Van Gogh: Up Close
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Louise Bourgeois - Maman
Inspired by the artist's own mother, a tapestry restorer, "Maman", the giant egg-carrying spider, is a nurturing and protective symbol of fertility and motherhood, shelter and the home. With its monumental and terrifying scale, however, "Maman" also betrays this maternal trust to incite a mixture of fear and curiosity.
Louise Bourgeois
Maman 1999, cast 2003
bronze, stainless steel, and marble
927 x 891 x 1024 cm
Purchased 2004
National Gallery of Canada (no. 41429)
Cornelius Krieghoff - White Horse Inn by Moonlight
Cornelius David Krieghoff painted images of Canada when the development of popular imagery of the country was in its early stages. He was an entrepreneur and created a populist vision of the country's landscape and peoples, describing the customs and traditions of various Native peoples and the activities and character of the French-Canadian settler or habitant.
Cornelius Krieghoff
White Horse Inn by Moonlight 1851
oil on canvas
101.1 x 124.7 cm
Gift 1971, presented by Gabrielle Coste, Marie Louise Savon, and
Eugene Francis Coste, grandchildren of Thomas Dillon Tims, to whom this
painting was given by the artist
National Gallery of Canada
Lucius R. O'Brien - Sunrise on the Saguenay
This view of Cape Trinity, overlooking a fjord on Quebec's Saguenay River, testifies to the talent of Lucius O'Brien, a Luminist painter, in his treatment of the delicate shades of the sunrise. This romantically inspired canvas evokes the smallness of man before the wonders of nature.
Lucius R. O'Brien
Sunrise on the Saguenay, Cape Trinity 1880
oil on canvas
90 x 127 cm
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts diploma work,
deposited by the artist, Toronto, 1880
National Gallery of Canada
Robert Harris - A Meeting of the School Trustees
Born in Tyn-y-Groes, Wales, 18 September 1849
Died in Montreal, Quebec, 27 February 1919
Robert Harris
A Meeting of the School Trustees 1885
oil on canvas
102.2 x 126.5 cm
Purchased 1886
National Gallery of Canada
Tom Thomson - The Jack Pine
Inspired by the landscape around Little Cauchon Lake in eastern Algonquin Park, this picture of a solitary jack pine, its drooping boughs silhouetted in the light of a northern Ontario sunset, assumes special emotional and symbolic significance through the artist's formal treatment.
Tom Thomson
The Jack Pine 1916-1917
oil on canvas 127.9 x 139.8 cm
Purchased 1918
National Gallery of Canada
Emily Carr - The Welcome Man
Carr quickly abandoned the rich colouring of her French paintings for a more sober palette appropriate to her documentary purpose. While always sensitive to the particular local colour, be it the warm brown tones of the inland poles or the pearly grey tones of the sun-bleached and wind-buffeted poles of the islands, Carr's paintings show a remarkable range of treatment in colour, line, and structure, indicative of the rapidity of her growth as an artist and of her total commitment to her work.
Emily Carr
The Welcome Man 1913
oil on cardboard, mounted on masonite
95.3 x 64.8 cm
Gift of Bryan Adams, December 2000
National Gallery of Canada
Alex Colville - To Prince Edward Island
Precise. Meticulous. Crisp. The work of Alex Colville is austere in its stark realism. The immediacy of a moment, the intensity of the present, and the impermanence of life – translated through the eyes of the artist into a controlled, frozen scene.
Alex Colville
To Prince Edward Island 1965
acrylic emulsion on masonite
61.9 x 92.5 cm
Purchased 1966
National Gallery of Canada
Lawren S. Harris - North Shore, Lake Superior
In the fall of 1921, accompanied by A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris made his first trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. The region's dramatic, primordial landscape would lure him back to paint for the next seven years. Through the central image of a strongly lit, solitary tree, blasted smooth and clean by the forces of nature, the artist sought to convey the underlying spirit and universal principles found in the northern Canadian landscape.
Lawren S. Harris
North Shore, Lake Superior 1926
oil on canvas
102.2 x 128.3 cm
Purchased 1930
National Gallery of Canada
Cafétéria des Beaux-Arts
Located at the end of the Concourse off the Great Hall, and across from the Contemporary galleries, this beautifully appointed room has its own glass rotunda, access to a private patio and an inspiring view of Nepean Point, the Ottawa River and Parliament Hill. The Cafeteria is designed to serve families and groups in an informal, self-service atmosphere. Choose from two daily specials, salad and desert bar, made-to-order sandwiches and more.
Benjamin West - The Death of General Wolfe
To depict the death of Wolfe at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759, West grouped the figures around the fallen general as in a Lamentation of Christ. The artist rejected the convention of representing contemporary heros in antique armour (see Joseph Wilton's marble bust of Wolfe), paying scrupulous attention to the details of their uniforms, and to the native costumes based on Woodlands aboriginal artifacts in his possession.
Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe 1770
oil on canvas
152.6 x 214.5 cm
Transfer from the Canadian War Memorials, 1921 (Gift of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, England, 1918)
National Gallery of Canada
Lucas (the Elder) Cranach - Venus
The pale, statuesque form of Venus, Roman goddess of love, stands out against the dark background. Her physical features, jewels, and diaphanous veil are characteristic of Cranach, as well as the signature - a small winged serpent at lower left. Cranach usually portrayed Venus accompanied by her child Cupid, but here we see the radiant, sensual goddess by herself.
Lucas (the Elder) Cranach
Venus c. 1518
oil on linden
178 x 71 cm
Purchased 1953
National Gallery of Canada
Gustav Klimt - Hope I
Gustav Klimt was a leading figure in the Vienna Secession, and is regarded as one of the greatest decorative painters of his time. His bold portrayal of pregnancy contravened standards of propriety in turn-of-the-century Vienna, forcing the withdrawal of the painting from his first Secession retrospective. In this richly symbolic painting, Klimt juxtaposes the promise of new life with the destructive forces of death. Despite the monstrosities around her, the pregnant woman remains calm and unperturbed, confident of the renewal within her. In preliminary sketches for this painting the tone is more positive: the sketches show a couple within a landscape reflecting upon their happiness. Klimt's decision to change the composition may have stemmed from his reaction to the death of his second son during infancy in 1902.
Gustav Klimt
Hope I 1903
oil on canvas
189.2 x 67 cm
Purchased 1970
National Gallery of Canada
Vincent van Gogh - Iris
A patch of land, a few irises among the grass and small yellow flowers. On the long stems of buds, a single flower is in bloom. Since the point of view is very close, the irises fill the whole canvas.
This is one of the first paintings done by Vincent Van Gogh at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He checked in voluntarily, worried about his mental health which had been fragile since he left the hospital in Arles where he had been confined after cutting off his ear.
Vincent van Gogh
Iris 1889
oil on thinned cardboard, mounted on canvas
62.2 x 48.3 cm
Purchased 1954
National Gallery of Canada
Claude Monet - A Stormy Sea
Monet usually began his paintings of outdoor subjects on the spot - en plein air - at times finishing them in the studio. In this work he has employed a variety of brush techniques to capture the motion of the sea and surf: long, horizontal strokes are used for the distant open sea, while vibrant swirls and dashes depict the waves breaking at the shore.
Claude Monet
A Stormy Sea c. 1884
oil on canvas
60 x 73.7 cm
Purchased 1946
National Gallery of Canada
Marc Chagall - Memory of my Youth
The white European goat was a common domestic animal in Jewish towns like Vitebsk (Belarus), Russia, where Marc Chagall grew up. The richly painted tactile surface of the goat reveals Chagall's familiarity with these animals; its large scale and centrality in this composition suggest the retrospective view of a little child. Chagall painted "Memory of My Youth" shortly after leaving the Soviet Union in 1922, and he writes, "In my pictures there is not one centimetre free from nostalgia for my native land."
Marc Chagall
Memory of my Youth 1924
oil on canvas
73.8 x 86.3 cm
Gift of an anonymous donor, 1970
National Gallery of Canada
Pablo Picasso - The Small Table
In this Synthetic Cubist work, Picasso transforms the genre of still life by constructing a unified composition from abstracted fragments of objects. Among traditional still life elements that can be deciphered are the fret, knobs, and strings of a guitar, the compote with grapes, and the legs and wood grain surface of a table. From the more conventional renderings Picasso made during the same summer vacation on the Riviera, we know that the setting of this painting is a balcony opened onto the sea on a slightly grey day; the water's surface is suggested by the undulating lines that alternate with ideograms ev
Pablo Picasso
The Small Table 1919
oil on canvas
115.3 x 73 cm
Purchased 1957
National Gallery of Canada
Andy Warhol - Brillo Soap Pads Boxes
"I'm painting this way because I want to be a machine," commented Andy Warhol in 1963 about his way of working. Fuelled by the New York scene and central to Pop art, Warhol generated his own celebrity as well as massive amounts of artwork. Not only did he produce Brillo at his studio, known as The Factory, but also numerous series of prints, films, and music.
Andy Warhol
Brillo Soap Pads Boxes 1964
plywood boxes with serigraph and acrylic
boxes: 43.2 x 43.2 x 35.6 cm each
Purchased 1967
National Gallery of Canada
Piet Mondrian - Composition No. 12 with Blue
As a principal figure in the Dutch De Stijl movement, Piet Mondrian advocated pure abstraction. He gradually eliminated subject matter in his painting, and sought clarity, purity, and order by reducing his forms to squares and rectangles, and by restricting colour to the primaries, along with black and white. He began the painting in 1936, while living in Paris, and finished it in 1942, after moving to New York, where his compositions became more dense and dynamic, reflecting the energy he encountered in the bustling metropolis.
Piet Mondrian
Composition No. 12 with Blue 1936-1942
oil on canvas
62 x 60.3 cm
Purchased 1970
National Gallery of Canada
Library & Archives
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Exhibitions installed in the Library's foyer gallery highlight research materials held by the Library and Archives. Open during Reading Room hours. View all current exhibitions.
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