Celebrating the Old Master Collections of the National Gallery of Art: American Painting, 1700–1900

Heidi Applegate, guest lecturer The 2019 Summer Sunday Lecture Series takes a closer look at the many treasures housed in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by Italian, French, Dutch, and American artists are featured in this visual tour. New insights and surprising discoveries await, featuring Gallery favorites and recently acquired works. In this fourth lecture in the series, presented on August 4, 2019 guest lecturer Heidi Applegate discusses the Gallery’s collection of American paintings. The American collection has grown from 10 paintings when the West Building opened in 1941 to become the largest of the paintings departments in the museum. Dr. Heidi Applegate gives an overview of how the collection has been assembled over the past seven decades, underscoring the transformative addition in 2014 of paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art.