figures: one person working and another walking.
Sabrina, by Samuel Palmer, 1856
Large marine landscape of boats on rough waves, storm clouds.
Portrait of Colonel Charles Heathcote, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c. 1771–72

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Works made in Britain, from every century in the collection.

First room, north wall

  1. The image displays a landscape with a high vantage point. The horizon is low, with a row of trees. A church tower is off-center to the left. The church is surrounded by trees and buildings. A line of trees is on the right side. The sky has large, expressive clouds. A monochromatic palette of gray is used. A path winds through the scene, with two figures: one person working and another walking.
    Stoke-by-NeylandDavid Lucas, 1830Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. Sabrina, by Samuel Palmer, 1856
    SabrinaSamuel Palmer, 1856Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

First room, south wall

  1. Large marine landscape of boats on rough waves, storm clouds.
    Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for FishJoseph Mallord William Turner, 1837–38Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Portrait of Colonel Charles Heathcote, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c. 1771–72
    Portrait of Colonel Charles HeathcoteJoseph Wright of Derby, c. 1771–72Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Second room, south wall

  1. Lady Lilith, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1867
    Lady LilithDante Gabriel Rossetti, 1867Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The Entombment, by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1879
    The EntombmentSir Edward Burne-Jones, 1879Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. Lord Rothes, 1768
    Lord RothesUnrecorded British maker, 1768Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Second room, north wall

  1. A work made of graphite on ivory wove paper.
    A Byzantine Well-headFrederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton of Stretton, 1852Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. John Johnstone, Betty Johnstone, and Miss Wedderburn, by Sir Henry Raeburn, c. 1790/1795
    John Johnstone, Betty Johnstone, and Miss WedderburnSir Henry Raeburn, c. 1790/1795Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. The image shows a pheasant with vivid green and blue plumage and intricate golden patterns on its wings. The bird has long, patterned tail feathers extended to the right. The background includes palm trees, rocky outcrops, and distant hills.
    Phasianus VersicolorWilliam Home LizarsCourtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. Shown from the waist up, a young, pale-skinned woman with her gray hair piled high atop her head is lit starkly against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s shoulders are angled to our left. Her face is square to us, but she looks off to our right from the corners of her eyes, which are gray rimmed with golden brown around the pupils. She has a thin face, smooth cheeks, a bow-shaped pink mouth, and a narrow chin. Her hair is mostly swept up high under a bank of pearl-white feathers and some sparkling ornaments. A few ringlets hang down the back of her neck. The bodice of her white dress scoops low across her chest and sits just above her sloping shoulders. The dress is adorned with pearls on the sleeves and around the neckline, and the fabric shimmers from silvery white to pale gold. The background is earth-brown around her face and deepens to almost black in the corners.
    Mrs. Paul Cobb MethuenThomas Gainsborough, c. 1776/1777Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Third room, north wall

  1. Lear and Cordelia, by Richard Hatfield, 1845
    Lear and CordeliaRichard Hatfield, 1845Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. Angel of the Revelation (Book of Revelation, chapter 10), by William Blake, ca. 1803–5
    Angel of the Revelation (Book of Revelation, chapter 10)William Blake, ca. 1803–5Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. From a grassy riverbank, we look across the placid surface of a river lined along the far bank with trees and farm animals in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted loosely with brushstrokes visible throughout, so some details are difficult to make out. For the surface of the river, russet-brown and steel-gray paint skims lightly across the canvas and leaves some unpainted areas visible, creating the effect of light shimmering on the still water. On our left, a shallow wooden barge is propelled along the stream by two men in red caps with long poles. The boat carries a white horse wearing blinders and a harness. The riverbank beyond is lined with pale, sage-green grass tinged with gold, growing in front of a tangle of darker green trees and bushes. Across the water from us near the middle of the picture, a small rowboat sits in the shallows at the foot of a steep riverbank. Above, a white cottage with a reddish roof and chimney is tucked behind the trees, with a wooden rack full of hay next to it. Nearby, a plow and wheeled cart, highlighted with strokes of white, sit near more mounds of hay. Rocky fields reach into the distance. The vista is blocked to our right by another clump of trees and a rocky outcropping, rising from the stream, to our right of center. The steep, dark roof of a farmhouse is barely visible among the trees. Along the riverside to our right, a small group of cinnamon-brown and cream-white cows stand at water's edge. A rolling pasture stretches behind them to meet blue hills in the distance. Above, in the upper third of the painting, mottled white, pale rose, and gray clouds rolling across a steel-gray sky are reflected in the water below.
    The White HorseJohn Constable, 1818-1819Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Third room, south wall

  1. A work made of pen and black ink, over traces of graphite, on tan wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper.
    Athena and the WindsJohn Flaxman, n.d.Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Windmill, 19th century
    WindmillUnrecorded British maker, 19th centuryCourtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum