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The Collection | Tour the Collection |
Search the Collection
Artist and/or Title Search | Subject Search | Expanded Search Provenance Search | Accession Number Search | Search Results Search the Site | Object Location Search | Site Map Site OverviewWelcome to the National Gallery of Art's Web site. The Gallery's extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper spans over 600 years of history from the Middle Ages to the present day. To discover more about the Gallery, its programs, collections and exhibitions, select from one of these categories: Planning a Visit, The Collection, Exhibitions, Online Tours, Education, Programs & Events, Resources, Gallery Shop, or NGAkids. Or, choose from one of these features: Help, Search, Site Map, Contact Us, and What's New. All of these options appear either in the left margin or on the bottom of each page within this Web site. You can also return to the Gallery's home page from any location. Just click on either the eagle icon that appears in the left margin or "home" that appears on the bottom of each page. Representative works from the Gallery's collection rotate on the home page at ten minute intervals. Throughout the site, you will find numerous links to related topics or expanded information. Our link color is burgundy and our visited link color is purple. The CollectionThere are two ways to discover more about the Gallery's extensive permanent collection in this Web site. You can "tour" the collection to view works of art grouped by specific tour topics. Or, you can "search" the collection to access information on all of the more than 106,000 objects in the Gallery's collection database. Tour the CollectionOur collection tours are organized first by medium -- Painting, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, Works on Paper, and Architecture -- and then by school (example: American) or collection (example: Index of American Design) within medium. Click on the topic of your choice to tour a specific school or collection. A brief description of the section will appear on the next screen. Click on "continue" for more description or click on a legend item (example: Chronology) for information related to the general topic. At the end of each section you are presented with a list of selected tours. Click on a tour title to begin a tour. When you've accessed a tour, a new screen appears with the
tour's title, thumbnail images of featured objects, an overview,
and captions for all objects on the tour. If a tour includes
audio segments, you can listen to the audio files by clicking
on the audio icon Images appear in one of the Gallery's virtual rooms. Click on the number below the image to see the corresponding caption at the bottom of the screen. Click on either the image itself or the corresponding caption to find more in-depth information about the specific work of art. Or, you can click on "next room," "previous room," or a room number in the caption list to visit another room on the tour. If you click on an image or caption it will bring up an "information page" about the specific work of art. This page includes a larger image of the selected work, a detailed caption, and a descriptive narrative. It also has options for further information such as provenance (the object's ownership history), bibliography, exhibition history (where and when the object has been displayed), full-screen image (also available by clicking on the image itself), detail images (if available), location (map of its position in the museum if it is on view), related audio files, and additional information categories as available. If a reproduction (11" x 14" print or postcard) is available in the Gallery Shop, a "purchase reproduction" option will also appear. Click on this option to bring up a screen where you can order a reproduction. Submitting your final shopping order is a function that can be performed immediately or at the end of your visit. Once you are on a page for a specific work in a tour, click on "back to gallery" to return to the tour room you just visited, or click on "continue tour" to view the next work of art on the tour. Click on the artist's name in an object caption to find other works by this artist in the Gallery's collection. The artist page begins with biographical information about the artist. It also has the number of works by associated artists and the number of works after this artist (if applicable), as well as a list by medium of the artist's works in the Gallery's collection. You can now click on an object's title to access an information page about the specific work of art or click on another option to look at the biography, works after this artist, or works by associated artists (if applicable). Once you have finished your tour, you can either choose to go on another tour within the specific school or collection, or make a selection in another one of the main options. Just click on "the collection" located either at the bottom of each page or in the left margin to return to this main menu. Search the CollectionArtist and/or Title Search If your search includes an artist's last name that has more than one possible match (example: Smith), a new screen appears. Use the pull-down menu to chose the artist you want and then click on "Search." Some artists may also have more than one name in our database. If this is the case, then he or she can be found by any of the alternate names included in parentheses in the artist pull-down menu. With the artist's name search, the computer will look for anything that begins with the characters you enter. Character strings, rather than discrete words, are searched; thus a query on remb will retrieve Rembrandt van Rijn and Rembshart, Karl. If you filled in key words in a work of art's title, the computer will select records for objects that include the word(s) you entered. For example, if you enter feast as a title, your search results will include all works of art in the Gallery's collection with this word in the title (The Feast of the Gods, The Feast of the Pharisees, etc.). Within a title, common words like a, and, or the are not indexed and therefore will be ignored. Subject Search If the subject category that you select (example: animal) has subcategories (example: bird), another screen will appear. Use the subcategories to further define your area of interest. If no subcategories are selected, all works of art associated with the larger subject will be returned. Expanded Search For example, if you want to find all landscape paintings by British artists in the Gallery's collection, you would choose British from the School pull-down menu, Painting from the Medium pull-down menu, and Landscape from the Popular Subjects pull-down menu. To use one of these features, click on the arrow of the corresponding pull-down menu and drag your mouse so that your selection appears in the blank. Click on "images only" if you want to limit your search to only those objects with an image in the Web site. If you want to change any information before you begin your search, click on "Reset" and make the necessary changes. Now, click on "Search" to access the information you requested. Provenance Search Accession Number Search Search Results Query results that are not limited to "images only" are presented in lists. For example, if your search is restricted to the work of a single artist, the result page begins with biographical information about the artist. It also has the number of works by associated artists and the number of works after this artist (if applicable), as well as a list by medium of all the artist's works in the Gallery's collection. You can now click on an object's title to view an information page about the specific work of art or click on another option to look at the artist's biography, works after this artist, or works by associated artists (if applicable). If your request is not restricted to a single artist, objects found in the search are sorted alphabetically by the name of the artist, and within artist by object title. If an image is available in the Web site, this will be indicated in the object description. Click on an object's title to access an information page about the specific work of art. (See "Tour the Collection" for a description of the information page.) For each search conducted, the number of matching records found is indicated. In addition, all result sets restate your original search criteria. Search the SiteUse Search the Site to search the Gallery's Web pages for a word or phrase. Your search results will be presented as a list of links. Clicking on a link will take you to the top of the page that contains the word or phrase you entered. Please note that the Search the Site function does not extend to the Gallery's collection database. If you are looking for works of art in the collection, please use one of the Search the Collection options. Object Location SearchIf you would like to find the location of a specific work of art on view at the National Gallery, you can do so through the collection search function on our Web site. First, search for the specific object by using one of the collection search functions (see, Search the Collection). When you arrive at the object information page, scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see a list of clickable menu items, which may include some, or all of the following: full screen image; bibliography; details; exhibition history; inscription; location; provenance; purchase reproduction; tour, and others. If the work you have searched is currently on view, you will see the word "location" in this list. Click on the word "location" and it will take you to a page with the exact location of the specific work, as well as a list of other works in the same gallery. The locations of all the objects in the Gallery's permanent collection are updated everyday on the Web site. If you do not see the word "location" in the list, the work is not on public view the day you are accessing the object information page. |
(RealAudio). We
suggest that you begin a tour by reading or listening to the
overview
before studying the individual works of art.