By: Jingwei Zhao

Just yesterday, my dad and I took a visit to the National Gallery of Art, located in Washington D.C. The place was flooded with artworks that span centuries, with the styles from each period all being unique. The sections of the museum that I went to yesterday were the 19th- and 20th-century Sculpture and Paintings, the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Sculptures and Decorative Arts, the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish Paintings, as well as a few more. These sections were some of my favorites, as they included artworks from painters like Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and so many more. Although I normally find art to be quite boring, the stories and fame behind some of the pieces truly captivated me as I walked for hours appreciating artworks and the unique styles in which they were painted.

We first went to the American decorative arts and paintings section. That exhibit displayed many old pieces of American furniture, such as mahogany chairs and even fancy mahogany drawers. My favorite pieces of furniture on display were a tea table with a rotatable top, making it easier to pass tea, and a grandiose wooden table that had over 10 seats available for people to sit down.

We decided to first head to the section on the right, which showed the 19th- and 20th-century sculptures and paintings. These pieces were more modern, ranging from less than 100 to nearly 200 years old. Despite this section not being my favorite, there were still a few artworks that impressed me. A few of them included a painting of what appears to be an oil mine, paintings representing forests as a warm, dreamy place, and miniature sculptures of lions. Many of the paintings and sculptures briefly caught my attention, but they were unable to keep me captivated. After working our way back into the intersection, my dad and I headed over to the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Sculptures.

That section had paintings depicting crowds, fruits, and gatherings. There was also a little room with small trophies and medals on display, but I did not find them that interesting. Most of the paintings from this section represented gods of different religions and were two-dimensional, but there were some Renaissance paintings depicting the more common people in a 3D perspective.

After looking around this section for a bit, my dad and I decided to head upstairs to the main floor, as that was what we came here for. The first exhibit we went to on that floor displayed British artworks, but even with their unique aesthetic approach to art, they left me unimpressed. After that underwhelming display, we went to the 16th-century Italian, French, and Spanish paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts.

This was my second favorite exhibit from my visit yesterday, as those sections included some of my favorite artists’ works, such as those of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. From there, I saw the change in art styles, with paintings that gave off a brighter and soothing tone. Overall, there was a shift in realism, with shading becoming more prevalent and faces looking more realistic. Moving on from that exhibit, we went to the last and my favorite one, the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings. This section of the museum is the one that I remember most fondly. Artworks from renowned artists such as Johannes Vermeer and Leonardo da Vinci were on display. The Dutch and Flemish would create massive paintings the size of walls and smaller paintings depicting detailed still life and gave a wonderful feeling surrounded by such beautiful paintings, which gave me something that no other exhibit could create.

My dad and I chose to walk around for a bit after exiting that exhibit, and we stumbled on a tour. At the time, the tour was on paintings by French Renaissance and Post-Impressionist painters such as Paul Gauguin, but we were about to leave at the time, so we took a quick look and hurried out. When trying to get back to the ground floor, my dad and I stumbled across this beautiful fountain, and we just had to take a picture. According to the National Gallery of Art’s website, the fountain is called a Rotunda, and it has a shiny gold finish. After hurrying down the stairs back to the ground floor, my dad thought of buying something from the gift shop, and we ended up buying two painting prints. One of them is called Lake Lucerne, and the other is The Artist’s Garden in Argenteuil by Claude Monet. After buying the two prints, we left the art gallery, which marked the end of the wonderful visit.