Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

Upcoming Exhibition

May 18 – November 2, 2025

Experience the wonder of nature through the eyes of artists. Look closely at art depicting insects and other animals alongside real specimens.

Art played a pivotal role during the dawn of European natural history in the 16th and 17th centuries. Advancements in scientific technology, trade, and colonial expansion allowed naturalists to study previously unknown and overlooked insects, animals, and other beestjes, or “little beasts.” Artists such as Joris Hoefnagel 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.

A delight for all ages, this 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. Learn about the rich exchange between artists and naturalists that sparked a fascination with earth’s living creatures, big and small. See how this intersection of art and science continues to inspire us today in a new film by artist Dario Robleto.

A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”

Jan van Kessel the Elder, Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, 1653, oil on copper, The Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, Barry D. Friedman, and Friends of Dutch Art, 2018.41.1

Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 53: Southern Hawker Dragonfly, c. 1575/1580, watercolor and gouache, with oval border in gold, on vellum, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.5.54

Jacopo Ligozzi, A Groundhog or Marmot with a Branch of Plums, 1605, brush with brown and black wash, point of the brush with black and brown ink and white gouache, and watercolor, over traces of graphite on burnished paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Purchased as the Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke, 2007.111.121

Jacob Hoefnagel, Joris Hoefnagel, Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii [Part 1, Plate 1], published 1592, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.9.2

Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 17: Old World Porcupine (Hystrix) and Wild Pig, c. 1575/1580, watercolor and gouache, with oval border in gold, on vellum, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.6.18

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail, c. 1610, oil on copper, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2018.144.1

Adriaen Collaert, Hoopoe and Owl, c. 1600, engraving on laid paper, Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art, 1993.32.1.f

Wenceslaus Hollar, Shell (Murex brandaris), c. 1645, etching on laid paper, Gift of Edward William Carter and Hannah Locke Carter, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1992.17.2

Teodoro Filippo di Liagno, Skeleton of a Heron, 1620-1621, etching on laid paper, Gift of Funds from Virginia Mars, 2023.5.14

Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 66: Lackey Moth Caterpillar, Figure of Eight Caterpillar, Grey Dagger Caterpillar, and Other Caterpillars, c. 1575/1580, watercolor and gouache, with oval border in gold, on vellum, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.6.67

Wenceslaus Hollar, Two Butterflies, a Wasp, and a Moth, 1646, etching on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.4945

Joris Hoefnagel, Plate 51: Two Sand Lizards, a Common Parsley Frog(?), and a Caterpillar, c. 1575/1580, watercolor and gouache, with oval border in gold, on vellum, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1987.20.6.52

Jacob Hoefnagel, Joris Hoefnagel, Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii [Part 1, Plate 5], 1592, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ellen von Seggern Richter and Jan Paul Richter, 2023.45.1

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington with special cooperation from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Curated by Alexandra Libby, senior advisor for curatorial and conservation initiatives; Brooks Rich, associate curator of old master and nineteenth-century prints; and Stacey Sell, associate curator of old master drawings, all of the National Gallery of Art.

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: Jan van Kessel the Elder, Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, 1653, oil on panel, The Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, Barry D. Friedman, and Friends of Dutch Art, 2018.41.1