America’s 250th

Celebrating American art and artists

American Art Must-Sees

Don't miss these highlights of our collection.

A flatboat with eight light-skinned men floats toward us down a wide river in this horizontal painting. The boat nearly spans the width of the composition and has low sides and a shallowly arched, low cabin upon which the men gather. At the center, a man with dark hair and wearing light blue trousers and a pink shirt dances with one foot and both arms raised. To our right a seated musician plays a fiddle, and to our left a smiling man holds up a metal pot and strikes the flat bottom with the back of his fingers. The remaining men sit or recline around the musicians and dancing man, some looking toward the dancer and two looking out at us. Bedrolls and animal skins are stored in the cabin below. The olive-green surface of the river is streaked with pale blue. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition. The trees and riverbanks in the distance are hazy beneath a watery blue sky.

No one tells America’s story like its artists.  Join us as we explore 250 years of American creativity from across the nation.

In 2026, we’re showcasing some of the 75,000+ American works in the National Gallery collection, from renowned icons to hidden gems. We’re uncovering stories about the people behind these triumphs. And we’re meeting some of the artists making today’s masterpieces.

This creative legacy is yours. Discover it for free with the nation’s art museum.

Exhibitions

Close to us, a young man and three boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the canvas and is echoed in the background to our right by the tall sails of another ship in the distance. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and puffy gray and white clouds sweep across the turquoise sky. There is a logo that reads America's 250th on the right.

Exhibition:  Celebrating American Art

A new look at the art of our nation.

The image is a repeating pattern of portraits of a historical figure framed within oval borders. Each portrait displays only the upper body, showing the head and shoulders of the individual in a forward-facing position with slightly turned shoulders. The person has a solemn expression, a prominent nose, narrow eyes, wears a white historical powdered wig and a dark coat with a high collar and a white ruffled shirt. The background has vine-like designs. There is a logo on the right that says America's 250th.

Exhibition:  Dear America

What does it mean to be American? How have artists examined this question?

The image features a series of horizontal lines and a rectangle filled with star shapes at the top left corner. The flag consists of green and black stripes with a red rectangle in the upper left containing a pattern of blue stars. Below, a more subdued version mirrors the form with tones of gray and white. The composition is set against a textured gray background. On the right is a logo that reads America's 250th in shades of white, red, and blue against a black circle background.

Exhibition:  American Icon

Old Glory, reimagined: artists transform our flag over the centuries. 

Across the Nation

We're sending art across America. See highlights from the National Gallery's collection at 10 museums in 10 states, from Connecticut to Alaska.

Stories

Interactive Article:  The Most Famous Sculpture of the 19th Century

This marble sculpture symbolizes everything from the Greek War of Independence to the fight for emancipation in America.

A woman with pale skin and dressed in white sits on a couch gazing into the distance to our left as she raises one arm to stroke a black cat perched on her shoulder in this vertical portrait. Shown from the lap up, the woman’s dress has voluminous, puffed, elbow-length sleeves and a high collar, and her narrow waist is cinched with a white sash. Her dark brown hair is parted down the middle and tied back, and she has pale blue eyes and pink lips. She reaches up to the cat with her left hand, on our right, and her other hand, farther from us, rests flat in her lap. The black cat looks at us with greenish-yellow eyes as it almost disappears into the dark brown background above the white couch, which is decorated with a blue pattern. The artist signed the work with dark letters in the lower left corner: “Cecilia Beaux.”

Interactive Article:  The Feminine Enigma of Cecilia Beaux’s Sita and Sarita

It’s just a picture of a woman and her cat—or is it?

