Floor plan

Style galleriesEarly modernism

Early modernism

Two Gulls and Cliffs, by Louis M. Eilshemius, ca. 1913-1921
Mary, by Henry Ossawa Tanner, ca. 1914
Mountain Landscape with Fir Trees, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1918/19
Artist: Philip Alexius de László, Sitter: Clara Margaret Cook Kellogg, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
October Morning, by Frank A. Bicknell, ca. 1910
Admiral Sir David Beatty, Lord Beatty, by Cecilia Beaux, ca. 1920

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

The first decades of the twentieth century, when artists broke with the academy.

First room, north wall

  1. Two Gulls and Cliffs, by Louis M. Eilshemius, ca. 1913-1921
    Two Gulls and CliffsLouis M. Eilshemius, ca. 1913-1921Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. Mary, by Henry Ossawa Tanner, ca. 1914
    MaryHenry Ossawa Tanner, ca. 1914Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. Mountain Landscape with Fir Trees, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1918/19
    Mountain Landscape with Fir TreesErnst Ludwig Kirchner, 1918/19Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

First room, south wall

  1. Artist: Philip Alexius de László, Sitter: Clara Margaret Cook Kellogg, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
    Clara Cook KelloggPhilip Alexius de László, 1929Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
  2. October Morning, by Frank A. Bicknell, ca. 1910
    October MorningFrank A. Bicknell, ca. 1910Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. Admiral Sir David Beatty, Lord Beatty, by Cecilia Beaux, ca. 1920
    Admiral Sir David Beatty, Lord BeattyCecilia Beaux, ca. 1920Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Second room, south wall

  1. Eddyville, by Samuel Halpert, 1917
    EddyvilleSamuel Halpert, 1917Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. Shown from the knees up, a woman sits partially covered by a black cloth as she holds one forearm across her bare breasts in this vertical painting. The woman has pale, yellow-tinged skin and long, copper-red hair and bangs. Her body faces us, but she turns her head to look off to our right with large blue, wide-set eyes. Her cheeks are flushed, and her full, dark pink lips are closed. A strand of gradually larger amber-yellow beads hangs around her neck, and she wears a gold-colored bracelet on the arm braced across her chest, her left arm, to our right. Glimpses of pale pink nipples are visible. The voluminous black cloth drapes down over one shoulder and across her hips. She wears a ring on the other hand, which emerges from the cloth to rest on that knee. Piles of garnet red, peridot green, and forest green are piled up to chest height behind her, and the background is nickel gray around her body and darkens to black around the top and side edges. The scene is loosely painted, especially in the fabric and background. The artist signed the canvas in the lower left corner, “Geo. Bellows E.S.B.”
    Nude with Red HairGeorge Bellows, 1920Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. In the Generalife, by John Singer Sargent, 1912
    In the GeneralifeJohn Singer Sargent, 1912Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Second room, north wall

  1. Mother and Child, by Gari Melchers, ca. 1920
    Mother and ChildGari Melchers, ca. 1920Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. October (cover illustration for Harper's Magazine), by William Clarke Rice, 1903
    October (cover illustration for Harper's Magazine)William Clarke Rice, 1903Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. Hooded Warblers, study for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, by Gladys Thayer, ca. 1900-1909
    Hooded Warblers, study for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal KingdomGladys Thayer, ca. 1900-1909Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  4. A square white tile, rotated 90 degrees, crossed by black lines intersecting at 90-degree angles. A few of the shapes thus formed—some partial squares, some rectangles—are colored in a single shade of yellow, blue, black, or red.
    Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and GrayPiet Mondrian, 1921Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Third room, north wall

  1. In the Cascade Mountains, by Edward Bruce, 1931
    In the Cascade MountainsEdward Bruce, 1931Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. The River, by Maxime Maufra, 1902
    The RiverMaxime Maufra, 1902Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Watercolor no. 31, Landscape with Clouds, by Allen Tucker, ca. 1930
    Watercolor no. 31, Landscape with CloudsAllen Tucker, ca. 1930Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum