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Friday Fave: Fragment of a Glass Beaker
Fragment of a beaker; Syria, Late Bronze Age, 1400–1200 BCE; glass; Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1909.604 Some objects in the Freer|Sackler are quite small yet provide substantial information about...
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Friday Fave: Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
Monkeys Grasp for the Moon by Xu Bing, S2004.2.1-21 First-time visitors to the Sackler Gallery are often surprised and delighted by Chinese artist Xu Bing’s sculpture Monkeys Grasp for the Moon. The...
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Friday Fave: Chinese Taoist Immortals
The Chinese Taoist Immortals, Han-shan and Shih-te (Kanzan and Jittoku); Hashimoto Gahō (1835–1908); Japan, Meiji era, 1886; ink and slight tint on paper; Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1902.227 When I...
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Friday Fave: Chinese Bells
Bell; China, Eastern Zhou dynasty, ca. 5th century BCE; bronze; Gift of Arthur M. Sackler, S1987.285 My favorite part of physics in high school was the physics of sound. I was part of several ensembles...
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Friday Fave: Chiharu Shiota
Installation view of “Over the Continents” by Chiharu Shiota If your shoes could talk, what story would they would tell? I began working at the Freer|Sackler last July. One month later, Chiharu Shiota...
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Friday Fave: Pen Box
Pen box (qalamadan); Shaykh Muhammad; India, state of Gujarat, 1587; lacquered teakwood with mother-of-pearl inlay; purchase, F1986.58 My favorite object in the Freer|Sackler’s collection is one I saw...
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Friday Fave: “Sunrise: April”
“Sunrise: April”; Dwight William Tryon; United States, 1897–99; oil on wood panel; Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1906.79a–b In the summer of 2009, I moved to Washington with a freshly minted bachelor’s...
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Friday Fave: Brass Basin
Basin; probably Damascus, Syria, Ayyubid period (1171–1250), 1247–49; brass inlaid with silver; Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art, F1955.10 To me, one of the most exquisite objects in the Freer|Sackler is...
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Friday Fave: Court Ladies Playing with Fireworks
Court Ladies Playing with Fireworks; Muhammad Afzal (act. 1740–80); Delhi, Haryana, India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1740; color and gold on paper; Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art When I was very young, I...
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Friday Fave: Hiroshige’s “Sudden Shower”
Sudden Shower over the Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Ohasi Atake no yu dachi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei); Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858); Japan, Edo period,...
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Friday Fave: Lute and White Snake
The Lute and White Snake of Benten (Sarasvati); Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849); Japan, Edo period, 1847; ink and color on silk; gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.134 As manager of performing arts at...
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Friday Fave: Gold Ewer
Gold ewer, inscribed with the name and titles of the Buyid ruler Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar ibn Mu°izz al-Dawla (r. 967–78); Iran, Buyid period, 966–77; gold with repoussé and engraved decoration; Freer...
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Friday Fave: Guardian Figures
Guardian figure; Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333); wood; Purchase, Freer Gallery of Art; F1949.21 The first time I entered the Freer Gallery a couple of years ago, I was immediately struck by the...
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Friday Fave: Shrine of a Perfected Being
Siddhapratima Yantra (Shrine of a Perfected Being); Western India, 1333; Bronze with traces of gilding; Purchase; F1997.33 Commissioned in 1333 by a member of the renowned Gurjara family, this small...
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Friday Fave: Funerary Bust of “Miriam”
Head of a Woman (known as “Miriam”); Yemen, Wadi Bayhan, 1st century BCE-mid-1st century CE; alabaster, stucco, and bitumen; Gift of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (Wendell and Merilyn...
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Friday Fave: Silver Rosewater Bottle
Silver rosewater bottle; Iran, Buyid period (932–1062); silver gilt; Purchase; F1950.5 Growing up as an Iranian-American, I could always find a container of rosewater in my family’s kitchen. I never...
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Friday Fave: Buddhist Stele
Buddhist Stele with the “Thousand Buddhas”; China, Northern Wei dynasty, dated 461 CE; sandstone with traces of polychrome pigment; Gift of Marietta Lutze Sackler; S1991.157 For my first assignment as...
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Friday Fave: Sunrise
Sunrise; Dwight William Tryon (1849–1925); United States, 1915; pastel on cardboard; Gift of Charles Lang Freer; F1915.129a–b On my first day as an intern in the Freer|Sackler’s American art...
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Friday Fave: The Weavers
The Weavers; John Singer Sargent (1856-1925); United States, 1912; oil on canvas; Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1913.59a-c The Weavers by John Singer Sargent is something of an anomaly in our collection...
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Spring Has Sprung: Japan
Spring in Mount Atago, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo; Kawase Hasui (1883–1957); Japan, Taisho era, 1921; woodblock print; Robert O. Muller Collection, S2003.8.623 It’s officially spring. In...
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