Luce Foundation Center

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Open daily, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

The nation’s first collection of American art, an unparalleled record of the American experience.

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Renwick Gallery Stairwwell

Renwick Gallery

Open daily, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Located just feet from the White House, a branch of the museum that is home the nation's collection of contemporary craft and decorative art.

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How Do I Research My Art?

Want to learn more about the painting you found while clearing out the attic? For answers, be prepared for a little detective work.

How to Care for Your Collections

Regardless of the monetary value of your artwork, if it is personally meaningful, you should consider having the object conserved.

Recording a Changing Nation

This resource uses images from photographic surveys in 55 communities in 30 states across the United States as source documents to spark sustained inquiry.

Critical Thinking in Action

These 60-to-95-minute units pair thinking patterns with works of art to instill a thinking disposition transferable across classroom curriculum and into the wider world.

Director’s Circle

A national membership group of museum friends who share a love of American art and craft and our commitment to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of our nation’s artists.

A membership group for young professionals who are interested in immersing themselves in the American art experience.

Canal in Venice

Media - 1929.6.50 - SAAM-1929.6.50_2 - 140930

Media - 1929.6.50 - SAAM-1929.6.50_3 - 140931

Copied Unidentified (Italian), Francesco Guardi, Canal in Venice, 18th century, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.50

Free to use

Artwork Details

Title: Canal in Venice
Artists: Unidentified (Italian)
Follower of Francesco Guardi
Date: 18th century
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sight 3 ¹⁄₁₆ x 4 ⁵⁄₁₆ in. (7.8 x 11.0 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of John Gellatly
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Keywords: Architecture Exterior — religious — church
Architecture — boat — gondola
Figure group
Object Number: 1929.6.50
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1929.6.50

Artwork Description

A sense of history guided John Gellatly and many collectors of his ear. Gellatly no doubt believed this painting to be a minor work by the Baroque landscapist Francesco Guardi. Its frame, made in the 1920s but inspired by earlier Venetian designs, underscores its age and character.

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano, 2021.