The top three-quarters of this horizontal landscape painting is filled with roiling, deeply shadowed clouds that tower over a line of buffalo crossing a grassy meadow below. Small in scale, the buffalo form a line that extends away from us at a diagonal into the distance to our right. Sunlight creates a bright reflection on the stream where the frontmost buffalo crosses, but the other animals are nearly backlit in the raking light. Trees, with branches whipping in the wind, rise along the left side of the painting, and the mountainous landscape to our right is lost in darkness under heavy clouds. The clouds above lighten from navy blue in the lower right corner of the sky to slate blue and white at the center of the painting. Small patches of blue sky are visible between a few breaks in the clouds, and sunlight falls on a cliff-like mountain face in the distance beyond the trees to our left. Another bank of parchment-colored clouds in the upper left corner, closer to us, contrasts with the glimmering light highlighting some of the clouds nearby.

Article:  Artistic Visions of Our Nation’s Nature

See how artists interpret our nation’s natural beauty—from a fluttering Baltimore oriole to a towering redwood tree. 

The painting features a valley with purple and brown mountains in the distance, surrounding a reflective body of water with a small rowboat floating on it. Closer to us, there are gray rocks, brown tree trunks and branches, and lush green vegetation at the edge of the water. The sky above is painted in warm shades of yellow, peach, and orange, which transition to pale greenish-blue at the top. The water below reflects these colors, as well as those of the distant mountain and surrounding trees.

Article:  Who Is Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome? 5 Things to Know

The Hudson River School painter created landscapes that captured America’s natural splendor.

A student smiles in front of a painted mural at Altadena Elementary School

Video:  How a Mural Healed a Community

After a wildfire destroyed their elementary school, a group of young artists came together to rebuild—by painting a mural inspired by Mary Cassatt’s lost masterpiece.

A black and white drawing of a Sony Walkman with wired headphones

Nika Kozyrenko (Corcoran student), Sony Walkman, 2025, gouache on paper

Article:  Create with Us: How Drawing Can Teach You to See Your Belongings in a New Light

Sketch everyday objects, inspired by the Index of American Design.

John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768, oil on canvas, Gift of Joseph W. Revere, William B. Revere and Edward H. R. Revere, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Interactive Article:  Paul Revere, Artist of the American Revolution

You’ve heard about the revolutionary’s midnight ride. But did you know Revere was a master silversmith and engraver?

The image depicts a seated woman wearing a large coat and skirt. She is seated with her body angled to the side, head turned slightly towards the viewer. The woman has delicate facial features, with her hair covered by a fluffy hat. Her hands are resting in her lap as she sits on a wide chair. She is not wearing any visible jewelry or holding any objects. The background features simple vertical lines resembling a plain interior wall, creating a minimalist setting.

Interactive Article:  Mary Cassatt, the Daring Printmaker

The pioneering American impressionist was one of the most innovative printmakers of her generation.

This painting looks like a family portrait with five people: two seated adults and three children. The person on the far left is a seated woman with dark hair styled up and short, curling bangs, wearing a gray dress with puffed sleeves and lace details at the neckline. She holds a folded piece of paper in her lap and has one arm around the girl next to her. On her right stand two young girls with curly reddish-brown hair tied back, both dressed in white dresses with puffed sleeves and lace around the necklines. The girl to the left holds a pink flower, while the other holds a small pink bud. On their right is a seated man with short reddish-brown hair, wearing a dark jacket over a yellow vest and a white cravat and green trousers, holding a small book partially open. Standing to the right, partially behind the man, is a young boy dressed in a green coat with gold buttons over a pink vest and white shirt. All five of the people have pale skin. Behind the family is a black semi-circle, and around that is a gradient of brown, darker at the top and lighter towards the bottom.

Article:  Who Is Joshua Johnson? 7 Things to Know

The Maryland-based artist is one of America’s earliest-documented  professional Black portraitists.

The image consists of multiple rectangular panels with wavy lines and blocky shapes, creating a fragmented landscape. The colors used are rich earth tones such as reds, blacks, blues, greens, and beige, resembling rock formations and valleys.

Article:  Iconic American Landscapes, Through Artists’ Eyes

Take a road trip from Maine to Alaska through works of art made from the 19th century to today.

