Floor plan

Style galleriesEarly modernism

Early modernism

This painting shows a large jug filled with orange flowers on a woven brown surface, with three small oranges placed in front of it. The bottom half of the jug is a brownish-red color, while the top part and handles are a light tan. The jug is centered, with flowers extending slightly to the sides. The flowers in the vase are surrounded by dark green leaves and buds. The wall behind the vase is a light gray color, and the vase casts a light shadow on it.
Madame Helleu Cradling Paulette in Her Arms, by Paul-César Helleu, 1904/1905
Shown from the lap up, a person with peach-colored skin sits facing us as he looks down and to our left in this vertical, stylized, portrait painting. The person’s clothing and features are outlined with thin black lines, and areas are filled in with mottled, streaked color painted with visible strokes. The person has a round face with a double chin and a small red mouth. The eyes are painted as slate-blue slivers under thin brows, one of which is cocked. The man’s short black hair is parted to one side and combed across the top of his head. He wears a white cravat tied at his neck under a rust-red jacket or shirt. Two rounded, muted blue forms below suggest crossed knees. The man’s right elbow rests next to his body, and that hand is near his lap. The background is painted with pecan brown on the left third and gray-blue on the right two-thirds.
Artist: Ossip Perelma, Sitter: Frank Brett Noyes, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
The Bride, by Gari Melchers, ca. 1907
Alfred Henry Maurer

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. This painting shows a large jug filled with orange flowers on a woven brown surface, with three small oranges placed in front of it. The bottom half of the jug is a brownish-red color, while the top part and handles are a light tan. The jug is centered, with flowers extending slightly to the sides. The flowers in the vase are surrounded by dark green leaves and buds. The wall behind the vase is a light gray color, and the vase casts a light shadow on it.
    Marigolds and TangerinesFélix Vallotton, 1924Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. Madame Helleu Cradling Paulette in Her Arms, by Paul-César Helleu, 1904/1905
    Madame Helleu Cradling Paulette in Her ArmsPaul-César Helleu, 1904/1905Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Shown from the lap up, a person with peach-colored skin sits facing us as he looks down and to our left in this vertical, stylized, portrait painting. The person’s clothing and features are outlined with thin black lines, and areas are filled in with mottled, streaked color painted with visible strokes. The person has a round face with a double chin and a small red mouth. The eyes are painted as slate-blue slivers under thin brows, one of which is cocked. The man’s short black hair is parted to one side and combed across the top of his head. He wears a white cravat tied at his neck under a rust-red jacket or shirt. Two rounded, muted blue forms below suggest crossed knees. The man’s right elbow rests next to his body, and that hand is near his lap. The background is painted with pecan brown on the left third and gray-blue on the right two-thirds.
    Monsieur DeleuAmedeo Modigliani, 1916Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. Artist: Ossip Perelma, Sitter: Frank Brett Noyes, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
    Frank Brett NoyesOssip Perelma, 1917Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
  2. The Bride, by Gari Melchers, ca. 1907
    The BrideGari Melchers, ca. 1907Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  3. Alfred Henry Maurer
    Woman in BlackAlfred Henry Maurer, (c. 1904)Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution

Second room, south wall

  1. Large painting, standing man blue turtleneck, sitting woman with white collar.
    Jacques and Berthe LipchitzAmedeo Modigliani, 1916Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. 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
  3. Vibrant yellow, red, blue, and green painting of landscape with trees and mountains.
    Landscape with Two PoplarsVasily Kandinsky, 1912Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. Sketch for Mosaic, Wisconsin State Capital, "Justice", by Kenyon Cox, ca. 1912
    Sketch for Mosaic, Wisconsin State Capital, "Justice"Kenyon Cox, ca. 1912Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Second room, north wall

  1. Hillside, by Edward Gay, 1908
    HillsideEdward Gay, 1908Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. Artist: Marion H. Beckett, Sitter: Theresa Helburn, Current owner: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
    Theresa HelburnMarion H. Beckett, 1922Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
  3. On the Beach, No. 3, by Maurice Prendergast, c. 1915–18
    On the Beach, No. 3Maurice Prendergast, c. 1915–18Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

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. This is a painting showing two people in nature. The person on the left appears to be running towards the right, with one leg in the air and their arms outstretched. They have tan, golden-toned skin, blond hair, and golden fabric draped loosely around them, billowing backward as they run. On the right is a pale person standing upright in a tree, their arms outstretched. They appear intertwined with the tree, with their feet nestled in the light brown trunk and their head and hands covered in olive-green leaves. The background features indistinct brown shapes against a clear blue sky.
    Apollo and DaphneJohn Singer Sargent, c. 1916/1919Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. 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