Tour NGA exhibition Little Beasts: Art, Wonder and the Natural World

Please join us for tour of the NGA exhibition Little Beasts: Art, Wonder and the Natural World, Tuesday, June 17 at 11:00am. The tour will be led by curators Brooks Rich, associate curator of old master and nineteenth-century prints, and Stacey Sell, associate curator of old master drawings.

Little Beasts explores the pivotal role of art at the dawn of European natural history in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. In this period, international trade and colonial expansion brought new and unfamiliar animals to European ports. Artists documented these creatures in paint and ink and began to study previously overlooked insects and other beestjes—Dutch for “little beasts”—in their own back yards. Artists such as Joris Hoefnagel, Wenceslaus Hollar, and Jan van Kessel helped deepen and spread knowledge of these creatures with highly detailed and playful works that inspired generations of printmakers, painters, decorative artists, and naturalists. The exhibition features nearly 75 of these paintings, prints, and drawings in a unique presentation alongside specimens and taxidermy from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Participants will learn about the rich exchange between artists and naturalists that sparked a fascination with earth’s living creatures, big and small.

Registration for this event is limited to 15 WPC members and their guests.