A middle-aged, light-skinned man stands facing and looking at us, leaning on one arm propped on a tall rock in a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The man looks out with dark blue eyes under curved black brows. He has a prominent nose, his full apricot-colored lips are closed, and there is a shadow of a beard on his smooth cheeks. He has a receding hairline, and his wavy, ash-gray hair curls around his high, white collar. The man wears a tawny-brown topcoat with white, ruffled cuffs at his wrists, and a long brown vest with fabric-covered buttons. He wears matching brown, knee-length pantaloons with white stockings, and black shoes with gold buckles. His feet are widely planted as he leans on the tall rock on his left elbow, to our right. His elbow rests on an open book on the tall, narrow rock, shaped like a podium. Writing visible in the thick book reads, “Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari.” He points with his other index finger to our right. Behind the man and to our right is a gray, stone statue of a woman wearing flowing robes. She holds a pair of scales in one hand a tall staff with a bell-like form at the top in the other elbow. The statue is angled toward the man, and the tall base on which she stands is carved with the words, “Co LEX ANGLI.” A tree with sickle-shaped leaves and peach-colored fruit spans the height of the composition behind the statue. Near the lower left corner of the composition, two halves of a piece of paper, torn from corner to corner, lies on the ground with the edges curling up. The writing on the paper reads, “Imperial Civil Law — Sumary proceeding.” A thick tree trunk curves in a shallow S shape up along the left edge of the canvas, behind the man. Fern-green jimson weed, clover, small flowers, and rocks carpet the ground beneath and around the man. In the distance, to our left, a man wearing a red coat, a tricorn hat, and holding a musket leads a mule carrying a pack, while sheep graze to our right. Pockets of azure-blue sky are visible beyond gray clouds to our left and fluffy, flaxen-yellow clouds to our right.

Interactive Article:  Art up Close: John Beale Bordley’s Revolutionary Portrait

The origins of the Revolutionary War can be found in the details of Charles Willson Peale’s early American portrait.

We hover over the bottle-green surface of a river as it rushes toward a horseshoe-shaped waterfall that curves away from us in this horizontal landscape painting. The water is white and frothy right in front of us, where the shelf of the riverbed changes levels near the edge of the falls. Across from us, the water is also white where it falls over the edge. A thin, broken rainbow glints in the mist near the upper left corner of the painting and continues its arc farther down, between the falls. The horizon line is just over halfway up the composition. Plum-purple clouds sweep into the composition at the upper corners against a lavender-colored sky. Tiny trees and a few buildings line the shoreline to the left and right in the deep distance.

Article:  The 19th-Century Blockbuster: Frederic Edwin Church’s “Niagara”

The American artist, skilled at both painting and publicity, created a sensation similar to the social media–famous exhibitions of today.

Article:  Ten Artworks to Understand Early United States History

From the Native peoples lobbying to keep their homelands to immigrants facing challenges in their new home, works from our collection help us understand our nation’s beginnings.

West to East

Travel across America with us in this special series of articles and videos to learn how artists are inspired by the places they call home.

All of the series

Sentinels and Sprawl: Photographs of the Saguaro Cactus

Rick Lowe's art blends canvas and community in the Third Ward

Potter Richard Bresnahan Navigates an “Eco-mutual” Future

Modernist Barns and Modern Farmers

Marie Watt Explores the Story of Turtle Island

An installation view of Grant Wood's Corn Room (1926) at the Sioux City Art Center, Permanent Collection, 2007.17, Gift of Alan Fredregill

An installation view of Grant Wood's Corn Room (1926) at the Sioux City Art Center, Permanent Collection, 2007.17, Gift of Alan Fredregill

Iowa Artists Craft Complex Visions of the Rural

Events

Hands-On Activities:  Block Party

We’re throwing our biggest party ever, and you’re invited! Celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States—and the legacy of American art and creativity. Across our campus, enjoy indoor and outdoor artmaking, special guests, food, music, curator talks, video screenings, and more fun for all ages. We’ll be ready, rain or shine.