Fan Favorites
6 artworks from 5 artists across 6 galleries
The tour is ordered to begin from the Michigan Avenue entrance. If you are starting in the Modern Wing, simply do your tour in reverse order.
See a selection of works in our collection that have become our visitors' faves.
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A20: Virginia Dining Room, 1758
Narcissa Niblack Thorne
Gallery 11, lower level, Thorne Miniature Rooms
The wallpaper is perhaps the most elaborate element of this miniature room. In her study of interior decoration sources from the 18th century, Narcissa Thorne learned of the taste among Americans and Europeans for imported Chinese wallpaper. The walls in this space are covered with a hand-painted pattern of birds, trees, and flowers produced in the same manner as the full-scale wallpapers from China 150 years earlier.
"In the 1930s, Thorne assembled a group of skilled artisans to create a series of 68 intricate rooms on the minute scale of 1:12. With these interiors, she sought to present a visual history of interior design that was both accurate and inspiring."
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Buddha Shakyamuni Seated in Meditation (Dhyanamudra)
Gallery 140, first level, Arts of Asia Galleries
Seated in a posture called the lotus, this serene 12th-century Buddha rests his hands and feet atop one another as he gazes downward, his eyelids lowered, the touch of a smile on his lips. The symbols that distinguish him as a great being—such as the urna on his forehead and ushnisha on top of his head—are delicately carved in the hard granite."This Buddha comes from the south Indian coastal town of Nagapattinam, where Buddhist monasteries flourished and attracted monks from distant lands."
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Adam
Auguste Rodin
Gallery 200, second level, Arts of Europe: Painting and Sculpture Galleries
Auguste Rodin's figure of Adam was originally intended to be paired with a sculpture of Eve to flank his monumental bronze portal, The Gates of Hell, for the Musée de Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Rodin created over 200 of its figures and groupings, exploring the expressive potential of the human body. However, the museum building was never constructed and the portal never completed as originally conceived."At the beginning of the 20th century, Rodin was the world's most famous artist. A master of visual communication, he created sculpted bodies that speak to us through carefully constructed gestures and poses and in the tactile surfaces of their materials."
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Field Armor for Man
Gallery 239, second level, Arms and Armor Galleries
Caught in the heat of battle with sword raised and horse rearing, this mounted figure may match many notions of a knight in shining armor but actually represents a common hired soldier. Though the armors for both man and horse were produced in Nuremberg, Germany, in the 16th century, the clothing was meticulously recreated in 2017 from period designs."This rider is wearing special leggings to protect the soldier’s legs; they're made from small plates of steel sewn between two pieces of linen. The splashes of mud and grime you see replicate splashes from the battlefield."
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A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884
Georges Seurat
Gallery 240, second level, Impressionism Galleries
For his largest and best-known painting, Georges Seurat depicted Parisians enjoying all sorts of leisurely activities—strolling, lounging, sailing, and fishing—in the park called La Grande Jatte on the River Seine. He used an innovative technique called Pointillism that was inspired by optical and color theory, applying tiny dabs of different colored paint that viewers would see as a single, and Seurat believed, more brilliant hue."Seurat sought to evoke ancient Egyptian and Greek art's sense of timelessness. He once wrote, 'I want to make modern people, in their essential traits, move about as they do on those friezes, and place them on canvases organized by harmonies of color.'"
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Mr. Pointy
Takashi Murakami
Gallery 292, second level, Contemporary Galleries
Takashi Murakami skillfully mixes Japanese pop culture, animé, and cartoon aesthetics into a new form of global pop art. Both an artist and a businessman, he creates large-scale paintings and sculptures, animation, and merchandise, including a fashion collaboration with Louis Vuitton. The character of Mr. Pointy was devised by Murakami in 2003 and has since been repeatedly rendered in paintings, mass-market prints, and sculptures."Murakami's Mr. Pointy character combines religious iconography taken from sources as diverse as Mayan culture, Tibetan Buddhism, and the Thousand-Armed Buddha (Kannon in Japanese) with a cartoon style informed by sources including Walt Disney."
